Women are misdiagnosed more often and treated differently

[Gingernaut]

If you search my username, you'll see a thread about ADHD.

There are obvious sex linked illnesses that can only affect one or the other sex - ovarian or prostate cancer for example.

However, there are other conditions and illnesses that affect both male and female patients, that are misdiagnosed or mistreated if the patients are female.

Women suffering heart attacks are less likely to be recognised as such, but are more likely to survive if their doctor's a woman.

www.theguardian.com/society/2018/aug/06/women-more-likely-to-survive-heart-attack-if-treated-by-female-doctor-study

My recently diagnosed condition, ADHD-PI (or ADD, to give it it's old name), has often been misdiagnosed in girls and women, due to our different presentation.

www.additudemag.com/gender-differences-in-adhd-women-vs-men/?utm_source=eletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=adult_august_2018&utm_content=082118

Everything from diagnosis, treatment and even treatment trials all seem to discriminate against women.

www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/opinion/comment/sex-bias-in-drug-research-a-call-for-change/20200727.article?firstPass=false

And why is the medical profession only starting to work out how to treat women now?

I'll be back this evening. Night shift beckons....

Now females are also expected to know anatomy in cancer awareness campaigns along with the leaning disabled and those with EAFL.

Funding for research and services previously given to females is now becoming unisex.

Not only are there obvious sex differences, socialisation and rigid gender roles also affect how doctors and other medical professions view women test subjects or patients, but also how women ask for help, their expectations and how they cope with illness.

And why is the medical profession only starting to work out how to treat women now?

Million dollar question!! Why do men always favour, fund and fortify other men, no matter what they do or say, whilst wilfully ignoring the majority human class?

Women don't exist as peers for men, only as objects - I reckon most men have a profound disability that causes them to only see other men and hence should be considered unfit for any sort of leadership role in our societies

You say that but statistically women have preferred male bosses for years and tend to vote more strongly than men in regard to this preference. It's an odd one!

Women don't exist as peers for men, only as objects - I reckon most men have a profound disability that causes them to only see other men and hence should be considered unfit for any sort of leadership role in our societies

Obedience training in action and worse - divide and conquer tactics by proxy

I also wonder whether the tendency of us blokes to leave things until they have become serious impacts upon ease/accuracy of diagnosis?

I think I have read that men go to the Dr later with some stuff or barely at all if they are my dad... However, women get significantly poorer treatment with diagnosis, pain relief, thought of as hysterical etc... Women's problems is used to dismiss many conditions....

Autism is another condition not recognised well in women...

Many years ago my mother pointed out that she did not know one man who had been told that his illness was psychological, but umpteen of her female friends had been told this.

In fact my MIL had to put up with three years of going to a psychologist and having her family treat her as a neurotic until she was eventually diagnosed with a heart condition.

Two years of being dismissed by an otherwise quite good doctor when I complained about a persistent cough. Time from finally sending me to the specialist who sent me to the endocrinologist who sent me for the biopsy to cancer surgery was less than two weeks.

It's just more evidence women's lives don't matter.

by whose judgement? Things have been fucking diabolical for women for thousands of years - but hey the menz is fine/s

Um, I was talking about medical conditions. It's a well accepted fact that us blokes tend to ignore things until they get bad.

one man who had been told that his illness was psychological, but umpteen of her female friends had been told this.

Oddly enough, a chap I knew with a truly horrendous family history of severe mental health pathology, and a history of what would be recognised as severe anxiety etc. if it had been a woman. Even his dentist used to give him emergency prescriptions of diazepam because of his behaviour.

But no - he was endlessly on 24hour Holter monitors for his raised pulse rate etc. And he had decades of intrusive cardiac and other assessments. Because it had to be cardiac problems not generalised anxiety or panic attacks in a man. None of this did him any favours (nor his personal life).

The other way around, the number of women whose cardiac incidents go unnoticed because, "It's indigestion/anxiety/nerves" = legion.

I have ADHD and it was missed during my childhood despite me having hyperactive ADHD. Instead I was diagnosed as anxiety and depression and told I just didn’t try hard enough and was disruptive.

It has had a huge effect on my life and I feel I was let down by professionals regarding this. My anxiety that I suffer from today is worse because my confidence was destroyed by years of being told I was naughty, could try harder and wasn’t good enough.

AllDayBreakfast

Yes, it's a factor. How men and women engage differently with the health services has been studied for some time, with the general aim of his to encourage men to seek action earlier. Men's symptoms may well be more pronounced and easy to diagnose.

GPs do tend to work on the basis that 'common things are common' aka 'if you hear hoofbeats think horses not zebras' (hence coining of 'zebra conditions')

Misdiagnosis, or late diagnosis, because someone does not fit the typical presenting demographic is not, and never has been, inky about sex of patient. Age is a considerably bigger factor, especially if you start adding in whether it is 'economic' to treat.

Health inequalities are also marked by the area in which you live - which is in itself a proxy for things like education level, how articulate you are when engaging with HCPs, confidence in asking for second opinions, and whether you know what symptoms are concerning anyhow.

Even the bigger barriers still need considerably more attention.

GPs do tend to work on the basis that 'common things are common' aka 'if you hear hoofbeats think horses not zebras' (hence coining of 'zebra conditions')

The issue is though that the "horse" conditions that are taught are the male presentation of conditions - hence heart attacks, autism, and many other conditions that women have, being misdiagnosed despite having incredibly textbook symptoms FOR WOMEN.

The system as it is treats the male as default, and any female variations as the "zebra condition", it also trains doctors that women are more likely to be hysterical and exaggerate pain when in fact women are far more likely than men to be undertreated for pain.

The reason we have an awful cancer survival rate in the UK compared to the rest of Europe is not because men don't seek help for symptoms until they are severe (which is a pattern that occurs at similar rates across Europe) but because women are repeatedly dismissed by doctors who ignore their symptoms.

The psychiatrist who diagnosed me with ptsd told me that "women like me get better on their own". I can't imagine him ever saying that to a man.

Try having a DD with ASD. Her PreK 3 teacher wanted her assessed. The school said she was fine because she wasn't academically failing. It took until she was in 1st grade to get a diagnosis. Even now she is marginalized. She is the only girl in her class of 8. Her academic needs are not being met because they had her down as failing academically. We had her tested for a functional assessment and she is in the 97.5th percentile for ability in verbal areas. In math she is a little bit below average because she doesn't understand WTF is going on. Had her tested again last month for maths where they taught her differently and then tested her on the taught materials after an hour playing and she scored on the 95th percentile for ability.

DS has a diagnosis of ASD. He is going into kindergarten reading fluently etc. Of course funding and support is opened up for him. The sexism of this condition is shocking. We are failing a whole generation of girls by the shoddy identification and diagnosis of girls with ASD.

The psychiatrist who diagnosed me with ptsd told me that "women like me get better on their own". I can't imagine him ever saying that to a man.

What an awful man and so uninformed.....yes I can't imagine he'd use such a dismissive tone and indifferent attitude with a guy - what a prick.

Womanformally...
You comments are vile.

I notice that all the other posters seem to be OK with these comments.

Do the other posters really agree with what she says about your fathers, husbands and sons?

Waiting times too. DH had a problem with his reproductive bits - diagnosis, surgery, recovery, all within 12 weeks. For a (similar) problem I am on a waiting list which is 12 weeks just to first appointment. Treatment, if any, will be 2 years away. Clearly my lady bits and his man bits are considered different priorities.

This thread is beyond delusional

Delusional?

I've been on antidepressants since 2000.

Now I'm on Ritalin, I'm being weaned off them with no ill effects.

I've been misdiagnosed and mistreated for nearly 20 years.