Gal Gadot's Docs Misdiagnosed This Major Issue as Pregnancy Migraines

Advocating for yourself in today’s busy healthcare system can be tough, especially as a woman. Too often, symptoms are dismissed as anxiety or just par for the course, leading to delayed diagnoses of serious conditions. From heart health to reproductive issues, doubling down on being a strong advocate for yourself and others becomes all the more important during the tumultuous health period of pregnancy. To help more women find their voice, Wonder Woman actress and women’s empowerment icon Gal Gadot is sharing her story.

In a recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Gadot bravely opened up about the frightening pregnancy experience that almost cost her life. The actress, who recently welcomed her fourth child in March 2024, shared that she had been suffering from severe headaches for weeks during her pregnancy but often had her concerns downplayed as just a part of pregnancy.

“I had major headaches for three weeks,” Gadot explained. “And I saw doctors and different neurologists. They kept telling me, ‘It’s probably a migraine. It’s the hormones.’” But after three weeks of throbbing pain and no new answers beyond pregnancy migraines, Gadot’s mom insisted that her daughter go back to the doctor, get checked again, and get an MRI to make sure things weren’t more serious. And, as it is so many times, a mother’s intuition was right.

What Gadot’s doctors failed to recognize was that she wasn’t just experiencing a pregnancy migraine. The actress had actually had cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), a rare but serious condition where a clot forms in the brain’s venous sinuses, blocking blood drainage and potentially leading to a stroke.

“I had a brain clot, and it was a huge one. Like three. I had three. When I do something, I do it all the way,” Gadot added jokingly. Gadot’s pregnancy had actually created the perfect storm for CVST to not only manifest—hormonal changes during pregnancy increase the risk of clotting—but go unnoticed, as headaches, nausea and other symptoms of a blood clot are often overlooked in pregnancy as typical, run-of-the-mill discomforts.

Thankfully, quickly after her MRI revealed the clot, the team at Cedars-Sinai Hospital was able to rush Gadot in for an emergency surgery to safely deliver her baby and perform a thrombectomy to remove the clot. “I had the most amazing team…Shout-out to all the doctors and nurses out there. They saved my life. Mara, Dr. Song, Michael Alexander and everybody,” she added.

Nervous to share her life-threatening story with others, Gadot hopes her experience might help others. “If someone out there is going to have the same thing, and because they heard my story, they’re going to get checked, then I’ve done my part,” Gadot shared. “You’ve got to advocate for your health. Our bodies are always communicating with us. We just need to listen and get checked. If anything, you’re going to check, you’re going to over-check yourself, but it’s better to over-check than to not check.”

Please note: The Bump and the materials and information it contains are not intended to, and do not constitute, medical or other health advice or diagnosis and should not be used as such. You should always consult with a qualified physician or health professional about your specific circumstances.