When Gender Stereotypes Become A Serious Hazard To Women's Health

[Panich52]

ThinkProgress

When Kathy tried to seek medical attention for abnormally heavy periods that were leaving her feeling so faint that she was unable to stand, four different medical professionals said it was all in her head. They concluded she was simply struggling with anxiety and perhaps even had a serious mental health disorder. She says her primary care doctor repeatedly told her, “All your symptoms are your imagination.”
It took nine months for Kathy to be diagnosed with potentially life-threatening uterine fibroids that required surgical intervention. And that was only after she took it upon herself to demand an ultrasound. She was suffering from anemia, not anxiety.
“I was left to my own ability to recognize what was happening and defend myself,” Kathy, who didn’t want to print her last name along with details about her sensitive medical information, told ThinkProgress. “I was being treated as a mental incompetent and as a mentally ill hypochondriac.” She added that she doesn’t believe she would have received the same type of treatment if she were a man.
Kathy’s experience isn’t unique. It can be difficult for female patients to convince health professionals to take their symptoms seriously — which, in turn, makes some women hesitant to speak up about their medical concerns in the first place, for fear of being told they’re overreacting. Ultimately, this complicated interplay between gender roles and the health care system could be putting lives at stake.

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http://thinkprogress.org/health/2015/05/11/3654568/gender-roles-women-health/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tptop3&elqTrack=true&elqTrackId=2a1bb9d851b64500bc95bc963825d0df&elqaid=25509&elqat=1

[niyad]

2. I have always believed that many doctors are in the field because they hate women, and

enjoy being in control of them.

sadly, it seems we haven't advanced far from "the yellow wallpaper"

[marym625]

3. Three times in my life, doctors blowing off symptoms almost killed me

The first time was from about the age of 5 until I was 12. It was only because of my mother, insisting the doctors don't remove my appendix. After years of being told the vomiting, weakness, intermittent absence from school, etc, on Christmas Day, when I was 12, I was close to death. Rushing me to the hospital, yet again, this time they took me seriously. Instead of linking the, so many, ER visits and day or 2 long hospitalizations for 7 years that always ended with, "we can't find anything and she is better now, take her to a psychiatrist" they decided this was acute appendicitis.

Trying to rush me to surgery, my mother said no. She knew something was seriously wrong and had been for years. Even before it was bad enough for almost monthly hospital visits.

The doctors were flabbergasted but did start doing tests. More than an X ray. An intern came into my room and told me my mother was wrong. That my appendix had burst and the infection inside was being held in by a very thin cover. That if I moved wrong, this thin cover would burst and I would die

Turned out I had a congenital defect in my right kidney that was close to erupting. The pediatric urologist at Children's Memorial in Chicago was amazed I was alive, and then he, along with, and because of my mom, my mom being the intelligent, loving mother she is, saved my life

Imagine sending a vomiting, sickly, 5 year old home from the hospital saying it's psychological

Sorry for the long reply. Just always question any doctor that says it's all in your head