Doctors Misdiagnose Women's Strokes, Heart Attacks as Panic Attacks, Delaying Care by 5 Days
Updated
Updated · USA TODAY · May 27
Doctors Misdiagnose Women's Strokes, Heart Attacks as Panic Attacks, Delaying Care by 5 Days
2 articles · Updated · USA TODAY · May 27
Five days after an ER sent Christy Kirk home with Ativan for a supposed panic attack, an MRI showed she had actually suffered a stroke and later needed treatment for a hole in her heart.
A 2023 Frontiers study cited in the report says gender stereotypes can lead clinicians to view women as exaggerating symptoms, making them more likely to get psychological referrals while men are more often offered painkillers.
Kait Leno, 47, said repeated anxiety labels obscured multiple physical crises: doctors found a 5-millimeter brain aneurysm in 2023, and in 2024 she says a medication interaction triggered an NSTEMI heart attack.
Her husband says paramedics were told she was having a panic attack; she was released after a psychiatric evaluation, and only later showed troponin levels four times normal before seeking specialized care at Mayo Clinic.
Both women now speak publicly about dismissal of female patients' symptoms, highlighting broader risks for women with chronic or invisible illnesses whose emergencies can be mistaken for anxiety.
Why are women’s deadly symptoms so often dismissed as 'just anxiety' by their doctors?
With medicine historically designed for men, how do we fix the deadly diagnostic gap for women?
Can AI learn to see the heart attacks and strokes that human doctors are missing in women?
The Silent Emergency: How Bias and Atypical Symptoms Lead to Missed Heart Attacks and Strokes in Women
Overview
This report highlights a troubling trend where women's symptoms of heart attacks and strokes are often mistaken for anxiety, leading to delayed treatment and serious health consequences. Systemic biases—such as sexism and racism—shape how healthcare professionals perceive and respond to women's complaints, causing many women to feel dismissed or disbelieved when seeking help. As a result, women are forced to advocate strongly for themselves during critical health crises. These delays in care can have life-altering effects, underscoring the urgent need for greater awareness, improved diagnostic protocols, and systemic change in healthcare to ensure women receive timely and accurate treatment.