There are growing concerns in the medical field about the regular undertreatment, misdiagnosis, and outright disregard for women’s health issues. It is not an uncommon experience for women to feel they have to take a second, third, fourth, or even fifth opinion before they are properly diagnosed.
More and more evidence is coming to light about how modern medical practices routinely fail women with debilitating or even fatal results. As contemporary feminist movements reveal harsh truths about women’s experiences with sexual violence and abuse, it has also revealed an immense gap in the treatment of male patients versus female patients.
The evidence supports the claim.
While there are various conditions in women that are difficult to diagnose, such as endometriosis, many women find that doctors tend not to take their feelings seriously.
For example, the majority of heart conditions still occur in men at around 70–80%, but the fatality rate in women with heart conditions is far greater at 47% compared to men’s 36%. Women are getting fatally undertreated for their heart conditions at a statistically alarming rate.
For women with acute or chronic pain, it is less likely that they will be diagnosed with opioid painkillers than men, and even if they are prescribed, it can take longer for them to get a second prescription.
It was even shown in a 2014 study in Sweden, women are less likely to be taken seriously and marked as urgent in the emergency room. A similar study in Academic Emergency Medicine showed that women can wait up to 65 minutes before they are offered pain relief, as opposed to the 49 minutes it can take for men.
But why are women’s experiences being downplayed?
Erin Jackson, founder of the Inspire Santé (dedicated to pelvic pain) and renowned healthcare attorney blames problematic ubiquity of the message that “…pain is a normal part of womanhood or girlhood…” She further illustrates that this dangerous ideology has created a systemic and societal problem where everyone, including doctors, has trouble determining what pain is normal and abnormal for women.
Jackson’s own expertise comes from experience. She had been going to physicians for ten years for stabbing, burning, and tingling pelvic pains.
“Women’s veracious complaints of symptoms or illness may be labeled as whiny,” she reported of her experience. “And we don’t trust women to be the experts in their bodies’ experiences and autonomy.”
She was regularly told to seek psychiatric care, even after having consulted too many doctors. Most assumed that she was just experiencing bad period pains, and she was often just urged to deal with her stress.
Finally, she was recommended to a pelvic floor physical therapist. Since then, she’s become pain-free. She has noted that her work with Inspire Santé has shown that her experience was not isolated, with many women being told that their pain was “just in their heads.” Some are even told that pain in sexual intercourse was normal.
The pain bias can exist in women too.
Yvonne Bohn, MD, an OB-Gyn at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California, acknowledges that society can have negative effects on a woman in terms of her own viewpoints about her own pain. She encourages women to be firm, speak up, and not to downplay what they feel.
Dr. Thomas Ruiz reiterates that this same internalized misogyny that exists in female patients can exist in female doctors too, and that one of the best ways to get the best treatment is to find a doctor who listens to your concerns and takes your feelings seriously.
Get treatment, and if you can’t, get it in writing.
If you truly feel that you are not being taken seriously and that your pain or health issues are being downplayed, ask for a written document that declares the symptoms you reported and the doctor’s diagnosis and prescribed treatment. Make sure you also have a copy to present in the event of a legal dispute about your medical issues,
Some patients report a drastic change in their treatment after requesting such a document and are often offered more extensive testing.
Conclusion
Whatever you may be feeling, it is important to trust your body and your instincts about your own experiences. You don’t have to be a doctor to know when something is wrong, and you shouldn’t have to wade through dozens of doctors and intense pain in order to find the right treatment for you.
At Dose of Healthcare, we provide all sorts of information about women’s health and women’s conditions. If you’re feeling under the weather, it might be a good idea to check us out!
