Exaggeration and hysteria .. Why do doctors ignore the pain of women?

Noha Saad

Most women around the world suffer from a bias against pathological complaints, as doctors misdiagnose the health condition due to confusion between exaggeration and hormonal changes in women and what they suffer from in real terms, which leads to complications where the complaint is not taken seriously from the beginning.

In her article, "The Great Unified Theory of Female Pain," writer Leslie Jamison explained how women are mocked and persuaded of silence, and ignored while they feel, saying, "Women’s initial complaint is not taken seriously in medical care until they prove to be sick like males."

Regarding heart disease, which is the leading cause of death around the world, a study in the Journal of Women's Health in 2009 showed that doctors diagnose heart disease as a psychological state of women. In a series of studies by psychologist Gabriel Chiaramonti in 2008, the results showed that in the case of complaining of symptoms of cardiac arrest with life pressures the results of the diagnosis were surprising, as only 15% of women were diagnosed with heart disease compared to 56% of men , And refer only 30% of the cases of women to a cardiologist compared to 62% of men, and prescribe cardiac medications for only 13% of women compared to 47% of men.

In a 2008 study by the US National Institute of Health, it was found that women waited 16 minutes longer than men to receive pain relief medication in emergencies.

In a study titled "Women with Pain," researchers J. Crooke and E. Tonks revealed that women with chronic diseases are more likely than men to be misdiagnosed, considering this to be a mental health problem, or describing the complaint as hysterical.

The foregoing studies are simple examples that explain the sexual discrimination suffered by women in medical care. What are the reasons for neglecting women's complaints?

Excluded from scientific experiments
Women were excluded from many medical research and experiments until the medical institutes in the United States of America issued a decision to include women and minorities in research, yet women still have lower participation rates than men.

Maya Dossenberry, author of the book "Harm", in which women are neglected in health care, attributes the basis of the problem to the marginalization of medical research that women have been exposed to, and says "We do not have enough medical information and knowledge about women and their bodies and the conditions that affect them." Then comes the crisis of confidence and the tendency to disbelieve women’s description of the symptoms of what they encounter.

emotional state
The stereotype of women and their tendency to emotion more make their complaints less serious, but rather an emotional state or the effect of changing hormones experienced by every woman, or just delusions and excessive concern for health, and sometimes accuse women of pretending to complain for some attention from those around them.

It is not possible to overlook the difference in the nature of feeling pain between men and women, and even ways to express this pain, and it is not possible to compare the complaint of the two parties, but what actually happens is dealing with the satisfactory complaint of the woman as exaggeration and emotional, and for this is not taken seriously.

Jameson also notes in her article, "The Girl Who Cried with Pain," that women are more likely to be treated less seriously in their initial encounters in health centers until they prove they are as sick as male patients, a phenomenon referred to in the medical community as "Intel's syndrome."

How do you defend your complaint?

1- Write down the symptoms

Liz Lester recommends a hormonal expert and a California-based physician, to write what you suffer to become easier to describe, and do not hesitate to list it to make better use of your time, as doctors often have waiting situations and do not have time, so writing makes it easy to describe what you feel accurately.

2- Take the floor

Marla Dibler, a clinical psychologist and founder of the Center for Emotional Health in Philadelphia, advises that you talk about your concerns quickly rather than waiting for the doctor to explain what you feel instead of you.

3- Repeat your question

If you feel your doctor’s denial of your complaint, including waiting some time and arriving later, Doctor Powell, director of the Montefiore Einstein Center for Bioethics, advises you to inquire with the doctor and ask him about the basics of his recommendations to be sure of what he says.

Powell also advises women to be more specific at the time of the complaint, and review what the doctor said if you are not satisfied, you should say "I am afraid that you did not listen to me well", and do not hesitate to repeat the description of what you feel.

4- Follow your intuition

Women constitute 70% of patients with chronic pain, and this is what author Gabriel Jackson, author of "Pain and Prejudice", has mentioned, and she mentioned a shocking fact that most women coexist with pain to the point that they do not know that it is not normal, for fear of not believing their ongoing complaints.

Do not doubt your pain that it is not true and neglect it for fear of being underestimated, and trust what you feel, then finding that you are wrong after the medical exams is better than finding that what you feel doubles it is too late.