This story, more or less synthesized, was directly lived by journalist Joe Fassler, who indignantly published it in The Atlantic. And I share it with you because I too had the experience of seeing in the eyes of some doctors the look that minimizes the symptoms and makes you feel halfway between hysterical and hypochondriac. And I’m not the only one. Many women were treated the same way.
Women are more likely to suffer from diseases that cause pain, but receive a more conservative treatment
A study by researchers at the University of Maryland revealed an alarming fact: in the United States men wait an average of 49 minutes to receive an analgesic for acute abdominal pain. Women are waiting an average of 65 minutes to receive the same treatment for the same reason, because often their pain is classified as “emotional”, “psychogenic” or even “unreal”.
Another study conducted at the University of Pennsylvania found that women are between 13% and 25% less likely to receive treatment with opiates to relieve pain, while men are prescribed this treatment more quickly and frequently.
However, it is curious that researchers of the University of Florida found that women are at greater risk of developing diseases that cause intense pain. Women are twice as likely to suffer from multiple sclerosis, two to three times more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis, and four times more likely to suffer from chronic fatigue syndrome than men. Moreover, the autoimmune disease, which often includes debilitating pain, affects women three times more than men.
Yet, even so many doctors and nurses minimize their pain, apparently we must continue to bring upon us the historical weight of hysteria. In fact, female hysteria was a common diagnosis until the mid-nineteenth century, at that time it was estimated that one in four women suffered from hysteria.
This diagnosis was applied to a wide range of symptoms, insomnia, fainting, fluid retention, irritability, headaches and muscle spasms. And the funny thing is that, at that time, the only treatment was the stimulation of the female genitalia. Obviously, at the base there was the idea that women were exaggerating the pain or even invented it.
The medical community is aware of this “gender curse”, but continues thinking that women are too sensitive
The worst thing is that this “gender curse” is a well known phenomenon in the medical community. In fact, exists something known as “Yentl Syndrome”, whereby the usually heart attacks occur differently in men than women, which is why many doctors focus on classic signs of men and many women are not diagnosed in time, with the corresponding deadly consequences that this entails.
Statistics indicate that women who suffer from heart disease often receive less aggressive treatment than men, even if their illness is usually at an advanced stage. Women are half as likely to undergo cardiac catheterization and are less likely to see themselves recommended a bypass surgery or a procedure to unblock clogged arteries.
What’s more, it was also found that women are more likely to receive a diagnosis of conditions such as fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, of which, however, have not yet been adequately identified the causes and there is no definitive diagnostic test. This means that women are more likely to receive a diagnosis of disorders that have a large psychological component.
Obviously, in a society that is moving towards gender equality, these stereotypes are inconceivable. And worst of all is that these preconceptions by which women would be “sensible” and “whiner” in medical terms can mean the difference between life and death, or at least, significantly affecting the quality of a person’s life.
Unfortunately, according to Leslie Jamison, an American essayist who has thoroughly studied this phenomenon and has shaped his “Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain”, “women receive an initial treatment less aggressive than men, until they prove that their pain is important”.
Obviously, not all health care workers have these stereotypes. But if you’re one of them, you’d do well to make a conscience exam.
