Women half as likely to be given drug for fatal bleeds (Times report 19/05/22)

[BettyFilous]

Depressing read. Shocking, but not surprising.

Women are half as likely to receive a drug that stops them bleeding to death after accidents as men are due to NHS “sex discrimination”, a study indicated.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/40789da4-d6cc-11ec-8585-951ab3afb4d2?shareToken=5743b6e44091870815b07a44d3997f52

(MNHQ - do not move to Feminism Chat. The article refers frequently to sex differences in treatment.)

Not surprised these days. Shocking

This is outrageous.

The comments btl are also awful - can be summarised as 'I don't believe this is true'.

Those statistics are pretty bad. Would really like to know more on reasons why though so it can be addressed. I know a few doctors including a and e ones and I just can't see them saying "oh it's a women let them die". Is it about women being trained from birth to not make a fuss and the NHS being so stretched that you often have to go tell people when you need medicine? But not sure that works in this case as major bleed and trauma patients may not be conscious.

It's pure sexism. The results are really close to the increased death and serious harm rates for women who are operated on by men (no corresponding rates when women operate on men).
We really shouldn't be surprised about any of this especially when medical journals think its OK to call women "bodies with vaginas " when discussing the engrained misogyny in medicine

That's very stark, and the 'why' needs thoroughly investigating.

That's extremely concerning. I agree the investigation needs to be very thorough, it suggests widespread cultural issues in medicine.

Looks like this is in feminism chat…

it’s really depressing. Medicine is structurally sexist is so many ways.

Doubt there is any one reason apart but could include:

women have higher pain thresholds
men use medical services less so could be more easily perceived as emergency cases
women fainting/ collapsing may be perceived as less unusual
women have different pattern of injuries after eg car crashes - as reported yesterday
"some" bleeding acceptable for women, none for men
men likely to be in this situation in acute care, women also in childbirth where deterioration can be dismissed

Sadly plausible

I was pleased to see this in the Guardian too. Also using clear language.
www.theguardian.com/society/2022/may/18/injured-women-discrimination-life-saving-drugs-researchers

Relevant discussion - about women more likely to be trapped in cars after road accidents - on World at One yesterday (about 35 min in) with Caroline Criado Perez and (possibly) one of the authors of the study, which examined sex-based differences in treatment in A&E.

www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0017cgn

Also this

www.theguardian.com/world/2022/may/17/women-almost-twice-likely-trapped-crashed-vehicle-study

Read recently too that women shouldn't be expected to have lower blood pressure than men after menopause but that this assumption is still made.

Women need to campaign to make other women aware of this. Female HCPs; women who are injured but conscious; women who are unharmed and can advocate for a loved one (e.g. both in the same crash). Attaining equality by getting men to treat us equally is probably (?) more difficult than making as many women as possible aware.

Older women particularly affected as Guardian notes

Also, it is basically the same drug (just given differently) as is used to reduce menstrual bleeding! So again, far more women ought to be made aware of TXA than are.

Yes agreed. I wouldn't have known to ask for such a thing, on my own behalf or anybody else's.

So we need to learn and use the the name. Tranexamic acid (TXA). Can reduce likelihood of fatal bleed by 30%. But men are twice as likely to get it. Let's remember that.

Why is it in Feminist Chat @MNHQ ? This is important awareness raising that ALL women need to know about this. Please put it back to a high traffic area.

It seems to be an inexpensive drug with no major side effects, so it’s not the case that doctors are making some finely tuned calculation about administering it and getting that calculation wrong for women.

It must be just pure medical misogyny and dismissing women’s pain. Again.

It's in Sex and Gender - it's just confusing the way they put the link to Feminist Chat at the top there.

It's not, it's in Feminism Sex and Gender. I think that's where the OP wanted it, to discuss this from a feminist perspective? But I don't disagree that it's something all women should be aware of - maybe start another thread in AIBU or chat as well?

Ah right. Sorry. Yes.

that’s incredibly confusing MN. Really bad UX design.

Sylfia

So we need to learn and use the the name. Tranexamic acid (TXA). Can reduce likelihood of fatal bleed by 30%. But men are twice as likely to get it. Let's remember that.

This.

I wonder if the kind of accident / speed of treatment makes a difference too? Have vision of paramedics speeding to scene of car crash with super drugs and high drama vs old woman lying on floor for hours after fall. (Not a full explanation for that discrepancy though).

I think it's worth reading the paper itself www.bjanaesthesia.org/article/S0007-0912(22)00184-2/fulltext

One possible reason may be the causes of trauma are different in women (more falls) than men (road traffic accidents) and they may not be recognised as needing txa.