Micaela Bravo

Dr. Emerson

IDMD 101

October 10, 2023

Half the Population, Half as Respected

Source Summary:

It is being found in research that women are statistically less likely to be taken seriously in medical settings compared to men complaining of the same ailments or showing the same symptoms. Due to the fact that women are more sensitive to pain and more expressive than their male counterparts, a lot of doctors–especially male ones–take their pain as an overexaggeration and lead to severe issues like women being 25% less likely to be given pain meds for the same affliction as a man. Many women have failed to even get past the diagnoses stage, as a significant amount have stepped forward with similar stories about their doctors not listening to them, insisting on not running tests, and some were even sent to psychiatrists for an illness that, when finally meeting a competent doctor, was found to be a severe disease of the body like cancer or a tumor.

Significance of the Phenomenon:

When leaving the doctor’s office, no one should ever feel worse than when they came in, yet somehow a woman was “told ‘shut up’ by a nurse because [she] was screaming too loud while [she] was in pain” (Bever). Empathy is a monumental part of healthcare and should be used in every patient interaction because creating a safe space where they feel heard can mutually benefit both physician and patient. Rather than the doctor having to read the mind of a closed-off patient in order to have enough information to make a diagnoses and begin treatment, it would be much easier if they just allowed the patient to feel they can share things without feeling judged or invalidated, leading to more information that may be relevant to their healthcare plan. 

Paying attention to a patient can also avoid situations where their physical condition gets to a point of no return, like when a woman was screaming in agony during a labor where she was supposed to be getting epidural, but after multiple times of her healthcare team dismissing her pain and assuring she was getting the max dose, it was found out that the epidural slipped out which led to needing an emergency C-section. An entire room of medical professionals failed her. Had they listened, really listened, to what she was telling them, that she could feel everything and was in severe pain, they would’ve realized their mistake before her body gave out, which in the end costed the medical team more time and effort and the woman more money than originally needed. 

Additionally, being empathetic means to not discredit someone based on their appearance, but “research found that half of white med students and residents were more likely to underestimate black people’s pain,” leading to situations like a black woman with a chronic illness needing to change into her “Sunday best” in order to not be prejudiced or portrayed “as a drug seeker” (Bever). To immediately cast-off the pains of a human being just for wearing more worn-out clothes, or for having darker skin, or for being a woman is terrible and should not be as common as it is. 

Yes, in more recent times there have been steps forward in understanding female experiences of pain, but one would think “recent times” refers to the past hundred years. It was only in 2016 that the National Institutes of Health required most medical research to consider sex as a biological variable. Only 7 years ago. Half of the world population is female, and yet only 43% of medical students said their curriculum taught sex and gender differenes in medicine. Being taught to be understanding of people’s differences is surprisingly not as present in medical spheres as it should be. It all comes back to having empathy and being able to truly listen to patients when they keep coming back to their physician in indescribable agony. “[Empathy is] not enough for someone to have a sympathetic manner or use a caring tone,” as a doctor must actually take the time to listen and understand what their patient is going through (Jamison). Women may be more sensitive to pain, but that does not negate the fact that they are still feeling pain, and should not be cast away and told “it was all in [their] head” (Bever). 

A worse act though, more than not properly treating a patient, is to refuse to even run tests when asked multiple times by a patient with severe symptoms. If a patient has reasonable suspicion that they are ill and has no qualms with any risks involved in the process of running an exam, they should not be turned away because the physician thinks the patient is overexaggerating their condition. In other words: “you treat the pain that the patient has, not the pain that you think the patient should have” (Bever). It is wrong to decide that a patient is not suffering severely enough to have a severe disease, and keep them from proper diagnoses and treatment. Exams may also be refused due to paternalism and the doctor worrying about the patient’s well-being if they receive either a false negative or positive, and though this case is better than the ignorance case, it is still not right. 

The Effect:

The terrible stories of women who went through years of being denied proper medical care having been published through a massive publication such as The Washington Post is bound to make waves. Women with similar experiences can read those of other women in the submission board of the article and find that they are not alone, and they are not crazy. A lot of doctors chalk up female pain to be hormones, dramatization, mental illness, or a combination of the three, when in reality the patients who go to health offices seeking treatment or answers for their ailments are valid concerns that should be respected as such. After experiencing being shut-out by the person who is supposedly there to help you, many women “start to doubt [themselves]” and may be less averse to going back to seek medical attention until the pain becomes “unbearable,” and by then their illness may have permanent effects. Women should take back the reigns as “the owner of [their] health” and “go with their gut” when they feel something is wrong, and “if [their] provider does not appear to be listening to [them] or believing what [they’re] saying,” instead of feeling like their concerns are unimportant, they should get “a new provider” (Bever).

 

Works Cited

Bever, Lindsey. “From Heart Disease to Iuds: How Doctors Dismiss Women’s Pain.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 13 Dec. 2022, www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/interactive/2022/women-pain-gender-bias-doctors/. 

Jamison, Leslie. “Empathy Exams.” Https://Alabama.App.Box.Com/s/Kukl2jf235eikdd5x8tjcgq2tuot5ejk, Box.