By Humairaa Mayet
Edited by Imaan Moosa
Medical Intern, Sameera Mayet, talks to us about how misdiagnosis affects women far more than it does men, so much so that it has been branded an ‘epidemic among women’ by some.
We don’t see as much innovation in women’s healthcare. Underfunding is one of the reasons, but so is centuries of stigma. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, blamed the uterus for excessive emotion, and Aristotle believed women were deformed or mutilated males and were not factored into his teachings because of ‘bad biology’. Until the 20th century, the study and practice of medicine was dominated by men. Today, 70% of healthcare workers are women. However, women are still underrepresented in medical journals and leadership positions.
A woman is far more likely to experience a medical misdiagnosis than her male counterpart. This is largely due to the fact that women – whether they be patients or medical professionals – have been rendered voiceless within the field of health sciences. Up until 1993, women of childbearing age were routinely excluded from clinical trials which predominantly featured men.
Dr. Sameera Mayet, a second-year medical intern, spoke to To EmpowHER about the prevalence of the misdiagnosis of women within the healthcare sector. According to Dr. Mayet, the rate of misdiagnosis of women far exceeds that of men and this is a result of the medical field being inherently biased toward men coupled with years of neglect of the conditions faced by women.
Clinical trials only began to include women in the late 20th century. Unfortunately, this late inclusion left a lot of gaps in the knowledge – we do not even know if drugs behave the same way in women as they do in men. Even when research is done in conditions more prevalent in women – such as depression and thyroid diseases – women of childbearing age are still sometimes excluded, due to the fear of fluctuating hormones interfering with the results. This can be very dangerous.
Compared to men, women are 50 percent more likely to be misdiagnosed when having a heart attack and 30 percent more likely to be misdiagnosed when having a stroke. In many instances, these are overlooked entirely. These staggering figures do not come out of anywhere. From the very beginning, men are posited as the primary subjects of medical research, and women are largely ignored.
In medical school, textbooks are filled with diagrams and pictures of men, even when the condition they are seeking to illustrate disproportionately affects women, said Dr. Mayet. She explained that men are mainly used in practicals because the lack of breast tissue makes them easier to examine. This, however, is an entirely inaccurate representation of what medical students will experience once they enter the working world.
Photo: Instagram
Doctors are likely to overlook sex-specific illnesses such as endometriosis and polycystic ovary syndrome. There is a lack of awareness around these conditions, confirmed Dr. Mayet, and doctors are unlikely to detect these illnesses unless they are specifically looking for them.
Conditions specific to the reproductive system present as abdominal pain in women which doctors are quick to brush off. Dysmenorrhoea, a condition that causes extremely painful periods, is often ignored because it is commonly believed that ‘periods are supposed to hurt,’ said Dr. Mayet.
Pain is not taken as seriously in women as it is in men because medical professionals tend to be of the belief that women are ‘used to pain’ from menstruation, pregnancy, and childbirth.
Women are twice as likely to be affected by an autoimmune disease than men, but these often go undiagnosed or misdiagnosed in women, but are often quickly diagnosed in men. Effectively, said Dr. Mayet, women make up a majority of autoimmune cases but are repeatedly misdiagnosed because the criteria used to diagnose these are from studies where all the subjects were men.
Somatic symptom disorder, conversion disorder, fibromyalgia, panic attacks, and many psychiatric and functional disorders present with physical symptoms. However, all of these conditions need medical work up to exclude an organic cause, which women are often not as thoroughly subjected to, as compared to men. There is often a lower threshold for diagnosing a psychological cause in women than there is in men.
Photo: Instagram
In their lifetimes, women are far more likely than men to experience chronic pain. According to Dr. Mayet, however, the chronic pain experienced by women is often diagnosed as an issue secondary to a psychological cause. As a result of this, it is inadequately treated and provides excess hardship to women who are experiencing chronic pain.
There are myriad disparities in the treatment of chronic pain in men and women. Women are likely to suffer both more and longer with chronic pain, as well as have their pain taken far less seriously than that of men.
Female hysteria has its roots in the 19th century and was used to dismiss the pain and disease women had to endure. While female hysteria is not recognised as a medical condition today; women are still misdiagnosed and incorrectly treated.
Ultimately, although strides are being made in the medical field to ensure that it is more inclusive of women, there is still a long way to go before equity is achieved.
More about Dr. Mayet:
She loves unwinding and turning off her brain with movies, series, music, and YouTube. She also enjoys drawing when she has the time.
She studied for six years and has been an intern for a year and a half.
A day in her life can be very different depending on which block she is rotating through, but it always includes working in a hospital or clinic and interacting with a wide variety of patients from all backgrounds and it usually includes working with a team of many different levels of experience (and personalities).
Follow and support Dr. Mayet on social media:
Instagram: @sameeramayet
Comments