#womenshealth is #disparate because medicine evolved in a patriarchal society. Male presentations of disease are “typical”, female ones are “atypical”. Society becoming more #gender #equal, doesn’t undo the historical bias of medicine we still rely our practice on - as a result,… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
While #postpartum care is an obvious example. @American_Heart published that women don’t classically present with chest pain like men in heart attacks, but instead may have fatigue or insomnia. This can be easily written off by doctors as “stress” ahajournals.org/doi/full/10.11…
“Stress” is a generous explanation I hear of writing off symptoms. More commonly, I hear “dramatic” or “being extra” as explanations. Those aren’t ICD codes, but implicit biases disproportionately assigned to female patients.
“Bra strap pain” is another classic one — in my anecdotal study of women presenting in the ER with “my bra strap/underwire is too tight” + chest/back pain, 100% positive predictive value for pulmonary embolism. @EmergencyDocs @acog
Pain is also disparate in how it is treated between male and female patients. Punchline: women in pain get dismissed as “dramatic” and get prescribed sedatives rather than pain meds. @washingtonpost washingtonpost.com/wellness/inter…
What does this mean? Medicine still has institutionalized gender biases in #womenshealth that are a disservice to our female patients. #equality “feels” here because med students are now 50/50 gender split, but that hasn’t necessarily made its way to patient care…yet. @AAMCtoday… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
It’s super important to recognize that female pathophysiology can differ from male’s beyond what’s in the underpants. Know to adjust your approach according. Then, teach the next generation of doctors to do the same. #womeninmedicine #womenshealth @acog @EmergencyDocs… twitter.com/i/web/status/1…
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