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Women and heart attacks: Misinterpreted symptoms

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December 13, 2025

Christina Pingel struggled for years with heart problems, but doctors dismissed her condition as psychological. Women often present with different heart attack symptoms than men. That can be life-threatening.

Christina Pingel struggled for years with heart problems, but doctors dismissed her condition as psychological until a female cardiologist finally recognized that she had a serious heart valve defect. Her case shows the consequences of the gender health gap: Women are often not taken seriously in medicine. In this report, medical expert Sabine Oertelt-Prigione calls for gender-sensitive medicine to avoid stereotypical diagnoses.

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