Why are females not believed in the medical field

My first post-c section midwife appointment was 5 days post surgery, 4 days post leaving the hospital, on a Sunday and at the hospital. I asked for more co codamol (I was on the super generous not dose of 10mg codeine which I'd already stopped taking at mid day so was taking first thing and a last thing only).

Midwife was told she could NOT give me more pain meds as I'd already had my full amount and I would have to see my GP... on Monday. She went ballistic, pointing out that a man who had had full abdominal surgery would have been kept in hospital for a week, then sent home with the strongest pain killers available and told to stay in bed vs me who went home after 24 hours, with a baby, and then had to return to the hospital to be checked.

I got the drugs!

Don't think that's what OP is doig.

Even at medical school, and this was in the 2010s, whenever there was an exam question about a young woman it was nearly always “anxiety” unless it was obs/gynae. As soon as you read the line “25 year old female..” you could practically answer the question without reading any more

No I do understand. I think 'females' is often used by misogynistic men online so it grates. But i

DH and I are both doctors. When our kids have health problems I get DH to deal with the GP because he’s taken more seriously than me. I once was crying at the GP earlier this year because our son was vomiting for 7 weeks and no one knew why - the GP insisted DS was fine and that I was the ill person (!!!!!!!). Ended up in hospital with bowel obstruction.

I used to see it all the time in hospital (at work) with patients too, particularly on surgical wards. Young women with abdominal pain especially were often seen as mentally unwell or drug seeking.

Just to add, I think we're on the same page here! The NHS has form for saying men can be women, however, so to me female seems fairly unambiguous. I don't want to quibble about OP's thread title, though. We all know what she means.

Elinor Cleghorn's Unwell Women is a good read on this subject.

I had a heart attack recently. Absolutely text book symptoms, the pain was so bad I thought I was going to die. The 999 call handler flatly refused to send help. It was absolutely terrifying. Eventually after quarter of an hour of DH pleading with them to send help, they grudgingly sent a first responder. That paramedic saved my life and got an ambulance to get me to hospital.
The ward manager on CCU told me that a man with my symptoms would have got an ambulance immediately. It is absolutely disgusting.

I was told I had anxiety, peri menopause and needed to start weight loss jabs, by another GP in the practice.
I had cancer
My GP was very apologetic and now takes me seriously

Well the NHS as far as I'm aware is not a veterinary service. I don't mind the shorthand description. Obviously you do, but I'm just giving another point of view.

Life is biased towards men, haven’t you noticed?

Not necessarily, my arsehole of a consultant neurologist has a private practice.

Maybe you get better treatment and bedside manners for the £250 per half hour that he charges.

It’s because we are way, way down on the list of priorities for the NHS. They can’t even be bothered to use the words women/woman in their literature, we are reduced to our body parts - if we’re lucky.

My dad went to his GP with vague symptoms of Parkinson’s disease and was immediately referred for further testing. It took my mum four years to get her far worse symptoms taken seriously and get a referral. Dad was fine, mum most definitely wasn’t. Had her treatment for Parkinson’s started earlier the disease progression would not have been as bad as it is.

I don’t bother going to my GP any more, an annual review with a nurse for my HRT is enough interaction with the misogynistic organisation that is the NHS for me.

You added 'human'. Because 'females' could be dogs or chimps. Female humans or women or anything that ascribes humanity is great. Female is a great descrptor. It's not a great noun.

I have no faith whatsoever in gp's any more.
I was told I have anxiety when I went concerned about breathlessness by a very dismissive male gp who looked well past retirement, 10 months later diagnosed with asthma.
I was told I had IBS when I knew the issue was my hormones. That theory was completely dismissed, 2 years and many gastro investigations later had a massive uterine fibroid removed, no more 'IBS'.
More recently a swollen ankle that wasn't resolving. It was a blunt force trauma and the very young GP suggested gout despite not having any of the symptoms.
It's absolutely exhausting constantly advocating for yourself with medical professionals. Our healthcare is woefully inadequate.

I get this all the time even though I am a medical professional myself.
I used to get "it's because you're fat", I lost all the weight and now it's apparently because I am neurotic.
I always challenge it every single time.

Well ok your DH’s brain is obviously not mistaken and I have only learnt about this today, so I probably have not explained it that well. It is possible through to train your brain to reduce its reaction to something.

I also have chronic pain issues. I had an appointment with Guy’s Hospital in London today and was shown some YouTube clips by a neuroscientist on exactly this issue. I would
post a link but they haven’t sent to me yet.

One of the things you can do that I was
shown is assess the tension on your body and then try to reduce it. That actually did help a little and took about 3 or 4 minutes. It was the first time I have ever done that, so I reckon with practise it will help.

Sorry, I don't agree. Why is the term 'female' dehumanising? We know we are discussing female humans. Nothing shameful about being a female human of any age.

I think if your discs are all but non existent, like my husbands, the brain isn’t mistaken about how much pain you’re in.

Actually you can think your way out of pain, or at least you can reduce its severity. I was learning about exactly this in a hospital appointment I had today. Pain is not purely the result of a physical problem in your body, it is an assessment by your brain about how much danger you are in. Sometimes your brain can tell you that you are in a very bad situation and so it gives you lots of pain to let you know but actually the brain can be mistaken.

Deeply ingrained misogyny. If you can bear it, look up how women were 'treated' for period pains/pms, menopause etc decades ago. One example was treating women with 'hysteria' by stimulus of the clitoris.

The treatments may have changed but the misogyny hasn't unfortunately.

It hasn't helped that the NHS has been practically taken over by trans ideology, ie men in dresses are more important than the women they're pretending to be.

I have spent ten years being told that every single symptom I have is due to my weight. I’m fed up

My GP is amazing (a woman) and in our area, it turns out there's a menopause clinic you can be referred to, which she did. And I have been there three times now.

The entire experience has been AMAZING. Listening to me. Talking to me as an adult who knows what I am feeling. In fact, at my second appointment when I filled in the questionaire, I felt that things were a lot better and her response was, "no, we need to keep working on this because I'd like to see all your responses in the "good" column"

And it made mre realise how often as women we are dismissed or patronised so that being treated like a competent adult is noteworthy.

Virtually every menopause symptom on the list including vaginal atrophy. That they saw!!

it was my mental health… apparently

im so sorry op and everyone else on this thread.

It probably is disproportionately women but it definitely happens to men too. DH has had horrific back pain for years and they have offered him CBT for it. Like you can think your way out of pain 🙄
I agree with others though saying get private healthcare. I’ve recently had to use it because my GP put all my symptoms down to anxiety even though I know full well it’s not. I was taken much more seriously by private doctors.