diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.3.2.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.3.2.rst
deleted file mode 100644
index 53a8d28687518..0000000000000
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v2.3.2.rst
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,34 +0,0 @@
-.. _whatsnew_232:
-
-What's new in 2.3.2 (August XX, 2025)
--------------------------------------
-
-These are the changes in pandas 2.3.2. See :ref:`release` for a full changelog
-including other versions of pandas.
-
-{{ header }}
-
-.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-.. _whatsnew_232.string_fixes:
-
-Improvements and fixes for the StringDtype
-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-
-Most changes in this release are related to :class:`StringDtype` which will
-become the default string dtype in pandas 3.0. See
-:ref:`whatsnew_230.upcoming_changes` for more details.
-
-.. _whatsnew_232.string_fixes.bugs:
-
-Bug fixes
-^^^^^^^^^
-- Fix :meth:`~DataFrame.to_json` with ``orient="table"`` to correctly use the
-  "string" type in the JSON Table Schema for :class:`StringDtype` columns
-  (:issue:`61889`)
-- Boolean operations (``|``, ``&``, ``^``) with bool-dtype objects on the left and :class:`StringDtype` objects on the right now cast the string to bool, with a deprecation warning (:issue:`60234`)
-
-.. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
-.. _whatsnew_232.contributors:
-
-Contributors
-~~~~~~~~~~~~
diff --git a/pandas/_testing/asserters.py b/pandas/_testing/asserters.py
index daa5187cdb636..0f1f6e9e5612d 100644
--- a/pandas/_testing/asserters.py
+++ b/pandas/_testing/asserters.py
@@ -495,8 +495,15 @@ def assert_categorical_equal(
             lc, rc = left.categories, right.categories
         assert_index_equal(lc, rc, obj=f"{obj}.categories", exact=exact)
         assert_index_equal(
-            left.categories.take(left.codes),
-            right.categories.take(right.codes),
+            Index(
+                [left.categories[code] if code >= 0 else np.nan for code in left.codes]
+            ),
+            Index(
+                [
+                    right.categories[code] if code >= 0 else np.nan
+                    for code in right.codes
+                ]
+            ),
             obj=f"{obj}.values",
             exact=exact,
         )
diff --git a/pandas/tests/util/test_assert_categorical_equal.py b/pandas/tests/util/test_assert_categorical_equal.py
index c171564574708..213ab50159115 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/util/test_assert_categorical_equal.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/util/test_assert_categorical_equal.py
@@ -1,3 +1,4 @@
+import numpy as np
 import pytest
 
 from pandas import Categorical
@@ -86,3 +87,15 @@ def test_categorical_equal_object_override(obj):
 
     with pytest.raises(AssertionError, match=msg):
         tm.assert_categorical_equal(c1, c2, obj=obj)
+
+
+def test_categorical_equal_with_nans_and_different_order():
+    # GH#62008
+    values = ["B", np.nan, "D"]
+    categories_left = ["B", "D"]
+    categories_right = categories_left[::-1]
+
+    left = Categorical(values, categories=categories_left)
+    right = Categorical(values, categories=categories_right)
+
+    tm.assert_categorical_equal(left, right, check_category_order=False)