Chair Sarah Owen said "misogyny in medicine" was "leaving women in pain and their conditions undiagnosed" - and called for more investment in and support for women's reproductive health conditions.
What does surprise me is the focus on reproductive health; most of us have heard the litany, 'It's your age, it's not your thyroid, lose some weight, have some antidepressants...' Pfft. Would any of these trite put-downs be said to a man?
Be interesting to hear what that bastion of male superiority, the BMA, have to say about "misogyny in medicine".
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Rapunzel
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Not surprised in the slightest, we see it ourselves (I'm a carer for an elderly female relative, so am often present and have to advocate/fight for proper treatment/behaviour for her) and we see it reported all of the time. However, please don't discount how poorly many doctors treat men as well - men also are on the receiving end of the "health anxiety" / mental health claims of GPs when the GPs cannot diagnose something and their ego kicks in (I told a youngish man this just yesterday in another forum after he was on the receiving end of this), yes we get offered antidepressants, beta blockers etc., yes we have incompetent endo's withdraw our levothyroxine without justification (and then have to get a new referral elsewhere to get it back again). Personally, I've been on the receiving end of all of those and every time I have been subsequently proven to be correct and the doctor wrong. Last year I had a long list of health issues that the GP failed to link together. Had I not got a private blood panel done and then fought for treatment, I strongly believe that I wouldn't be here today. So, yes, most of us are aware of how poorly many medical personnel treat women, but please don't assume men don't get much of the same behaviour from doctors. Women get it worse, but men still get it.
Unsurpised by this. I've had 'reproductive health' issues since my teens and everyone seems completely unbothered/unconcerned the impact this has on my health...they only look at things from 'having a baby' point of you. So they're happy to leave me with never having had a period, subclinical hypo- so a delightful combo of wonky female hormones and wonky thyroid.....but all good according to doctors, unless I want to have child!
I think it's because the under/mis-functioning female reproductive system is far too complex for the ordinary GP (man or women) to understand and problems are so common they become viewed as inconsequential.
I suffered enormously with constant pelvic pain and menorrhagia all through my days of having periods, sometimes unable to leave the house for several days. It hugely impacted my life and that of my children, but doctors always viewed me as if I was making it up.
radd I tend to suspect that is more often the reason rather than outright misogyny (although that is there too sometimes). Doctors treat men badly too, but women's insides are more complicated, so GPs, endocrinologists, etc are going to hit the limit on their knowledge more often with women than men, and that's when they tend to fall back onto health anxiety, depression etc instead of pursuing a proper diagnosis. They do it with men, they do it with women, but they do it with women more often.
No surprise here at all. I know 4 woman who had hysterectomies last year, each of them paid privately as they were so debilitated by their symptoms which they had suffered for years and had an estimated 12 months before they might get surgery. One in her 40's ended up on a catheter and nearly 12 months after surgery is still struggling with significant bladder issues because of the delay in treatment. Two were off work because of their symptoms but had run out of sick pay. None of these women or families are wealthy enough that they could fund treatment without thinking about it. One had to borrow money from a family member.
Whilst I have no doubt that misogyny exists in Medicine, I want you to be aware that Men don't get any special treatment when it comes to Thyroid issues. I was berated and felt humiliated by two female GPs at our practice, which meant I didn't return until it reached the point where my elderly mum had to assist me.
When I questioned whether my TSH was okay at 5.5, I was asked "are you a 60 year old female?? You don't look like it, it's fine."
So in answer to your question, yes those types of things are also said to men.
My general perception seems to be that GPs (both male and female) are generally useless with complex matters, especially when it comes to reproduction/endocrine systems. I'm "guessing" that Male GPs of a certain age are more likely to cover up their lack of knowledge by being rude, but I have no evidence to back that up.
Coincidentally, Vicky Pattison was interviewed on Good Morning Britain this morning, on 'medical misogyny' and struggling to get a diagnosis for PMDD. But when pressed, she had to admit that female doctors had been equally bad, she just encountered fewer of them.
I dont think female doctors are immune from being misoynistic, strange as that sounds. They are often trained by men, read text books written by men and perhaps feel they have to compete with their male peers by being macho and aggressive.
A soft, cuddly doctor wont get very far if they want to make a name for themselves. I think the whole way we train doctors needs to start from scratch. Its pretty brutal and leaves precious little room for empathy imo. And too many suffer from excessive workloads and compassion fatigue.
yes , long before i even knew what a thyroid was for , a mate in his 20's got diagnosed autoimmune hypo,.... i remember being shocked at the attitudes/ comments he'd had from doctors and i felt very sorry for him .. he too was left feeling alone, abandoned , humiliated , , and it continued after he was diagnosed ,and it didn't help that most people think of it as a woman's disease, support groups are mainly older women etc ...... that just made it worse ,,,i seem to remember he then left the country .
I don't think it needs to be a competition about which sex is treated more poorly! Its is a reality that womens services are underfunded generally and that little research has been carried out. The important subjects haven't even been mandatory, most GP's of either sex have little understanding of what we still call sex hormones despite the increasing knowledge of how important they are to general functions.
I suspect the issue with thyroid is that it is more often a female issue so you chaps get to see what woman deal with at every stage of our lives...
I don't think it needs to be a competition about which sex is treated more poorly!
Hey muddy. I can only agree to an extent. This is a competition where there are no prizes - those who can, get well. Those you can't can go to hell. 10 times more women than men have a thyroid condition. There is still not an efficacious treatment for at least 20% of us (men and women, I assume...) One of the treatments (desiccated thyroid extract ) which we could use is slowly being proscribed, although whilst I've been diagnosed,( ~15 years,) this has gone from a choice of ~ a dozen to 2 that I'm aware of ( Thyroid S and Armour). It doesn't seem enough that synthroid/levo doesn't work for us all; medical oversight seems hell bent on reducing our choices so that we have to take T4 or freaking die/wind up seriously ill/in a wheelchair. I would have had those three 'options' if T4 was all I could take. What is the purpose of that? Desiccated thyroid extract was an efficacious treatment way before the wonder/buzzcocks drug, synthetic T4.
I also appreciate that we are dealing with medics, some of whom were trained to prescribe 'mothers' little helpers' and 'forever young' HRT. In other words, subjugate women; make them compliant, juicy and quiet. New drugs (not HRT, obvs.) continue to be trialled, mostly on men, with no concern for our differing anatomy. Source: Caroline Criado-Perez OBE in her excellent book 'Invisible Women'. For example, the bodily effects of a shortly forthcoming heart attack differ significantly between the sexes.
Until a shift maybe 40 years ago (too late for my Ma, bless her) breast cancer was madly misunderstood; no reconstructions then. Ma had her lungs seriously burned with the radiotherapy she received. A mastectomy was brutal and often little care in dealing with the new now for these poor women.
In the US, many suffered unnecessary hysterectomies.
Yet there are several medications for erectile dysfunction. But only one for thyroidies, eh?
Tired tonight but I hope you catch my drift and thanks for playing. 😘
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Thyroid illness anyone? Maybe not.
Disappointed but not surprised !
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