Differences in the symptoms of men and women with obstructive sleep apnoea

In order to determine whether the clinical features of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) are the same in men and women we reviewed the records of 22 women with OSA. The women were matched with 44 men of similar age (+/- 5 years) and frequency of respiratory events (less than or equal to 15/hr, 16-40/hr, 41-70/hr and greater than 70/hr). The degree of daytime somnolence was similar in men and women. Women are more likely than men to complain of morning fatigue and morning headache, and less likely to report restless sleep or to have been told of apnoea during sleep. Difficulty initiating sleep (DIS) was twice as common in women as in men (p less than 0.05). Most of these differences were also seen when women and men who snored but did not have OSA were compared. Arterial hypertension was less common in women (3/22) than in men (18/44), (p less than 0.001). More striking than the differences between men and women in the prevalence of single symptoms was the existence of a subgroup of women (9/22) with no complaint of either apnoea, choking arousals or restless sleep, and normal blood pressure, complaining only of fatigue and morning headache, and in three cases DIS as well. We concluded that OSA may be commoner in women than previous reports suggest, and that the clinical features may be misleading in women.