How "Bad Medicine" Dismisses and Misdiagnoses Women's Health Symptoms

[Ohiogal]

Dusenbery says these experiences fit into a larger pattern of gender bias in medicine. Her new book, Doing Harm, makes the case that women's symptoms are often dismissed and misdiagnosed — in part because of what she calls the "systemic and unconscious bias that's rooted ... in what doctors, regardless of their own gender, are learning in medical schools."

"I definitely believe that the fact that medicine has been historically and continues to be mainly run by men has been a source of these problems," she says. "The medical knowledge that we have is just skewed towards knowing more about men's bodies and the conditions that disproportionately affect them."

"I found this to be one of the most disturbing things that I found in my research: how many women reported that as they were fighting to get their symptoms taken seriously, [they] just sort of sensed that what they really needed was somebody to testify to their symptoms, to testify to their sanity, and felt that bringing a partner or a father or even a son would be helpful. And then [they] found that it was [helpful], that they were treated differently when there was that man in the room who was corroborating their reports."

https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/03/27/597159133/how-bad-medicine-dismisses-and-misdiagnoses-womens-symptoms?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20180401&utm_campaign=&utm_term=

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I remember my mother being totally frustrated by male doctors in her generation. Most of them dismissed women's symptoms as "depression," ""over emotional," "hysterical," "hormones."

[Chemisse]

1. I have had that experience recently with my female PCP.

I had medical symptoms that did not fit into a clear diagnosis; she started talking "stress", and is now dubious about anything I say.

It's not only frustrating, but also embarrassing and demoralizing.

[RandomAccess]

2. Medical science views women as

abnormal versions of men where physiology and health are concerned. And of course, the typical male inability to "understand" women on any level (personal, professional, medical), and their innate frustration about that and about not having ALL the answers, results in blaming the victim by relying on those old excuses like "hormones" or "hysteria" or "stress" or "all in your head" diagnoses.

It's infuriating, to say the least. And very, very damaging. For example, heart attacks are the number 1 cause of death in women, and yet our symptoms are usually very different from what men experience. Doctors don't even necessarily KNOW that, let alone use that knowledge to save lives.

[Duppers]

3. This is exactly why

My hubs to going with me to my physician's appt. 9 hrs from now.

I learned his presence was most helpful many years ago. It's a sad fact that in too many situations, women are not taken seriously.

(And just try to talk to *most* home builders without a male present.)