Gender Bias in Medical Treament and You: How does being a woman affect how you receive medical care?
I'll start this off by explaining that this blog is made out of a personal struggle that I and many of my friends face day in and day out. And I have made excuses for the lack of treatment I receive in numerous ways until I watched John Oliver's coverage on this issues that seems to expand way past myself. I would recommend that everyone watches this video as an introduction to the serious consequences that can put our health, if not our very lives, at risk.
While we might assume that bias in health care is relic of the past, back where women would be labeled hysterical or quickly deemed insane for inane reasons (6). Today's bias can still affect everything from clinical trials to heart attacks. John Oliver mentions in his video that clinical trials were based on men because men was considered the "standard" and there has been movement in changing this (1). Currently, any clinical trial that is funded by National Institutes of Health must include women, but this requirement does not extend to private clinical trials which still primarily study men's effect to a new drug (7). This leads to women being 75% more likely to undergo negative side effects of their prescriptions.
Regrettably, this assumes that women receive care in the first place. Higher percentages of patients diagnosed with autoimmune diseases, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndromes are women (2). Yet the road to a diagnosis is a rocky mountain to climb fraught with misdiagnoses, multiple doctors, and implications that these women are faking their symptoms. For women who have autoimmune disease, the average diagnosis takes up to 4.6 years and 5 doctors. Perhaps due to the medical profession's disavowal for fibromylagia and chronic fatigue syndromes up until very recently (4), patients take 7 to 8 years to receive their diagnosis. Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg as a quick google search unearths more statistics on other various health conditions and heartbreaking anecdotes of women's struggle to be heard by their doctors.
Recognizing that there is a problem is only the first step in solving it. Medical bias perpetuates in every aspect from medical textbooks (3) to treatment, or lack thereof. We should ask that students have access to non-biased textbooks and medical education. Also we should find methods to remove bias in diagnosis that doctors will actually use (5). Let's petition for laws surrounding private clinical trials and erase the bias that exists in drug trials.
And if you find yourself in the same situation, fight for your own health. If you feel something is wrong, fight for the tests that you need. Find doctors who listen to you and who don't dispute your concerns. Find others, reach out, and create a support group in your own area.
While we might assume that bias in health care is relic of the past, back where women would be labeled hysterical or quickly deemed insane for inane reasons (6). Today's bias can still affect everything from clinical trials to heart attacks. John Oliver mentions in his video that clinical trials were based on men because men was considered the "standard" and there has been movement in changing this (1). Currently, any clinical trial that is funded by National Institutes of Health must include women, but this requirement does not extend to private clinical trials which still primarily study men's effect to a new drug (7). This leads to women being 75% more likely to undergo negative side effects of their prescriptions.
Regrettably, this assumes that women receive care in the first place. Higher percentages of patients diagnosed with autoimmune diseases, fibromyalgia, and chronic fatigue syndromes are women (2). Yet the road to a diagnosis is a rocky mountain to climb fraught with misdiagnoses, multiple doctors, and implications that these women are faking their symptoms. For women who have autoimmune disease, the average diagnosis takes up to 4.6 years and 5 doctors. Perhaps due to the medical profession's disavowal for fibromylagia and chronic fatigue syndromes up until very recently (4), patients take 7 to 8 years to receive their diagnosis. Sadly, this is just the tip of the iceberg as a quick google search unearths more statistics on other various health conditions and heartbreaking anecdotes of women's struggle to be heard by their doctors.
Recognizing that there is a problem is only the first step in solving it. Medical bias perpetuates in every aspect from medical textbooks (3) to treatment, or lack thereof. We should ask that students have access to non-biased textbooks and medical education. Also we should find methods to remove bias in diagnosis that doctors will actually use (5). Let's petition for laws surrounding private clinical trials and erase the bias that exists in drug trials.
And if you find yourself in the same situation, fight for your own health. If you feel something is wrong, fight for the tests that you need. Find doctors who listen to you and who don't dispute your concerns. Find others, reach out, and create a support group in your own area.
Works Cited
1. “Bias In Medicine: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO).” YouTube, Last Week Tonight HBO, 18 Aug. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TATSAHJKRd8.
2. Elliott, Laura. “The Problem of Gender Bias in Medical Diagnosis.” Medium, Medium, 9 Jan. 2019, https://medium.com/@lcelliott2/the-problem-of-gender-bias-in-medical-diagnosis-c91556354ec0.
3. Eveleth, Rose. “Medical Textbooks Overwhelmingly Use Pictures of Young White Men.” Vice, 9 May 2019, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3k3kkn/medical-textbooks-overwhelmingly-use-pictures-of-young-white-men.
4. Liptan, Ginevra. “The Health Care Industry Finally Recognizes Fibromyalgia.” National Pain Report, 30 Sept. 2015, http://nationalpainreport.com/the-health-care-industry-finally-recognizes-fibromyalgia-8827637.html.
5. Nordell, Jessica. “A Fix for Gender Bias in Health Care? Check.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 11 Jan. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/opinion/a-fix-for-gender-bias-in-health-care-check.html.
6. Pouba, Katherine, and Ashley Tianen. Lunacy in the 19th Century: Women’s Admission to Asylums in United States of America.
University of Wisconsin, 2006,
https://minds.wisconsin.edu/bitstream/handle/1793/6687/Lunacy in the
19th Century.pdf?sequence=1.
7. Powell, Robert, and A. Pawlowski. “Do Doctors Treat Women Differently?” TODAY.com, Today Show, 18 July 2018, https://www.today.com/health/gender-bias-health-care-may-be-harming-women-s-health-t133583.
I have a few chronic illnesses. I had to start fighting with my doctors to get a diagnosis and I still fight for treatment. I had an issue where I would bring a concern to my Dr and they would brush it off. They told me there was nothing wrong with me without really doing any tests. I had to start demanding that they test me or send me to specialists. My request for specialists to test me actually led to two new diagnosis for issues my primary told me were nothing to worry about. With this in mind, I keep track of everything to do with my health. It is definitely something you have to be proactive about. You need to do your research on specialists and keep close track of your labs and test results. Hopefully this issue will be addressed more in the future since this post and the John Oliver video count as the first time I have seen anyone talk about this in years. If we can get people to acknowledge there is a problem that would be a great start.
ReplyDeleteIt would be nice if textbooks, at minimum, didn't suggest lack of ability to categorize one's own pain based on racial background.
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ReplyDeleteI've seen this first hand with a few people know and keep hearing about issues with diagnosis from a lot of people I've met both online and in person. The fact that so many are struggling with what should be simple common sense when it comes to healthcare is concerning and in some cases truly appalling.
ReplyDeleteI have had similar issues trying to get better treatment for my mother. She has fought two different cancers, and it still seems like I have to push to get things taken seriously. Even major things like high blood pressure.
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