Women are being under-diagnose for sleep apnea.
Posted: Nov 03, 2016 7:03 PM CDT
Updated: Nov 03, 2016 7:49 PM CDT
SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) –
Sleep apnea can effect both men and women of any age. A doctor from Baystate Health recently discovered that the condition is largely under-diagnosed in women.
Dr. Karin Johnson is the Medical Director of the Baystate Sleep Program where she and her colleges are conducting a research project on hundreds of women to study the sleep conditions they face.
It is known that women have a different breathing pattern at night than men. Women tend to have a flow limitations time, so air just isn’t moving through as smoothly which can disrupt sleep.
This means women can have more problems when it comes to sleep apnea than men.
“A lot of women have been told they have no sleep apnea, or they are told they have mild forms and don’t need to treat it when they might be very symptomatic,” said Dr. Johnson.
Dr. Johnson has taken a group of 900 people who she’s treated for mild sleep apnea. She is re-studying their original sleep patterns to decipher what they can do better in the future in order for better treatment and detection.
“Women are more likely to present with difficulty sleeping or fatigue, chronic fatigue symptoms, fibromyalgia, headaches, or memory loss. But because they aren’t necessarily a sleep symptom a lot of them are sort of under treated,” said Dr. Johnson.
Dr. Johnson said many of the patients she’s seen react very positively to breathing treatments, also known as CPAP treatments that dramatically improve sleep quality.
“We look at gender differences to see not only certain criteria, but if we need to do something different when we are testing and looking for actually both the men and women,” said Dr. Johnson.
Snore intensity and oxygen levels are two main patterns analyzed by Dr. Johnson when it comes to women’s sleep. She said a pattern that is not measured often is their main breathing flow.
“The biggest thing is the pattern of the flow, if you’re looking at a normal one its flat and even. We tend to see something not as smooth, and maybe a pattern that what I call as a rescue breath, its probably still disrupting sleep in these women,” said Dr. Johnson.
She said they will also be narrowing down the connection of obesity to sleep apnea, since discovering that 30 percent of sleep apnea patients are thin.
Sleep apnea tests can be done at home, or in the hospital. It should depend on what your doctors feels would work best for your specific case.
