The Medical Bias Against Women
Ask anyone the symptoms of a heart attack, and they'll say pain in the chest. If you go on and ask them the symptoms of a stroke, they'll say that the arm goes numb. However, if you're a woman, the noticeable symptoms we would typically look for aren't enough.
Sometimes the warning signals from the body are fatigue and headaches, and if you're a woman with severe PMS, you might not realize there is another issue there. Why is this? Well, it wasn't until 1993 that medical research began to factor in how men and women differ genetically.
In 1994, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines stated studies had to include women and minorities in government-funded. This lack of interest in women's health has had a significant impact.
Let's look at two reasons people argue why there isn't much research directed towards women's healthcare: funding and interest. Many feel that there isn't enough money directed towards research focused on women's health. Funding can be a significant hurdle for researchers who want to explore the differences in diseases and how they impact men and women.
Wellbeing of Women is a health research charity based in London that aims to invest in research that will save and change the lives of women, girls, and babies. However, if you ask others, they would say there aren't enough people interested in figuring out why certain diseases impact women more than men.
Before the NIH's declaration, many drug trials believed it would be easier to test on men because they felt they were more alike and wouldn't harm the trials' conclusions.
In the UK, 10% of women have endometriosis; this is on par with the percentage of women with diabetes. While both diseases impact many women, one is treated more frequently and is much more recognizable than the other. Endometriosis doesn't just affect women in the UK, as 11% of women in the US suffer from the condition.
According to John Hopkins Medicine, the percentage of the population impacted by this disorder spans between 2% and 10%. How can the numbers be so drastic for an illness that can lead to infertility or difficulties getting pregnant? The percentages may vary so greatly because women are expected to deal with higher levels of pain.
PMS symptoms range from food cravings to headaches to sore breasts to cramps, and the pain varies from woman to woman. This also leads to many women thinking that the pain is just what comes with having a period.
Regardless of why there isn't much research done on reproductive health and how diseases impact women, the repercussions are enormous. As mentioned previously, when endometriosis goes undiagnosed, it can lead to infertility.
More so, according to WebMD, women are 50% more likely to be misdiagnosed for heart disease even after having a heart attack. Even autoimmune diseases like multiple sclerosis and lupus are more common in women but take up to 5 years and 5 doctors to diagnose. The lack of care towards women's health should be considered unacceptable.
Asking more questions during appointments, speaking up, and coming prepared with evidence to support the medical claims being made are ways to combat these issues. Should all that be necessary? Women's health is something the medical community has to start taking steps to change.
Continuing bad practices and habits won't allow us to move forward into the future where biases are removed from healthcare. It is time to treat women's health with the same importance and effort that men's health has received.