Pain is universal.
Yet, gender biases have crept into medical research time and again, severely impacting the way women's agonies are received, interpreted and eventually treated.
It’s not surprising then, that a survey found that over half of the women respondents thought of gender discrimination by doctors as a serious problem, as compared to just 36% of men.
Research on the subject is abundant. It is rooted in real incidents, experiences and struggles of women who have spent months — and even years — trying to convince everybody around that they are not 'faking it'. For many, this has risked them their lives.
It’s Not All in My Head: The Privilege of a Correct Diagnosis
The problem of neglect aggravates when women suffer from conditions that may be ‘invisible’ or lesser-known of — making it easier for a medical professional to attribute it to their poor mental health. FIT spoke with three women about their journeys — as they continue to try and understand their own bodies and minds, standing in the middle of a crowd that continues to dismiss their issues.
Namrata has an autoimmune disorder called Hashimoto. It is a thyroid-related disease with severe long-term impacts. She’s suffered skin allergies, chronic pain, chronic fatigue, persistent fever, respiratory issues, gut pain, and even the early onset of menopause. She was only diagnosed after two years, by when she had already reached stage 2 of her condition (she is now on stage 4).
Namrata was an investment banker. She had to quit her job because of the overwhelming impact her disease started having on her daily life. Her doctors, colleagues, and superiors left no stone unturned in telling her that it’s just acidity, or anxiety, or her work stress that’s acting up. “The line of wisdom people come up with is infuriating. They tell me to meditate and forget about it!”
The phenomenon of bringing a woman’s experiences down to ‘psychology’ has been widely reported. A study, for instance, showed that up to 50 percent of the women who had been told they were depressed, had actually been misdiagnosed. And then, the frustration of misdiagnosis fuels mental stresses — making it an endless loop.
For Jia, this loop made her spend almost ten years of her life in confusion, running from one doctor to another to try and understand the myriad of problems that she started experiencing with her body. As she talks to me now, she tells me she has rheumatoid arthritis, endometriosis, ulcerative colitis, Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), chronic fatigue, migraines, and asthma.
She has been battling these conditions for over ten years now. And even today, she hears the same things:
“Maybe you’re overworked.”
“Are you sure it’s not just food poisoning?”
“You’re just tired because of the weather.”
“It’s just the flu. You’re overthinking.”
She adds, “I have very often sensed the disbelief and reluctance in doctors because of the invisibility of these conditions. Today, I am okay with not being fine. I have worked a lot on not hating my body. But this has required constant research and studying on my part, especially when common medicines lead to disastrous consequences in my case.”
Digging Deeper; Why Are Women Struggling to Be Trusted?
The problem is complex and multilayered, but an attempt to understand its roots would lead one to the problem of research bias in medicine. Men and women differ in more biological terms than is widely understood. Women have different pain receptors, symptoms, and experiences than men, while research is mostly conducted on their male counterparts; leaving doctors confused and dismissive.
For instance, a 2015 study found that women under the age of 55 could have symptoms other than the ones that are conventionally understood as signs of experiencing heart problems. For instance, many women do not experience evident chest pain during a heart attack, but they may experience pain in other parts such as the neck, arms or shoulders. The study researcher Harlan Krumholz was quoted as saying,
This trend translates itself into facts such as this: Men are more likely to be diagnosed with heart disease, but women made up more than 50 percent of people dying due to it in 2011.
Putting it simply, the medical fraternity has been long trained to study, diagnose and treat patients based on research conducted on male physiology, leaving many professionals baffled and confused about women's pain and symptoms.
"It's Not Rare If It's Half the Population"
When women constantly experience disbelief on behalf of all others around them, they tend to either suffer in silence, or spend months or years fighting for some recognition. For Dr Anubha Mahajan, founder of Chronic Pain India, this struggle continues even today. After two years of suffering and being called 'chui mui' by doctors, she was finally diagnosed with 'Complex Regional Pain Syndrome' (CRPS).
But her struggle didn't end after her diagnosis. She was bullied in medical school, told by her own guide that she had 'Munchausen syndrome' — a mental disorder in which a person repeatedly and deliberately acts as if he or she has a physical or mental illness when he or she is not really sick — and constantly misdiagnosed as more complications emerged.
This is nothing less of mental torture, she tells FIT. "Throughout this journey, you are constantly doubting yourself. Many women become hesitant to visit a doctor, often risking their lives in the process."
More gender-specific research would be a starting point to help half the population attain the treatment it truly needs and deserves. Until then, women will continue to juggle between the ignorance they receive from doctors, and the signs that their own bodies give them of something just 'not being right'.
As Namrata puts it, "Nobody deserves to live in pain, even if it's just a headache. A lot of damage in my case would have been saved, if only someone would have told me I'm not making it up, that it's real and it's happening, and here's what needs to be done."
(This story was auto-published from a syndicated feed. No part of the story has been edited by The Quint.)
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