Women's Health Care

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

I have begun to notice a disturbing trend, women's health care complaints are often dismissed or downgraded. I noticed a distinct difference in the care my wife received when I was with her and when I wasn't. She wouldn't go to the doctor for years without me for years. We've got better doctors now who don't seem to do it. To some degree I thought it was just my wife. Then this year one of our female firefighters was in the hospital a lot and I was appalled at the care she received, in addition my female friend with Post Concussive Syndrome has received uniformly horrible care. I don't know if my wife's care improved because I was there as her husband or if I was there as a Paramedic. Regardless of being in uniform or not, I am always willing to jump knee deep in someone's ass if I think they are being dismissive of a patients concerns. Anyway I just wondered what other peoples experiences were. My apologies if this comes off as sexist, my wife would just come home and tell me what the doctors had said and it would piss me off. She asked me to go with her and things changed.

David

[Warpy]

1. Women are routinely dismissed as being silly and emotional

I have years of experience with women with serious cardiac problems being dismissed for months and even years as anxiety neurotics, patted on the heads and given prescriptions for Valium when EKGs would have shown the very real physical problems.

Your wife got better care when you were around because you are medically knowledgeable.

Most women don't have that luxury. I often wondered how many died before a doctor took them seriously enough that I got to see them.

[Dorian Gray]

7. That happened to

my ex-Mother in law in England. She had cancer for 8 years before she was given a proper exam and caught it. (They estimate.) She went to the doctor quite regularly with complaints, only to be dismissed with no tests. She cracked her spine opening a window when her husband was in the hospital, and that's when they examined her. Only four months later, she died. It was horrific.

[Cleita]

2. My yearly exam this year consisted of ten minutes with my doctor

a blood panel and a mammogram. I sort of blamed it on our deteriorating insurance and Medicare system though rather than because I was a woman. My primary care physician is also a woman. Fortunately, most of what is wrong with me can be managed by me.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

3. That's one of the disturbing things, a lot of this care has been from female physicians.

[dropkickpa]

6. Yep, I've had some really shitty girl docs

Pisses me off to no end. I've finally decided to avoid female gyno's completely because of the multiple bad experiences I've had with them (rough, dismissive, etc).

[lizerdbits]

15. Me too

I was told for years that PCOS was caused by being a lazy pig and could be eliminated by fitting into the weight table, including a female gyno who was about 3" shorter and 50 lbs heavier than I am. When the BCPs she gave me caused me to bleed so much I couldn't be away from a bathroom for more than an hour she just told me it would go away. 4 days later she had to give me methergine (sp?) to stop it because it was almost impossible to just go to work.

I like the guy I have now so much that I shelled out to see him one year when he wasn't on my insurance. When I went for my annual and said I'd had a month long spell again he was almost angry that I didn't call. I keep forgetting he's not an asshole. I'm really surprised that the treatment by female gynos is so bad, you'd think they'd not poo poo 3 month periods.

Well, off to bed so this lazy pig can get up at 5:30-6:00 and go to the gym for the 5th time this week and then eat some steel cut oats and cottage cheese.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

4. That's one of the disturbing things, a lot of this care has been from female physicians.

[Dorian Gray]

5. I know that

women's concerns are often dismissed. I luckily have a fantastic doctor who takes her time with me and listens to me. She's fabulous, and I'd recommend her to anybody in the NYC area!

[cosmik debris]

8. I'm curious.

I wonder what would have happened if your wife had been accompanied by a female companion?

Is the better treatment a result of having an objective observer in the room?

Or is it a result of having a penis in the room?

Just curious.

[Warpy]

9. It's the result of having a body with medical knowledge attached

to it. The plumbing probably has a minor effect, but the major one is medical sophistication.

I've gotten very different treatment when I've let the examining doctor know I'm a retired RN, and very, very different treatment when I mentioned that I worked in specialty units.

Some of it is probably lawsuit phobia. They know they can't follow HMO guidelines of a cursory exam and throw them out of the office when they know the person sitting across from them knows what the standard of care is.

[cosmik debris]

10. That creates a dilemma for those of us who are not ICU RNs

It is hard to show the MD that we know about our bodies without coming across as Dr. Google or the guy who saw some drug advertised on TV.

I suspect that the solution is to ask intelligent questions and keep the Dr. talking until all the questions are answered.

What would your advice be?

[Warpy]

11. Ask those questions.

One of my patients taught me how to do it effectively. She was a little old lady, looked like her picture belonged on a package of cookies, braids over the top of her head, exactly the type all the Harvard docs patronized and dismissed.

I was in her room when a doc breezed in. She spoke very softly, and when he leaned in, she grabbed his tie and growled, "Now you're going to listen to me, you rotten little son of a bitch!"

I had to leave the room because it just totally cracked me up.

If a doc is tempted to give you the brushoff, take extreme measures.

After the doc left, totally freaked out, I went back in and talked to her about her technique. It turned out she'd been the first woman commodities trader in the country. Granny was one tough old broad.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

13. She's gotten bad care when her mom has been with her.

I suspect medical training has more to do with it than penile possession. Probably doesn't hurt that I have plenty of AP (asshole potential) if necessary.

David

[Book Lover]

12. Trend?

My apologies - that comes off as dismissive. I don't think you are being sexist at all - in fact, just the other way around: you're just now recognizing this one type of sexism in all its glory. I'm glad to know your wife ended up with better care because of your presence, but it is pretty sad when a woman has to be accompanied by a guardian (of her health) in order to receive the "normal" standard of care.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

14. I agree.

There were some studies a few years back about the lower qaulity of cardiac care for women. It was passed off as a lack of education concerning the variable and atypical presentations of cardiac realted symptoms in women. While that is a plausible explanation for some of the problem, I wonder if some of this dismissiveness is also to blame.

David

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

16. Thanks for the input everyone.

[mopinko]

17. a friend just lost her sister to bladder cancer. she had all the symptoms

for 2 years before a doc would listen to her. she liked a book called the patient from hell

i think that having anyone there to advocate for you, especially when you are in the hospital, is important.
had a shitty visit with a woman doc today. i have no doubt that many of my interfaces with the medical industrial complex would have been different with different gonads. one reason i had 4 of my kids at home. not just to stay out of the hospital, but because my docs had respect for the process, and for my body.