2023-05-01 15:05:32
Distressing: women are much more likely to walk out of the doctor’s office without a diagnosis. Medicine was developed both by men and for men, so that women regularly lose out medically. What can we do about that? That was fodder for discussion in the podcast today Pointer Talk. They talk to Lisa, who had to wait nine years for a diagnosis.
In Pointer Talk Esmee Dirks and Benjamin de Bruijn delve into a lingering file every week.
Pointer Talk about inequality in medicine
Dirks and De Bruijn first talk to reporter Robbert ter Weijden. He immersed himself in the subject, because he says he is very surprised about it. “For centuries, we have actually only studied the man. The science we have now is based on ancient science and all of that was done on men. The medical knowledge we now have is therefore based on the male body. And that is, of course, idiotic.”
Although more women are taking part in studies these days, that is not always how it is ‘supposed’ to be. “The proportion of women in such studies is still small, smaller than the proportion of men. Very often the argument is made that women have hormone fluctuations and they don’t know if that affects the research results. Let’s face it: men also have hormone balances and they can also influence results. But that is not the point.”
Lisa walked around with chronic pain for nine years
According to Van der Weijden, 80 percent of the people who walk around with something for which there is no explanation (yet) are women. Lisa was one of those women for many years. “The pain started nine years ago,” she says in the podcast. “Then it was mainly around my ovulation and menstruation. It has been really continuous since about five or six years ago.”
Doctors could not help her further. She regularly visited the GP, was referred to a gynecologist a few times and ended up in the emergency department a number of times. She even showed up at the doctor’s doorstep three times in one week. “You get the same questions every time. Can you be pregnant? Do you have a sexually transmitted disease? What about your gut? Do you have a bladder infection? I didn’t feel taken seriously.”
She kept being told to do an STI or pregnancy test and to take a paracetamol. But after nine years she is finally diagnosed: endometriosis, something that 1 in 10 women have. Lisa is not bothered by it at the moment, because she is pregnant. “Endometriosis grows per cycle and because you no longer have a cycle due to your pregnancy, it cannot spread further and is not stimulated.” Only now has she really realized how much of an impact the chronic pain had on her life. “Only now do you notice how much energy you have and that you are not constantly thinking about the pain.”
According to Lisa, there are certain solutions that can provide relief for endometriosis. “There are artificial options. When I received the official diagnosis, I could opt for an artificial transition. Only very little research has been done into the long-term consequences.”
To avoid situations like hers in the future, the GP should pay more attention to menstruation, according to Lisa. Where are you in your cycle? What kind of pain are you in when you menstruate?” She had never even made that link. My periods have always been painful. You don’t talk about that. I never talked about it with my mother, girlfriends or sisters. How painful normal is and when it is no longer normal.”
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Inequality reigns in the doctor’s office: Lisa was diagnosed only after 9 years