Reviewed by Mandy Armitage, MD | November 5, 2025

“Chest pain” can refer to any physical pain in any organ between your neck and your upper abdomen. It’s easy to associate chest pain with the heart, but it could also be the lungs, ribs, muscles around the ribs, esophagus, or nerves.

Symptoms of a heart attack often include a tight and crushing pain that radiates up to the jaw or down the left arm. However, many people, especially women, have heart attacks that don’t cause chest pain. Learn more about heart attack symptoms in women.

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Written by:

Lauren Smith, MA

Lauren Smith, MA, has worked in health journalism since 2017. Before joining GoodRx, she was the senior health editor and writer for HealthiNation.

Reviewed by:

Mandy Armitage, MD

Mandy Armitage, MD, has combined clinical medicine with her passion for education and content development for many years. She served as medical director for the health technology companies HealthLoop (now Get Well) and Doximity.