London - Thousands of heart attack survivors are too worried to resume sex because they fear it will trigger another attack, claim researchers.
The myth that sex is a dangerous activity for heart patients is blighting their love lives.
In fact, only about one percent of all heart attacks occur during sex.
Experts blame doctors for not talking to patients about the matter.
More than half of men and two thirds of women don’t get any advice on it when they leave hospital, a study suggests.
This makes them up to 40 percent more likely to have a non-existent love life a year later, say researchers.
Only two out of five men and one in four women talked to their doctor about sex in the year following the attack.
The findings from a US study of 1,879 heart attack survivors are published in the American Journal of Cardiology.
Researcher Dr Stacy Tessler Lindau of the University of Chicago said: “Doctors need to understand the significant role they play in helping acute myocardial infarction [heart attack] patients avoid needless fear and worry about the risk of relapse or even death with return to sexual activity.”
There are 124,000 heart attacks in the UK each year.
Medical advice says it’s safe to have sex around the time when they are resuming normal physical activities. - Daily Mail