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(Thread) @MortuaryReport describes 6 years of unnecessary pain, suffering & medical bills in pursuit of a hysterectomy. "Doctors refused to take me seriously when I requested a surgical hysterectomy... And nothing I said could change my doctors’ minds..." huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-…
2) As every woman knows (but fewer men do,) the biased treatment Ace Ratcliff endured is the norm for women seeking medical help, as this informative piece by @achronicdose expands upon, and updates with new info on implant failures (via @speakingabtpain) wbur.org/cognoscenti/20…
3) It's even more harrowing for WOC, as @tressiemcphd's powerful piece describes "Like millions of women of color, especially black women, the healthcare machine could not imagine me as competent and so it neglected and ignored me until I was incompetent." time.com/5494404/tressi…
4) This excellent article by @EileenPollack looks in depth at how the medical establishment systemically undermines, misdiagnoses, and gaslights women. It should be required reading for every doctor in the "manstitute of medicine" (via @Loose_Lab_Rat) medium.com/s/story/seekin…
5) These links are all in a new post on MetaFilter: metafilter.com/178904/Medical…
Kate Beaton @beatonna shares the story of sister Becky, who was widely ignored by her doctors. "You know your body. You know when something is wrong. Trust yourself. We are all afraid of falling through the cracks. And we ought to be, because it happens." thecut.com/2018/09/what-i…
One more article: four years ago Leslie Jamison @lsjamison wrote this astonishingly good piece on the "Grand Unified Theory of Female Pain." It's quite brilliant and should not be missed. vqronline.org/essays-article…
Crosslinking related thread: women's pain is already more likely to be dismissed and left untreated than men's, but the current anti-painkiller environment makes the problem even worse for those with chronic pain:
Why the “gender data gap” means doctors don’t take women’s pain seriously enough: "Women make up the vast majority of chronic pain patients ... Yet for many years, the preclinical pain research was done almost exclusively on male cells and animals."
"Selma Blair reveals she cried with relief at MS diagnosis after being 'not taken seriously' by doctors"
11/ Good piece by Pauline Campos @Pauline_Campos: "Gaslighting and Mental Health: .. Medical gaslighting — when a health care provider tells you that your symptoms are all in your head or it's just stress — can take an enormous toll on your mental health."
12/ This piece by Ema O'Connor @o_ema & Vera Bergengruen @VeraMBergen on the problems faced by women in the military is good, informative and infuriating: "Military Doctors Told Them It Was Just 'Female Problems.' Weeks Later, They Were In The Hospital"
13/ Dr. Jacqueline Alnes @jacquelinealnes has collected several good articles in this list, including the brilliant piece by @lsjamison upthread: 'Women and Pain: A Reading List': "[W]e can work to support initiatives dedicated to create lasting change to correct data that ..."
14/ "... demonstrates the pain of women — affected even further by factors such as race, class, and weight — is routinely disbelieved by medical professionals. We can examine the language used to express and treat women’s pain, and work to find a vocabulary that allows us to ..."
15/ "... rewrite the current narrative. We can listen carefully to women with histories of pain who write or speak about their experiences and heed their calls to action."
16/ Here's a good piece by Harriet Kean @harrietkean93 for @GraziaUK: "'We Need To Start Taking Women's Illnesses Seriously': An Instagram community of women documenting their struggles with chronic pain is flourishing..." (via @jacquelinealnes)
17/ Sarah Graham @SarahGraham7 has a good piece in @Refinery29UK on the pain women with endometriosis endure and the absurd obstacles they face in getting diagnosed properly: "Every Single Reason Why Women Aren't Taken Seriously About Endometriosis"
18/ Excellent piece by Joe Fassler @joefassler: "How Doctors Take Women's Pain Less Seriously: When my wife was struck by mysterious, debilitating symptoms, our trip to the ER revealed the sexism inherent in emergency treatment." Via @briandavidearp. theatlantic.com/health/archive…
19/ Here's a good piece with 6 interviews by Kristen Mascia @kmascia: "'Our Pain Is Invisible But We’re Not': A new movement is reframing how we think about, talk about, and treat the debilitating chronic pain that affects millions of women."
@threadreaderapp unroll please.
