According to the University of Missouri's School of Medicine, "Healthcare access is the ability to obtain healthcare services such as prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management of diseases, illness, disorders, and other health-impacting conditions."
Introduction
Men and women are not made the same, both physically and mentally speaking. For years, most medical practice has been done towards and based off of men. This being said, women's health care has only vaguely been researched, despite making up half of the world's population. Even though women are more likely to be caregivers than men, they continue to be gaslit and not taken seriously when it comes to their own healthcare due to insufficient research done in medical sciences.
Why is this an issue?
With minimal research being done on women-based issues, we are unable to grasp a full understanding of the women individually. There is no reason women should be pushed aside, even in a male-dominated country. Oftentimes, women are told their issues are smaller than they actually are. In many women's experiences, any abdominal pain is written off as cramps and is not further looked into unless the patient advocates for themselves. Today, more women than ever before refuse to be medically evaluated because of the fear of being told there's nothing wrong with them and that everything they experience is all in their heads.
Facts
- Women are dying at a younger age than they were in the past.
- More women are dying from pregnancy and childbirth complications today than before.
- Maternal mortality has spiked ever since changes to reproductive health care services, such as clinics offering birth control and abortions closing.
- Women are prescribed less pain medication than men.
- Women with chronic pain suffer longer than men.
- The average woman will wait 65 minutes when experiencing abdominal pain while the average man will only wait 49 minutes.
An Individual Story
Katy Seppi realized something was wrong when she first got her period. She noticed her periods were extremely heavy and painful, and she often missed school. She had been taken to the ER many times for this debilitation pain, only to be pushed off to the side and told it was only normal ovulation pain. Over the next 20 years of her life, she had seen tons of doctors about her menstrual cycle pain, only to be told the same thing each time. A few doctors even assumed that she had been sexually assaulted at a young age and had concluded that was the problem with her daily pains. It was only after she started fertility treatments at age 34 that she was finally diagnosed with endometriosis -- a disorder that causes the inside uterine tissue to grow on the outside of the uterus. "By the time I was diagnosed, my illness had gotten so bad that my ovary adhered to my uterus, both ovaries were full of blood-filled cysts, I was having back and hip issues and other pain daily." Katy Seppi says. Katy Seppi's experience is shared by thousands of women who have gone through something almost identical to Seppi's. (Gina Shaw June 08, 2018).
Why is this happening?
It is suspected that many doctors and healthcare professionals tend to be biased when it comes to women's healthcare. Many assume that these women are being dramatic due to hormonal issues or are simply attention-seeking. In the medical sciences program, there is insufficient funding for women's health alone. "Nearly three-quarters of cases where a disease primarily affects one gender, the so-called “men's diseases” are overfunded, while the “women's diseases” are dramatically underfunded" (Chloe E. Bird February 11, 2022). For example, in the United States, cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of women, however, when testing new treatments in clinical trials, only one-third of the sample population is female.
Community's Response
Two women have experienced not being taken seriously when it comes to their health based on the fact that they are women.
Kellie Fowler is a 48-year-old single mother who had only recently found out she had endometriosis even though she has been having her menstrual cycle since age 12.
"I always knew my periods were too heavy and painful, but every time I would go to the doctor to try and get some help the most I would get is painkillers prescribed. I only found out I had this condition after doing a biopsy because they thought I had ovarian cancer (thankfully I do not) not because they thought I had endometriosis." Fowler says.
"Growing up I was overweight and had inconsistent periods and the doctors never thought my weight gain was hormonal. They always just told me to eat healthier, but no matter what I put into my body, I only seemed to gain weight and suffer horrible body image issues. Even when I was able to lose some weight by constricting myself, my stomach was still very enlarged. I was brushed aside when I brought up these issues to my doctors. I was finally listened to at age 30 and was diagnosed with PCOS. From there, everything made much more sense. It still shouldn't have taken as long as it did as my body is still recovering from all the unhelpful medication I was put on." Beador states.
Why should I even care?
About 50% of the population makes up of women, they are our mothers, sisters, daughters, teachers, lawyers, doctors, providers, and so much more.
How should we move forward?
As for healthcare professionals, they should be more aware of the patients they have coming in, most individuals would not show up to urgent care or the ER for no apparent reason. As for the patients and us as a community, we should advocate for our health. Most of us are paying hundreds or thousands of dollars in taxes and in insurance, health care is a necessity of the people, and we are the people. Stand up for yourself and for your loved ones that are unable to speak for themselves, and get the help and care you deserve.
Why I chose this problem
Being a woman myself, I have experienced not being taken seriously. I was shunned away when I screamed to the doctors that I was in pain only to be told it was because I'm ovulating or other reasons. My endometriosis luckily only went undiagnosed for six years, which is lucky compared to so many other women. For six years to be considered short means there is a real problem in women's healthcare and it needs to be fixed now.
Works Cited:
MU School of Medicine. (2019, March 22) Health Care Access. Retrieved from https://medicine.missouri.edu/centers-institutes-labs/health-ethics/faq/health-care-access
Bird, C. E. (2022, February 11). Underfunding of research on women's health issues is the biggest missed opportunity in health care. RAND Corporation. Retrieved from https://www.rand.org/blog/2022/02/underfunding-of-research-in-womens-health-issues-is.html
Shaw, G. (2018, June 8). Why women struggle to get the right diagnosis. WebMD. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/women/news/20180607/why-women-are-getting-misdiagnosed
Kiesel, L. (2017, October 9). Women and pain: Disparities in experience and treatment. Harvard Health. Retrieved from https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/women-and-pain-disparities-in-experience-and-treatment-2017100912562
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