Men are (literally) dying of broken hearts!

Ever felt like heartbreak might just kill you? Well… according to new research, it might. And if you’re a man, your odds aren’t looking great.

A major new study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association has found that Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, aka “broken heart syndrome”, still carries a worryingly high risk of death — particularly for men, who are more than twice as likely to die from it as women.

Researchers trawled through a whopping 199 890 patient records in the US between 2016 and 2020. Around 83% of those diagnosed with Takotsubo were women, but men fared far worse when it came to outcomes. While 5.5% of women diagnosed died, the death rate in men was a sobering 11.2%.

The overall in-hospital mortality rate for Takotsubo patients was 6.5%, and outcomes haven’t improved at all in the last five years.

Not just heartbreak but a full-body disaster

This isn’t just a case of swooning dramatically and moving on with a tub of ice cream. The condition, often brought on by extreme emotional or physical stress, can cause:

• Cardiogenic shock (6.6%)
• Atrial fibrillation (20.7%)
• Cardiac arrest (3.4%)
• Congestive heart failure (35.9%)
• Stroke (5.3%)

Basically, your heart gets hit hard and it doesn’t always bounce back.

Dr Pieter van Wyk, a cardiologist at Netcare Sunninghill and Sunward Park hospitals, says while the phrase “dying of a broken heart” might sound poetic, it’s a very real medical condition. “Stress cardiomyopathy is often triggered by intense emotional or physical trauma like a cancer diagnosis, a car accident, or the sudden death of a loved one,” he explains.

How do you know if your heart is breaking?

The symptoms of Takotsubo are eerily similar to a heart attack, so it’s not the kind of thing you should shrug off:

• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath
• Rapid heartbeat
• Dizziness or fainting

According to Dr Van Wyk, in most cases the heart’s apex (the bottom bit) balloons out, hence the other name: apical ballooning syndrome. It’s sudden, intense and scary, but if caught early, most people recover fully in one to four weeks.

Stress cardiomyopathy is not just about emotional anguish over a messy breakup. It’s a serious heart condition with serious consequences — especially for men. And the fact that mortality rates haven’t budged in five years? That’s a wake-up call for the medical world.

As for the rest of us? Maybe take those deep breaths, prioritise your stress levels, and don’t brush off chest pain as “just anxiety”. Your heart’s not being dramatic; it might be waving a red flag.