#sexism in healthcare

[kael-writ]

begging cis male medical professionals to not call (perceived) female patients "sweetheart" when they absolutely wouldnt call a man that.

[spoonful116]

TW: Ableism, gaslighting by healthcare providers

A doctor noted in my chart that I was non-compliant, manipulative, and trying to direct my care. Some of his reasoning:

Refused to take the extended release capsules of the medication prescribed. Also noted that I have dysphagia and a PEG tube

Told him that I needed to address the chronic UTIs before I considered overactive bladder treatments

Became concerned that I had an underlying genetic condition that was causing my issues. A lot of tests were coming back normal, but everything was very abnormal. I do have a genetic condition.

Stopped seeing my first urologist and suggested that I change doctors when they don't do what I want. My first urologist let me have 1-2 UTIs a month and wasn't trying to find a cause

"Refused to give a urine sample at any appointment" when I had been fainting a lot during transfers and they didn't have any exam tables that were wheelchair user friendly.

Communicated with them often about questions or concerns

Didn't do my 24 hour urine collection with an indwelling catheter and thus accused me of not doing it correctly and not collecting all of it in order for my results to be worse

Lying about my water intake and how much I eat

I am truly amazed by this man and the level of fragility, ego, and privilege you must have in order to see those actions as negatives with ulterior motives.

[whilereadingandwalking]

Pain and Prejudice: A Call to Arms for Women and Their Bodies by Gabrielle Jackson is an excellent addition to my health feminism and bias in medicine shelves.

She does an excellent job of laying out why there are no incentives for treating or researching chronic pain, and how the healthcare system must adjust; she also makes a good case for why this change should come from the government and their funding. She breaks down well how the system is not set up for something like chronic pain, and highlights the issues of 'heartsink' patients, the pressure on doctors to cure and have all the answers rather than mitigate or investigate, and how a higher life expectancy does not necessarily mean a better life quality.

I've reviewed many of these books and so I want to highlight specifics that Jackson brings to the table that I did not find in other books. These include a breakdown of Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions (COPCs), descriptions of each of the primary ones and how they intersect, and a focus on chronic pain conditions overall throughout the book. She has a especially excellent breakdown of how the lack of knowledge of female biology overall results in hysteria narratives, an enforced need for women to go to the doctor more often for basic prescriptions due to an inherent distrust or policing, and how overall misogyny and sexism ties in with our inability to believe women about their pain. I appreciated how Jackson paired her discussion of a lack of education in female biology and chronic pain with an in-depth education about those things for women who might need it.

I also appreciated her quoting and acknowledging Maya Dusenbery. I've found that many books recently quietly use her research or issues she brought to the forefront but bypass her specifically, and so I really appreciated how much she was highlighted for her analysis of this issue.

Overall, Jackson's book is a tremendous success and call-to-action about the bias in medicine against women, the failures of the health-care system to treat or consider chronic pain conditions, and what can be changed. Her own endometriosis story influences much of her writing, and it adds a particular indignation throughout that is tremendously satisfying and convincing.

Content warnings for sexual assault, compulsory sexuality, misogyny, medical trauma.

[ellapastoral]

have y'all ever wondered what it's like in the world of nursing? well here y'all go with this keep dive.

[the-daughter-of-lilith]

I've given up on the American Mental Health System. The therapist I saw advised I reconnect with people that traumatized me. Listened to her input and was immediately re-traumatized again. Psychiatrist gives me Lexapro and then I lose my career and health insurance. New psych told me after maybe speaking to me for a total of 30 min I have BPD based on situational questions, despite not resonating with any of the obstacles people with BPD face. It felt like an inherent gender bias given the exact same QB test results for ADHD as my male counterpart.

Almost every experience I've had with the mental health system has set me back in life, not forward. It's become the biggest waste of my time and money. I escaped my groomer on my own after extensive introspection and self care, and then I even managed to get out of a psychosis on my own too. I can continue to improve & heal myself again, just like before.

[inkskinned]

you have to go to work so you can pay for your doctor, who is not taking your insurance right now, and if you say i can't afford the doctor's you are told - get a better job. it is very sad that you are unwell, yes, but maybe you should have thought about that before not having a better job.

(where is the better job? who is giving out these better jobs? you are sick, you are hurting - how the hell are you supposed to be well enough for this better job?)

but you go to the doctor because you had the nerve to be hurt or sick or whatever else. and they tell you that it is because you have anxiety. you try your best. you are a self-advocate. you've done the reading (which sometimes pisses them off worse, honestly). you say it is actually adding to my anxiety, it is effecting my quality of life. so they say that you are fat. they say that all young people have this happen to them, isn't it a medical marvel! they say that you should eat more vegetables. they say that you probably just need to lose a little more weight, and that you are faking it for attention.

(what attention could this doctor possibly give? what validation? that's their fucking job, isn't it?)

there is always a hypochondriac, right. someone always tells you about a hypochondriac. or someone who is unnecessarily aggressive during the worst days of their life. or someone looking "for a quick fix". or some idiot who wasn't educated about how to properly care for themselves who just abandons their treatment. and again, the hypochondriac, the overly-cautious hysteric. these people don't deserve to be treated like humans (right), and since you might be one of these people, you also don't get treated like a human. because those people can really fuck with the system, you now have to pay for it. and besides. you're actually probably faking it.

(more often than not, you find a 2:1 ratio of these stories. for every "hypochondriac", there are 2 people who knew something was wrong, and yet nobody could fucking find it. the story often ends with pointless suffering. the story often ends with and now it's too late, and it's going to kill me.)

you are actually just making excuses. someone else got that procedure or that diagnosis and he's fine, you should be fine too. someone else said they watched a documentary about other inspirational people with your exact same condition, maybe you should be inspirational, too. you're just too morbid. your pain and your experience is probably just not statistically concerning. it is all self-reported anyway, and you're just being a baby.

(once, while sitting down in the middle of making coffee, you had the sudden, horrible thought - i could kill myself to make the pain stop. you had to call your best friend after that. had to pet your dog. had to cry about it in the shower. you won't, but that moment - god, fuck. the pain just goes on and on.)

you know someone who went in for routine surgery and said i still feel everything. they told her to just relax. it took her kicking and screaming before they figured out she wasn't lying - the anesthetic drip hadn't been working. you know someone who went in for severe migraines who was told drink water and lose weight. you know someone who was actively bleeding out and throwing up in the ER and was told you're just having a bad period.

in the ER there are always these little posters saying things like "don't wait! get checked today!" and you think about how often you do wait. how often the days spool out. you once waited a full week before seeing the doctor for what you thought was a sprained wrist. it had actually been broken - they had to rebreak it to set it.

but you go into the doctor. the problem you're having is immediate. the person behind the counter frowns and says we're not taking your insurance. you will be paying for this out-of-pocket.

they send you home with tylenol and a little health packet about weight loss or anxiety or attention deficit. on the front it has your birthday and diagnosis. you think about crying, and the words swim. it might as well say go fuck yourself. it might as well say you're a fucking idiot. it might as well say light your money on fire and lie down in it. and the entire fucking time - the problem persists.

it's okay. it's okay, it's just another thing, you think. it's just another thing i have to learn to live with.

[mysharona1987]

[drag-me-kicking-and-screaming]

i wonder what Brian Thompson was wearing. I mean, he was probably asking for it

[cimerran-714]

A single question to drill holes into the pro-choice movement.

Not clickbait.

If you think women (or "pregnant people", for the ones who also support the trans cult) should have the "right" because of bodily autonomy, do you think it should be legal to not breastfeed your child? Is it acceptable to starve your infant to death as he/she would be depending on you (on your body, specifically) for survival? Let's say that there's no formula available in this case & breastfeeding is the only option.

Now, most of them would avoid answering the direct question & come up with excuses.

She's legally obligated to take care of the child after it's born, so yes.

Legality doesn't always dictate morality, so this argument is bullshit. Slavery was legal once.

2. But we are talking about an infant, not a fetus.

This is specifically only addressing the bodily autonomy argument & not about personhood or whatever. If you have bodily autonomy, it should apply even if it's an infant. If it doesn't, then you are actually agreeing that bodily autonomy can be limited under some circumstances.

3. Pregnancy is more burdensome:

So it's about burden? You can kill someone if they are "more" of a burden to you, is that it? If pregnancy were painless, would you be against abortion in that case? And again, you are agreeing that bodily autonomy can be limited by saying it doesn't apply when it's less of a burden.

4. Try to deflect the topic and talk about something else.

Get back on track & answer the direct question.

Or they can bite the bullet and say "Yes, it should be legal for women to starve their infants to death." At this point you can just walk away from the person because they are clearly a psychopath.

But, yes, please answer this question. I look forward to all the logical pro-choice answers.

Spoiler: you won't have one.

[the-beacons-of-minas-tirith]

Terfs really have no brain cells huh

“Intersex does not exist”????

Anyway:

From Ask A Biologist:

From Planned Parenthood:

https://www.plannedparenthood.org/learn/gender-identity/sex-gender-identity/whats-intersex

From the Intersex Society of North America:

TERFS/RADFEMS STOP BEING IGNORANT SHITS CHALLENGE LEVEL IMPOSSIBLE

[lifewithchronicpain]

At the beginning of the month, this local news clip started making the rounds online. It shows a woman in a courtroom, charged with a grim crime: abuse of a corpse. The corpse here, it was her own fetus. Brittany Watts is the woman facing these potential charges. She had a miscarriage at home. Suddenly, that information was very, very public. Watts looks frail and overwhelmed in front of the judge. Her lawyer rubs her back to comfort her. Mary Ziegler is a law professor who has been following the Watts case closely. She’s written books like Roe: The History of a National Obsession and Reproduction and the Constitution in the United States. She says cases like this one will tell you a lot about how the limits of reproductive rights are being tested right now. “We’ve been promised by a lot of legislators that the laws are not intended to target women. But the visual of someone like Brittany Watts being prosecuted for something like this was pretty striking.”

[spoonful116]

What it's like being a woman with a chronic illness:

Crying and screaming? You're faking

Not crying and screaming? Not really in pain

Begging for help? You just want attention

Don't ask for help? Probably wasn't that bad

Have a good day? You were faking

Have a bad day? You're acting like that for attention

[kimkimberhelen]

Kamala Harris talked at length about progressive economic policies that could help millions of Americans but has been dismissed as an 'elitist' for essentially not being a folksy white dude - or a depraved white dude. She was also dismissed because she had a middle-class background as opposed to a working-class background.

But she has lived a life less privileged than Donald Trump and alleged 'working-class saviors' Bernie Sanders and Luigi Mangione.

Yet somehow, she wasn't 'good enough' or 'relatable enough.' Why is this? Apparently, bringing up misogyny, misogynoir, and racism is a 'problem' as it'll hurt Trump voters' feelings, it'll disrupt 'class solidarity', but those who voted for Trump already willingly broke any semblance of class solidarity by doing just that.

And if class solidarity is primarily fueled by memes and violent thoughts, then it isn't substantive enough to sustain itself.

[mysharona1987]

[sickofthis666]

The french government having the fucking Audacity of complaining about France's low birth rate when the medical care for women before, during and after birth, has been heavily deteriorating for the past 20 years??

How the fuck can it be more dangerous for me to give birth in 2024 than it was for my mom in the late 90s/early 2000s!? Why the fuck are we going backwards!?

How the fuck can we be one of the wealthiest country on the planet and yet have among the highest infant mortality in Europe!? Are we a fucking joke??

[radicalfacts]

radical facts - short feminist facts

#medical misogyny

Misdiagnosed & Mistreated - Misogyny & Androcentrism in Medicine

Although it is a well established scientific fact that the female body acts and reacts medically often very different than the male body, these differences get widely ignored. This widespread misogyny and androcentrism in medicine frequently gets women misdiagnosed and mistreated, which often proves deadly.

Studies found that females presenting with a heart attack were more likely to die when a male doctor treated them, compared with a female doctor.

Women are also 50% more likely to get their heart attack misdiagnosed - for their (typical to females) symptoms get seen as atypical and often dismissed; based upon only male symptoms getting seen as typical and indicative.

Female patients are also less likely to be prescribed preventative treatment after an initial attack.

Women are half as likely as men to receive pain killers after surgery.

When getting surgery, women have a 32% higher risk of dying - when operated on by a male surgeon.

They also have to wait longer to receive pain management medication in emergency rooms as well as often simply getting sedated instead of recieving pain management. No such effect is seen in male patients.

Female patients generally have to wait for significantly longer timespans to get a diagnosis. Per example, it takes typically 2.5 more years for a woman to be diagnosed with cancer and 4.5 more years for a diabetes diagnosis compared with men. In total, women were found to get diagnosed much later in more than 700 diseases compared to men.