Men and women receive different treatments and examinations at the GP, according to research. That does not have to be a problem, because although inequality is quickly assumed, there can also simply be differences.
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That writes RTV Noord. The research was carried out by PhD candidate Aranka Ballering (UMCG). In her research, she looked at the different treatment of men and women for common complaints such as headache, nausea, lower back pain or respiratory complaints.
It appears that women go to the doctor more often. There they receive a physical examination, x-rays or an ultrasound less often. They are also less likely to be referred to a specialist. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to have laboratory tests, such as blood or urine tests.
The fact that women are offered fewer diagnostics partly means that they receive fewer diagnoses. According to Ballering, it is too simplistic to say that women are treated by general practitioners. “Men may be less likely to go to the doctor. That could be a reason why the GP suggests to a woman to take a look at it and to do something immediately with a man,” she says to RTV Noord.
“We also see that if a general practitioner does perform a physical examination in women, or refers a woman to a specialist, the results are less likely to be found than for men. Based on that, you can therefore say that it is understandable if a GP, based on his experience, does not want to refer women unnecessarily.”
For her research, Ballering used FaMe-net, an anonymous registration network of general practitioners. In this she could see the complaints of more than 32,000 patients with which they came to the GP, and which treatment they received. In addition, Ballering used data from LifeLines, the large-scale population study among 167,000 inhabitants of the Northern Netherlands.