To ask why women's healthcare is so bad

[SerenePeach]

On the news yesterday was a feature on womens healthcare. I have endometriosis and lived in pain for 15 years before getting a diagnosis and treatment. Women were telling of how they lost internal organs to endometriosis due to their care being so delayed. This happened to me too.

A gynaecologist was interviewed saying she felt so helpless with over 750,000 women on the waiting list. She said whenever there are cut backs gynaecology is always the worst impacted. Why?

I don't believe it's as simple as men don't care about women and men are in charge. So why is this happening? Really? Can anyone shed any light? Gynae illnesses cost the economy 11 billion a year in lost work through sickness so money alone should motivate the powers that be to improve women's health care, so why isn't it happening?

I have endo.

Mostly it isn't a priority because:

You won't die of it anytime soon

It won't leave you (mostly) so severely disabled you need a care home or state support (compare to heart attack or stroke)

It takes an operation to diagnose it (very expensive)

There's fuck all they can do about it anyway other than put you on hormonal contraception that stops periods (implant, pill) so frankly they might as well just do that.

I've had two operations to cauterise endo (private, it was made clear I wouldn't even be added to the nhs waiting list as I was too young) and honestly stopping having periods was the best solution.

Because it doesn't impact on men and the systems were set up and designed by men.

"I don't believe it's as simple as men don't care about women and men are in charge."

You have the answer and don't believe it so we can't help you.

The very simple answer is patriarchy.

But surely it can't possibly be that simple? It has to be deeper than that.

11 billion lost from the economy affects men. Infertility as a result of untreated gynae issues affects the men the women are married to and unable to become fathers. Men see their wives, mothers, sisters and daughters suffer these illnesses. So men are affected indirectly at least they can't just completely ignore it.

Let's not ignore it it it impacts on men then, it's crossed a line then.

But surely it can't possibly be that simple? It has to be deeper than that.

yep

the human skeleton used for medical practice and learning , its a male skeleton, a female is literally built differently, hips etc are not the same. If the students only use the male version....

when they tested thyroid function, which is 95% a female affliction - they tested 20 male healthy students

medicine is designed around men, not woman not female illnesses or afflictions

Are you forgetting that medicine has been based on the male body until only very recently?

They've only just decided to use both male and female mice in medical research...

I have lipoedema, which is also a female-only condition. The knowledge / understanding about it within the NHS is shocking given how many women are predicted to be affected by it (1 in 10, according to a study in Germany). My GP had never heard of it, and was really shitty with me about it, given she is also a woman I felt very shocked and let down. She wouldn’t even prescribe compression for it (one of the very first, basic and cheap preventative measures to stop it worsening).

I ended up paying privately to have surgery in Spain to correct it. My legs had changed shape so much since pregnancy, I was walking with a funny gait, back and knees were hurting. All this has gone now. I’ve likely saved the NHS thousands of pounds in knee, hip and back operations, and physio.

https://warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/knowledgecentre/health/patient-care/women_in_medicine/#:~:text=“Historically%2C%20much%20of%20the%20research,translate%20to%20work%20in%20humans.

Everything affects men indirectly. Patriarchy and inequality are damaging to men - not as damaging as they are to women, though.

We live in a capitalist patriarchy so the problems will be exacerbated by capitalism as well as the history of medical care and healthcare systems - but I'm sure if you researched it you would find that patriarchy is basically your answer.

I do vaguely remember some discussion about this with the feminist who taught my antenatal classes! The history of medicalised childbirth, that is... and I'm sure gynaecology in general would be even more interesting from a sociological and feminist perspective.

I try not to think about it too much though as it just gives me the rage.

That's awful. I'm glad you're feeling better.

I had IVF in Spain and was blown away by how much better their knowledge/treatment of endo was than in the UK. I have also found that the understanding in the NHS is extremely lacking.

Women are less valuable than men

Simple

I had both my kids in Canada (cesareans) and the maternal care was great. Totally agreed with my decision for sections (both kids breech)

Womens health care is shit cos men are the ones at the top making decisions

Two words. The patriarchy.

Unless the illness causes a woman's vagina to seal shut, men really aren't interested. It's a woman's role to suffer and endure.

I do wonder if it's a UK problem mainly, the care in Spain was night and day to the care here and I know maternal outcomes are better in most other European countries.

I lived in Spain, the gynae service (public health) is so much better than in the UK. Women have regular smear tests and gynaecology check ups from a young age. I am returning to Spain in the next few years and looking forward to the generally much better healthcare. I don’t know percentages but I think more women work in the field of medicine there which helps.

As for those articles it is scary to think how much suffering is going on and worse, that women are being told their symptoms are psychological, without proper investigation.

They can ignore it though. It's also not just about not caring about women. Imo it's also partly an ingrained and maybe subconscious (and deeply sexist) belief that women are often 'making a fuss about nothing' or exaggerating their pain. Doctors routinely don't take women's reporting of their symptoms seriously.

And even then, I don't think vaginismus would be top of the list in many medical textbooks!

Read 'Invisible Women' - research into women's health issues is way behind men's issues because medics worried women's hormonal changes made it 'too hard' to use us as subject. And the fact that we're in a patriarchy and women's problems are essentially considered unimportant and that we just have to soldier on.

Because men.

a relative of mine has vulvodynia. She mentioned to the nurse doing her smear. She didn’t have a clue what it was. This is a woman who for a large part of her job involves sticking speculums up vaginas and had no idea what vulvodynia is, which might affect her ability to do her job effectively.

That's appalling!

Because healthcare is now all point of need and nothing is joined up. Hormones, mental health, physical symptoms... there isn't enough time or resources to look after women in a way that is remotely preventative let alone how to unpick a medical or mental health crisis. The whole thing is depressing. I had a wonderful GP i saw once. She spoke to me for an hour and followed up on me. The only one that did. Since then she is on leave for health reasons. I couldn't say why obvs but I can imagine it is a job where you feel completely powerless when there is no way to truly support people when the system isn't there.

@FluffyGreen I had this. From twenties until after I had children. It's not a disease of its own origin. It's hormonal. It has taken me 28 years to understand this. I thought I was broken. I wasn't.