The common image of a heart attack patient is clear: a man around 60, overweight, a smoker, with a lack of exercise. He collapses with stabbing pains in his left chest and left arm and the ambulance is called. But this scenario falls short.
“Especially in women, we often see other, less well-known complaints,” explains Julia Schumm, chief physician at Medical Clinic I at the district hospital in Tuttlingen. Pain in the neck and upper back that radiates to both shoulders, a sore throat up to the chin or in the upper abdomen – regardless of eating – can be clear signs of a myocardial infarction. In addition, there may be pronounced weakness, nausea, paleness, cold sweat or shortness of breath. Symptoms that appear non-specific and are therefore easily misinterpreted.
The video above shows which symptoms women should pay attention to.
Another explanation is often sought for this
Patients often blame their back pain on gardening and the pressure in their upper abdomen on bile or liver. This can be life-threatening. During a heart attack, a coronary artery is blocked. Part of the heart muscle (myocardium) no longer receives an adequate blood supply.
Eva Gellert from Spaichingen experienced exactly that. On Monday night, the 79-year-old called the emergency number shortly after three o’clock. “Everything hurt. My arms, all the way to my back.” As soon as she lay down, she experienced severe shortness of breath – something she had already noticed in the previous days. “Something has to happen now,” she said to herself. While she waited for the paramedics, she packed her suitcase for the clinic.
Eva Gellert is happy that she is feeling better again. In retrospect, she also believes that she should have taken her complaints seriously earlier. (Photo: Ingeborg Wagner)
In retrospect, she is annoyed that she did not act sooner. But that’s also typical, says Schumm: Many women put their own complaints aside. “We often hear wives say they can’t leave their husband alone.”
After the heart attack, the 79-year-old still feels very tired – a normal phenomenon. “The body needs time to recover,” explains the doctor. Such an event also has to be processed psychologically. “Confidence in your own body has to grow again.”
The case of a 72-year-old from Wald in the Sigmaringen district, who does not want to go public with her name, shows how deceptive the signs can be. She suffered a heart attack in August 2025 – without the typical chest pain.
“I wasn’t feeling well in general, I had a stomach ache,” she says. Although she suffers from bile problems, this time it felt more severe than usual. “It was so diffuse. I would never have guessed it was the heart.” In addition, she says self-critically: “I always put off everything.”
This is what a stent that is intended to permanently expand the vessels looks like. (Photo: Ingeborg Wagner)
The next morning her family doctor came – and responded immediately. He called an emergency doctor and an ambulance, and an EKG was written while he was still in the vehicle. They were already waiting for her in the emergency room at the Tuttlingen Clinic, and stents were placed shortly afterwards. “It happened in no time,” she remembers.
At the age of 72, a heart attack was “of course a shock – but it came later.” In the hospital, the initial feeling of relief was that everything had happened so quickly and that she had survived. According to current data from the Federal Statistical Office (as of 2026), more women die from cardiovascular diseases than from all cancers combined.
Women are more used to pain
Basically, in Schumm’s experience, many women find it difficult to take seriously that something is wrong with them. They are also more used to experiencing pain, for example due to monthly bleeding. Incidentally, severe period pain can also resemble the symptoms of a heart attack.
The doctor’s advice is clear: If several symptoms occur at the same time and something feels different than usual, don’t wait. Don’t sleep on it at night. Do not drive yourself to the hospital or have someone drive you. Instead, call 112 immediately and say clearly: “I think I’m having a heart attack.” And if there isn’t one? “Then no one is angry and you don’t have to pay anything.”
Statistically, men between the ages of 40 and 55 are particularly at risk, while women are more at risk between the ages of 55 and 60 – often after menopause. Overall, men are more likely to suffer a heart attack. But women die from it more often, partly because the diagnosis is made later based on the symptoms.
The only way you can do something wrong in a situation like this is to do nothing.
Julia Schumm
In addition, women are less likely to be resuscitated, a Canadian study points out. We can only speculate as to why this is the case. It is possible that women are considered more physically fragile and first responders are afraid of injuring something during chest compressions. Maybe there are inhibitions about freeing your upper body. Or people simply think about a heart attack less often. “The only way you can do something wrong in a situation like this is to do nothing,” emphasizes the doctor.
Another problem: women are still severely underrepresented in heart attack studies. A Pro-Magic study published in October 2025 examined the effects of intense endurance training – particularly marathon running – on the heart of recreational athletes. 150 men were interviewed. “Women run marathons too,” the chief doctor notes dryly.
Julia Schumm has been in Tuttlingen for almost four years. During this time she had several patients with broken heart syndrome. (Photo: Ingeborg Wagner)
Broken heart syndrome in women”/>Special feature
Broken heart syndrome in women
A clinical picture that affects over 90 percent of women is the so-called broken heart syndrome. The symptoms are similar to those of a heart attack, but the doctors cannot find a blocked vessel. “Nobody knows exactly how this happens,” says the doctor. One thing is certain: women over 60 often find themselves in extreme psychological situations.
In the almost four years that she has been in Tuttlingen, Schumm says, she has treated at least 15 women with this condition.
What is particularly stressful for those affected is that the clinical picture is real and threatening – but, unlike a heart attack, there is no simple therapy available. Since stress is considered a trigger, women often feel as if they were to blame for the illness, which is not the case.
“There is still far too little investment in research in this area,” criticizes the doctor. This might be different if the disease mainly affected men, she adds. (iw)
