Medical misogyny condemns half the population to poor treatment

It’s the bias that affects half of Australia, yet so little is known about the true scope and impact of medical misogyny.

The Herald hopes to help change that with a new series by reporters Aisha Dow, Wendy Tuohy, Emily Kaine and Kate Aubusson that explores a phenomenon rooted in a long history of failures to study and understand female bodies. We have been inundated with hundreds of harrowing stories from readers who have experienced such bias during treatment.

Nikki Purtill says her concerns were dismissed.Credit: Simon Schluter

Women have long reported that their pain has been dismissed or misdiagnosed, while some doctors say the Medicare system gives them insufficient time and funding to manage complex women’s healthcare issues.

The consequences can be fatal. The first instalment in the Herald’s medical misogyny series reveals women admitted to hospitals with serious heart attacks were half as likely to receive necessary tests and treatments and died at twice the rate of men six months after discharge, according to a 2018 study by the University of Sydney.

Historically, women have been discouraged from participating in clinical trials and are more likely to be misdiagnosed or diagnosed late for various health issues. It takes an average of six to eight years for women to get a diagnosis for endometriosis, according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare.

A recent survey of 3000 Australian women, caregivers and experts found two-thirds had experienced gender bias in the healthcare system.

In April, a study by four health academics from James Cook University found there may be significant consequences for women’s health due to there being no fixed or explicit requirement to include women’s health in Australian medical school curricula, and because textbooks do not account for sex and gender differences.

Gender bias in research funding is evident, according to Professor Sue Matthews, a member of the federal government’s National Women’s Health Advisory Council. “Five times more funding goes into research into male erectile dysfunction – which affects 19 per cent of men – than it does into premenstrual syndrome, which affects 90 per cent of women,” Matthews says.

It is clear our nation and its health systems have a long way to go in addressing this historic wrong. Lives depend on it. The problem exists both in face-to-face treatment but also in the way governments allocate funding and resources.

Fortunately, the issue is being spearheaded by a politician who has a genuine interest sparked by a mix of the personal and professional. Assistant Health Minister Ged Kearney told the Herald how her cousin, Resa, presented to an emergency department in 2022 with numbness and painful tingling from the waist down, only to be sent home with Panadol.

Resa, 60, died alone in her apartment that night from a ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, and Kearney has spent many hours since wondering whether her cousin would have been treated had she been a man.

It is a chilling thought for millions of Australian women who deserve much better from our governments and our healthcare system.

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