When we feel sick, we go to the doctor and trust them to help us feel better.
Doctors are trained to examine patients, treat symptoms, and prescribe the best course of action.
That is their job. And for men, when they visit, this is exactly what happens – they visit a doctor, explain their symptoms, and are treated with care. But for women, it’s a completely different story.
Imagine going to your doctor and not be taken seriously, all because you are a woman.
Sound far-fetched?
It’s not.
As outrageous as it sounds, a new study was done which revealed men are taken more seriously at the doctor’s office than women.
Which means a woman could have a serious medical issue, do the right thing by seeking treatment, but refused to be taken seriously.
And the consequences could be deadly.
But how could this be happening in 2017?
How is possible a woman, who knows her own body, would be ignored by her doctor? And why?
Scary Mommy reported:
“Andra Watkins, New York Times-bestselling author and speaker, has a similar story to Hall Gailey’s. Watkins told Scary Mommy that she has toxoplasmosis gondii, which the CDC describes as a relatively common parasitic disease that affects as many as 60 million Americans (sidenote: this piece of data is horrifying, I know, and I apologize for your impending nightmares).
Watkins ended up with an extreme case, with the parasite attacking her retina. And yet, even after she suffered through four different attacks over the course of three years (which permanently destroyed over 25% of the vision in one of her eyes), her doctors did not take her symptoms seriously.
In fact, she was dismissed as an overreacting, hysterical woman.
“Every time I went to my eye doctor, he treated my growing alarm like hysteria,” Watkins shared. “
He told me my brain would adjust and dismissed my request for more aggressive treatment as ridiculous. By the time I found an expert using Dr. Google, I was in the midst of my worst attack.
Part of the reason that doctors brush off women’s symptoms may be because they believe that women have a superior ability to deal with pain.”
Watkins was called a “hysterical woman”, as she was suffering intense pain.
It’s unconscionable to think a woman could be dismissed or ignored by her doctor, and labeled as just another “emotional woman.”
But this goes beyond typical sexism and discrimination of women.
The ability for doctor’s to not take women seriously could cost them their lives.
And the Watkins story wasn’t just an example of a bad doctor.
This happens time and time again, all across the country.
Women’s Health reported:
“In typical emergency-room situations, patients are to be immediately assessed and treated according to the urgency of their condition. Most hospitals use the Emergency Severity Index, a five-level system that categorizes patients on a scale from “resuscitate” (treat immediately) to “non-urgent” (treat within two to 24 hours).
That being said, there are acute differences in the wait time for men and women in emergency situations.
Nationwide, men wait an average of 49 minutes before receiving an analgesic for acute abdominal pain. Women wait an average of 65 minutes for the same thing.”
Because women are often ignored, they are often turning to more holistic doctors and integrative medicine.
Knowing they can’t trust doctors, many women do their own research, and have turned to other types of natural healing methods, shying away from conventional medicine.
It’s a sad day in America, when a woman can’t be taken seriously by her doctor, simply for being female.
Have you ever been discriminated against by a doctor simply for being a woman?
What would you do if a doctor refused to take you seriously?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.
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