Throughout history, men have made themselves the standard for everything. Making their bodies the norm and making women’s bodies seemingly unimportant.
Male bodies are the blueprint, creating extreme medical bias.
Due to this, female anatomy is appallingly overlooked and undiscovered. Our bodies are uncharted territory, and male doctors are hesitant to discover what lies beneath it. It almost feels as if male doctors and researchers care so little about women as a whole that they’ll make little to no effort to understand how our bodies work.
Because of this, not only do men not comprehend our biology, but we hardly understand our own biology.
“I didn’t learn I had a menstrual cycle until I got a period tracking app last year,” a student who wishes to stay anonymous said. “I didn’t learn about that when I had an entire class in eighth grade dedicated to teaching us about our growing and changing bodies. I talked to my mom about it, and she didn’t even know a luteal phase existed.”
This deep-rooted misogyny affects women both socially and physically. When we know little about our own health, it makes topics such as treating diseases and conditions all the more difficult. Women constantly get misdiagnosed, with their symptoms repeatedly being treated as hysteria or merely hormones.
The word hysteria comes from the Greek word hustera, meaning womb. In Ancient Greece, this word was created to explain any emotional volatility or “strange behavior” women would display. Saying the cause of these behaviors was due to their uteruses, also known as, their periods.
This word has been used by doctors for centuries to undermine women, and the word has become seemingly synonymous with a legitimate diagnosis.
This unfair characterization of women is ultimately what influences male doctors today, downplaying women’s real symptoms as their “time of the month”.
Recently, I had a first-hand experience of this. A few weeks ago, I woke up with red, splotchy hives covering my body, with no idea why this was happening. I had experienced this once before when I was younger, and the hives had lasted weeks, with doctors unable to find the cause.
I did test after test, appointment after appointment with doctors and allergists, medication after medication. Still, no one could figure out what was happening.
This time, it was the same. I went to the doctor twice, both times being told it was most likely due to my period, and there was not much else they could do, because there was no research on it.
The hives have lasted four weeks now, and all I want to know is what is causing this. Why is my body enflamed, and why is there hardly any research on it? I have so many questions, yet no answers.
Countless women deal with issues similar to this.
A student who wishes to stay anonymous said, “Almost anytime I go to the doctor, he asks me if I’m on my period. It makes me feel like my symptoms aren’t being taken seriously.”
It is a societal issue that men don’t take women seriously, and when male doctors overlook our issues, it puts our very health at risk.
When our real concerns are dismissed as “dramatic,” we are at risk of real medical issues not getting treated.
More than 40 percent of women with autoimmune diseases are initially dismissed as hypochondriacs. Women with heart diseases are often initially dismissed as simply having anxiety. Women with chronic pain often initially get dismissed as having, surprise, hysteria.
Male doctors think women are different from men in the worst ways. They think we are the more dramatic gender, but when it comes to conducting medical trials, we are seen simply as “smaller men,” excluding women from being involved in the trials.
During the peak of COVID-19 when scientists were trying to find a cure for COVID, only 4 percent of clinical trials tried to recruit women for testing.
There are so many vastly different biological differences between males and females. Women have different infection rates, drug responses, and mortality risks. Yet, despite all that, they still primarily test men. This leaves so many dangers for women, simply because of this outdated and prejudiced medical bias.
Fewer than 30 percent of early-phase industry-based clinical trial participants are women.
This traces back to 1962, when the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) banned women of childbearing age from participating in early-phase trials. They claimed this was for protection, but really, all it did was harm women and hinder proper medical research.
The ban was lifted in 1993, but it has continued to sideline women from trials. They say this is due to concerns about pregnancy risks and hormonal fluctuations; however, if women aren’t being tested on, how will we know what’s really safe for us?
We are underrepresented and overlooked, and it’s about time we are finally treated with medical equality.