The Diagnosis Struggle in Women

Hi, my name is Julia and this is my project

on the diagnosis struggle in women.

The diagnosis struggle and women refers to the difference in

the amount of women who experience mental or physical illness

and those who actually get diagnosed and therefore treatment of

those issues.

And it's a diagnosis struggle specifically for women because there

tends to be a gap as well between the men

get diagnosed and the women.

This is a problem due to the lack of women

representation in clinical trials, the lack of women's health education

and as well as the bias against women and their

composure. This is a huge problem because obviously if someone

is not diagnosed with something that it prevents these women

from receiving the medical care that they need and it

could also lead to misdiagnosis and therefore prescription of medications

or treatment that do more harm than good.

The reasons why this happens, as I said before, our

first of all, the lack of women representation in clinical

trials. I have a study here that is the representation

of women in oncology clinical trials or cancer clinical trials.

And there was extremely low recruitment of female patients um

including 35% from Melanoma, for lung cancer and 40% for

pancreatic cancer.

And I didn't include the numbers here.

But those numbers decreased even more when it was referring

to women of color.

Why does this happen?

Well, originally, it was an exclusion made for pregnant women

as to not harm um A the fetus when they're

growing and as well as not harming the women's childbearing

ability. However, this exclusion got expanded to um women who

were unlikely to get pregnant though, such as those who

were infertile, those who had husbands who had vasectomies and

those who were practicing abstinence.

Um And it's similar to the way that women were

excluded from the workforce and how there is, they often

excluded women from the workforce due to if they were

to become pregnant, then they could be a liability or

they could not be able to be work as hard.

So essentially, these clinical trials are excluding them from these

kind of from the studies as to not be a

liability, but as a result, they are limiting the care

they can receive.

The second reason is the lack of women's health education

because symptoms for illnesses, mental or physical present themselves differently

in women than men sometimes.

And this isn't always taught.

And so it's hard for medical professionals to give a

correct diagnosis when they are looking at a female and

a list of only male symptoms.

And so they could completely miss something based on the

symptoms. Um, and as well as this education should go

for the general public as well because uh women, I

should be aware that sometimes their condition could be different

than men's.

Um And so they should know what to look for

as well as no to question their doctor if they

could tell that they could be experiencing something that um

presents itself differently in women.

The third reason is the biased against women.

Women are known as overly emotional hormonal hysteria, hysteric and

dramatic and a large portion of psychiatric disorders.

As much as 41- 83% may have been misdiagnosed

physical disorders.

And this means essentially, um There are doctors who believe

that women are over exaggerating their pain or just being

dramatic and therefore could say that they're a hypochondriac when

they actually do have some sort of illness or say

a woman could say they're depressed and a doctor could

tell them to just walk it off because there dramatic.

Um and then this also happens in the north texas

area. I chose to evaluate this in the north texas

area by sending a series of questions to women that

I know personally in the north texas area.

Um and the study was completely anonymous.

It was a list through google forms where I didn't

even give the option for participants to leave their name,

but it was, they were able to make comments if

they chose and um answer the questions.

And I was surprised to see even those who hadn't

experienced the struggle or claim to receive a diagnosis or

care still believe that it was harder for women to

obtain a diagnosis than men.

And Um 50% had felt judge dismissed by a medical

professional and 33 of these believed it was due to

their gender.

While those are small numbers in the study that I

did. Um it still believe it still shows that it

is prevalent and um possibly the small numbers could show

that it is better in the north texas area, However,

it is still happening and I found it really interesting

that there was one individual who chose to share their

story about how their doctors told them they were being

dramatic about a serious health issue and she was told

to push through it.

And um they, even after they ran their tests, they

told her she had illnesses that she didn't have.

Um But I also thought it was interesting that she

she also answered no to the start that she believed

that it was because she was a woman that it

happened. However, I'm not sure if that would happen if

she was a man that she was being dramatic.

But um and then also the other thing is my

personal experience.

Um I struggled getting diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder for

many years.

Uh huh.

I finally got diagnosed when I was 19 and I

went to a certain a certain psychologist who she knew

to look for the specific way that autism percent itself

and females.

And it was included several in several places in my

chart and such a like how it might how females

might do a lot more social masking or etcetera.

Um And this was a very big relief for me

personally, since I had been diagnosed or speculated diagnosed with

several other conditions um such as when I was a

little um oD D.

Or oppositional defiant disorder and O.

C. D.

And when I don't have either of those conditions and

all related to my symptoms of autism.

Okay. And finally, how do we fix this issue?

Um This includes increasing the requirements for women's health education

and hopefully by um a result, the inclusion of women

in the clinical trials, as well as communication and continuity.

This refers to doctors having communication with one another to

receive a diagnosis because you could rule out an illness

by one doctor and then you go to a different

doctor who has no idea about your personal history and

um it leads them to look for the same thing

or try to diagnose you with something when they don't

know your full medical history.

And another important solution is women's involvement in her own

care. Another thing I learned from the questionnaire is many

of the women um experienced issues.

However, they weren't aware that they did same.

Um mostly attribute them not receiving a diagnosis at a

certain time due to um their own hesitancy to um

admit that they needed help.

However, um a lot of these women went to doctors

regularly that often should have spotted these symptoms, and so

it means something that they weren't diagnosed until they personally

insisted. Um And the final thing is teach back, which

is a way to encourage a woman's or any person's

involvement in their own care by um the doctor fully

explaining the parts of disorder and teaching them what exactly

it means for them and what it all and it

could mean for their future.

Okay. And that's it.

Don't thank you for watching.

The Diagnosis Struggle in Women

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