When I have GERD attacks sometimes there is no refluxing... I have had pain in the sternum area that sent me to the emergency room because I have had GERD for so long and a couple a years ago had a lot of stress due to deaths in the family that I had a major attack... the pain I usually had around my sternum went all the way up into my chest and I thought I was having a hard attack. So things can vary. Unfortunately everything is kinda related. There are times when you can have inflammation of the chest wall that will also give you a pain all the way across your ribcage under the breasts. But in reality it is better to see a GI doc to make sure. I found that if I had pain in my chest or ribcage area and raised my hands up in the sky and the pressure was better or I took medis it was usually reflux. When you have reflux you have to eat smaller meals and drink a little less.