Today thanks in large part to a law passed in 1993 that mandated that women and minorities be included in medical research funded by the National Institutes of Health women are more systematically included in studies, yet there are still huge knowledge gaps.

For instance, women with heart disease often have different symptoms from men with heart disease, yet doctors are much more familiar with the male symptoms, said Dr. Jennifer Mieres, a cardiologist with Northwell Health in New York. When women show up with symptoms that dont fit into the algorithm were taught in medical school, she said, they get gaslit and ignored.

By the time Michelle Cho, 32, was diagnosed with systemic lupus erythematosus, a disease in which the body slowly attacks its own tissues, she had developed kidney failure, a heart murmur and pneumonia yet the first doctor she went to diagnosed her with allergies, she said, and the second doctor thought she was pregnant.

I left each time feeling disappointed, sad and uneasy, because I knew they had not solved my problem or helped me in any way, and it had been yet another wasted day, said Ms. Cho, a New York City-based medical student. It felt like they were saying, Its all in my head.

When Raimey Gallant, a 42-year-old writer who lives in Winnipeg, began dropping weight, losing her hair and breaking out in a full-body rash in her 20s, she said her male doctor told her she was young, healthy and just lazy, when in fact, later that year she was diagnosed with Graves Disease, an autoimmune disorder in which the body produces too much thyroid hormone.

She also struggled for 20 years with disabling period pain before finally getting diagnosed last year with endometriosis, an inflammatory disease characterized by the presence of endometrial-like tissue outside the uterus. Ill never get back the pieces of life Ive lost to medical neglect, she said.

Its hard to know how to begin to address these systemic problems, experts said, but scientists argue that at the very least, there needs to be more research on womens health conditions.

See the article here:
What Is Medical Gaslighting and How Can You Elevate Health Care - The New York Times

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