By: Saije Rusimovici, Staff Writer
Content warning: mentions of medical trauma.
No person’s mind or body is the same. As individuals, we all have diverse healthcare needs based on sex, gender, and sexual orientation. It can be intimidating enough to arrive at a doctor’s office, fearful of being judged or medically gaslit when talking about issues like sexual health and intimacy, options for birth control, or mental health. I remember arriving at my doctor’s office bracing myself for judgement when I wanted to discuss options for birth control. On a similar occasion, I found myself hiding or downplaying symptoms of my obsessive-compulsive disorder because I was fearful of how my intrusive thoughts might be perceived. Thankfully, that didn’t happen and I’m grateful to have a family doctor that is knowledgeable and kind with a progressive attitude toward modern healthcare. Yet, for many other people this is not the case.
Women experience dismissal by doctors far too often. Gender bias in medicine is a huge problem in the healthcare system. According to The Washington Post, a woman was called “dramatic” because she asked for a brain scan after experiencing severe headaches — that pain was a result of a tumour growing in her brain. The article also points out that in comparison to cisgender men, women with severe abdominal pain were 25% less likely to be provided opioids for their unbearable discomfort. And get this: women experiencing symptoms of heart disease are twice as likely as men with the same symptoms to be diagnosed with a mental health condition first. Too often, women are not trusted to be familiar with their bodies and their symptoms are brushed off. There are even reported cases of women who experience extreme pain with an IUD (used to prevent pregnancy), and doctors ignore their requests to stop the insertion. This is a complete violation of patient consent.
Absurd? Unbelievable? Yup. And it happens way more often than you think.
For 2SLGBTQIA+ patients, the fear of being judged or mistreated by healthcare professionals is also very prevalent. Around 9% of these individuals noted their doctors used harsh or even abusive language during treatment. And no, it’s not as easy as “finding another doctor.” In BC alone, there are nearly 900,000 patients who don’t have access to a family doctor — and it’s hard to get one.
Trans adults also face challenges in the healthcare system, stemming from the increased likelihood of developing chronic health conditions including mental illness, substance use, and early onset disabilities. In fact, 60% of trans adults reported having poor mental health at least one day a month in comparison to cis adults at only 36%. Trans people often lose access to treatment because of mistreatment by healthcare providers. This ripples into other negative health outcomes, as 40% of trans adults avoid going to the doctor because of discrimination (54% percent of these patients being trans adults of colour). Trans adults frequently face discrimination by healthcare professionals, who refuse to accept them as patients or deny them gender-affirming care. This is essential care that trans people lose access to because of a healthcare professional’s inability to respect and adapt their practice in order to meet their needs.
This obviously needs to change. The doctor’s office shouldn’t be a place you are wary of, but rather a place where your concerns are validated. Gender bias has been an ongoing problem for centuries, as studies focus on cisgender men and so-called “women’s issues” are boxed into their own category. Endometriosis, for example, typically affects the internal reproductive system, but can also appear in cis men. While that shouldn’t be the sole reason to pay more attention to it, it demonstrates that health issues are not binary. We should be listening to patient concerns, not dismissing them. Everyone deserves the right to feel safe, respected, and cared for in a healthcare environment.
