Gender bias has a great impact on the outcomes and experiences of women when it comes to healthcare. This post details the ways in which gender bias presents itself in healthcare and its impacts on women. Considering that women make up around half of the world’s population, the fact that our healthcare system is geared towards treating males rather than females is an issue that needs to be both discussed and addressed. In healthcare, gender bias can present itself in a multitude of ways during the process of diagnosis, treatment, and general patient care. Not only has it become evident that women experience healthcare differently, but their experiences and outcomes indicate a lesser quality of healthcare that is gender-dependent. Women experience medical treatment differently than men, and it not only affects the interactions they have with healthcare professionals but also the likelihood of good outcomes. Diagnosis is an extremely important part of medical treatment, but according to research and statistics, women are less likely to be correctly diagnosed than men for many conditions. This in turn impacts the way in which women are then treated as well as their resulting medical outcomes. A study published in the Heart and Lung Medical Journal on fourth year medical students yielded results that confirm this point by providing data that women were treated and assessed differently than men who presented with symptoms of coronary heart disease along with psychological symptoms. In the study, fourth year medical students from 13 different medical schools in the United States were asked to diagnose, assess risk, and develop a treatment plan for four experimental patients (Biddle, Fallavollita, Homish, and Orom 2019). The results demonstrated that women with and without psychological symptoms were significantly less likely to be taken seriously and receive necessary treatment than men with and without psychological symptoms. Studies have also shown that healthcare professionals are likely to allocate more time to treating male patients than women who present with the same symptoms (Siobhan Fenton Health and Social Affairs Correspondent, 2016). Another study done on 30 men and 30 women who had coronary bypass surgery yielded results supporting that men were two times more likely to be prescribed narcotics than women during the three days following surgery (Kiesel 2017). Instead, women were often given sedatives instead of pain-relieving medications. When it comes to treatment of women’s pain, a common theme arises where women are given sedatives instead of medication to treat their pain. In another study, it was found that women are seven times more likely to be discharged and misdiagnosed during a heart attack than men (Kiesel 2017). After seeing a statistic such as this one, it’s evident that women experience the healthcare system much differently than men and aren’t given the equal quality of treatment they should. Clearly these findings point to a disparity in the quality of medical care than women receive in comparison to men. Women are less likely to be taken seriously by medical professionals and their pain is often treated as a psychiatric issue. After seeing multiple doctors for frequent fainting, Starr Mirza was repeatedly told to see a psychiatrist; however, after seeing three, she got the same answer from everyone: this isn’t a psychiatric problem. After these failures to get help, Starr continued to suffer and faint an average of 2 times a week until she went into cardiac arrest at work. She was rushed to the hospital and had to have a pacemaker placed in her chest. She was then diagnosed with QT syndrome, which explained her frequent fainting. This diagnosis was one that should’ve been made a decade earlier, but it instead took going into cardiac arrest for doctors to believe Starr’s pain (Adler 2019). Though Starr’s story may seem unique, in reality, it mirrors the stories of many women who have gone to doctors seeking medical help but have not had their pain acknowledged and sadly, many don’t end as happily as Starr’s. Marley Hoggatt began experiencing extremely painful migraines multiple times a month, but like Starr, Marley’s pain was dismissed as a psychiatric issue. She was prescribed an antidepressant, which didn't help, and when she went to a neurologist, she was referred to a psychologist because the doctor thought it was due to issues concerning her love life. After these failed efforts to get help, Marley continued to suffer and take as many as six ibuprofen at a time in an attempt to get the excruciating pain to subside. Finally, Marley saw a doctor who ordered an MRI, revealing a herniated disk, two bulging disks, and a pinched nerve in her neck. Afterwards, Marley was relieved. The way she was dismissed by doctors made her begin to believe her pain was invalid and just in her head like she’d been told, so having her pain validated made it so she could believe in herself again (Adler 2019). Sadly, stories like Starr and Marley’s are far too common and often end with death due to misdiagnosis or a diagnosis made too late. Additionally, even if the diagnosis is made, the trauma of having your pain dismissed can have extreme negative impacts on a patient’s mental health. Considering that women make up around half of the world’s population, the fact that our healthcare system is geared towards treating males rather than females is an issue that needs to be addressed. Sources:
AuthorColleen Cuncannan is a sophomore majoring in Biomedical Engineering on a premedical track. Comments are closed.
|
aboutThis blog is composed by students who attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Beyond Symptoms Organization. This blog serves to educate the public on disparities in healthcare. Categories |