Women Speak Out Against Misogyny and Misdiagnosis in Healthcare

Abby Davidson

A recent government survey, ‘Women’s Health – Let’s talk about it’ revealed that 4 in 5 women had experienced times when they were not listened to by healthcare professionals. They often felt dismissed by male healthcare professionals and judged by female healthcare professionals and had to persistently advocate for themselves after having their symptoms not taken seriously.

The digital healthcare service Livi found in their own research that 57 per cent of women fear they have been misdiagnosed at some point, 22 per cent of these women believe this is due to their gender.

Aoife, a postgraduate student at Queen’s University told The Scoop her story. From the time that she had her first period at the age of 10, she always remembered her periods being extremely painful and irregular. By the age of 14, she started to visit doctors to seek medical attention for the pain she was experiencing during her period and at other points during her cycle. For several years she was given ultrasounds with no results and ended up in A&E several times.

Once she reached 17 and her pain was getting more frequent, her parents paid for her to have a private transvaginal scan. Aoife told us how she was already gowned and ready for the procedure when the healthcare professionals “refused the probe once they realised that I hadn’t been sexually active.”

This goes against the guidance on transvaginal ultrasounds from the British Medical Ultrasound Society and other medical bodies. At the time Aoife accepted this decision telling us, “You want to believe that your doctor is telling you the right thing to do.”

Four years later in 2019 she was finally given a transvaginal scan which indicated appearance suggestive of PCOS, but it was not until February 2023 that she accidentally discovered the results of this scan after requesting her medical records in order to move GP practice. Her reaction to seeing the results was, “this explains everything in my life”. She went on to say, “this is a health condition that I now need to figure out how I live with.”

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is associated with the development of other conditions such as type 2 diabetes and has no cure.

Aoife is now considering what her next steps might be. She told The Scoop, “for me to go back to my GP and get angry, who is that actually serving?” saying, “nothing changes the diagnosis.”

Beccy also told us her story. When she was 15 she went to her GP after experiencing hair loss to the point that she had developed a bald spot. She described how the doctor did nothing but ask if she was a vegetarian.

The doctor prescribed her non vegetarian iron supplements as they were cheaper than the vegetarian alternative. Following no change after starting the supplements, Beccy went back to a different doctor and found out that it was an oestrogen imbalance causing the hair loss.

Beccy told The Scoop “it still angers me that he didn’t even bother to offer blood tests, check me physically etc. and then guilted me into taking medication that I wasn’t comfortable taking.”

Final year Queen’s University student Maisie also spoke to us about her experience of receiving an incorrect diagnosis that left her extremely distressed. In April 2021, Maisie went to A&E with extreme abdominal pains. She was then directed to her GP who referred her on to gynaecology.

In June 2021 she was given an ultrasound scan which she received no results for. The pains continued so she decided to contact her GP again in November 2022 where she was once again referred to gynaecology.

Four weeks later Maisie received a phone call telling her that the scan she had in June 2021 had showed a uterine anomaly. Maisie recounted how she was in her work office when the healthcare professional told her over the phone, “what that means is you’ve got two wombs, you’re infertile, you can’t have kids.”

She told The Scoop about the emotional effect this had on her, “I’d set my whole life up to be a mum” then “all of a sudden it was like no you can’t.”

She continued, “that really affected me, every time I told someone I started crying.” She also criticised the way she was told the information, “the fact that it was told to me over the phone is a joke in itself.”

Several weeks later she underwent a hysteroscopy and was told during the procedure that she did not in fact have two wombs. She is now awaiting an MRI scan to further investigate what may be causing her pain.

In a statement, the Belfast student-led group Broken Vaginas, who campaign for campaign for free, adequate, effective and researched endometriosis care told The Scoop,

“From the start of endometriosis symptoms, individuals are likely to experience a plethora of medical gaslighting and misdiagnosis from medical professionals, often due to a misunderstanding about what endometriosis actually is and how it manifests. For many they will just be put on the pill and told ‘it will settle down’ or told that the pain is normal or in their head.”

“Modern gynaecology was built on racism and misogyny, and that has had serious ramifications for the way individuals are still treated today. Gynaecological issues are too often ignored, and women’s pain overlooked because it is simply not believed.”

Both Aoife and Maisie gave advice for people who may be going through similar situations to them. Aoife said to “keep asking the questions [because] you know your body” better than anyone else.

Maisie said, “you’ll assume that it’s gonna be right because a medical professional is telling you that that’s what it is” but that you need to keep questioning to make sure you know all the information.