Women face a plethora of hurdles when it comes to receiving the healthcare they need. Women experience their pain being overlooked or dismissed as mental health issues, like anxiety, rather than receiving treatment for their physical ailments. For minority women, conditions are particularly dire, as mistreatment is common and mortality is high. All of this makes healthcare feel like an uphill battle, especially for women who have illnesses that only or primarily affect women.
Schrödinger’s Women: Simultaneously Pregnant and Not
Thanks to a broad former rule that excluded almost all women, it wasn’t until very recently in the US that women have been included in drug trials. According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), this rule was introduced in the 70s after one drug was found in trials to cause birth defects. Fear of further drug-caused birth defects meant that almost all women, even those who were single, on contraceptives, or were married to men with vasectomies, were purposefully excluded from medical testing and research. The life of a potential fetus was being considered more than the health and quality of life of women who already existed.
We still see this in modern-day women’s healthcare. Many women find themselves being refused treatment if it impacts their fertility, even when their condition is life-threatening. Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is one such condition that can impair work performance, strain relationships, and trigger severe depression, sometimes escalating to suicidal ideation. However, surgical menopause, an effective treatment for PMDD, is typically only performed on women who have additional existing fertility issues. Others are denied the right to make their own decisions on how to balance healthcare and fertility.
Credit: U3217109, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The underrepresentation of Women in Clinical Trials
Credit: Clinical Trials Arena, JAMA, Harvard Medical School, via Forbes
Offered Treatments that Benefit Everyone but the Patient
Even when a woman is at the point of contemplating suicide or experiencing potentially fatal conditions like cancer, the non-existent fetus in her empty womb is the priority. Jenna Bois, a 29-year-old mother and cervical cancer survivor, was denied a hysterectomy to reduce the risk of her cancer returning because her specialist wanted her to have more children. Instead, the specialist performed a different procedure that actually worsened her condition. Emily Griffith, a 26-year-old woman with endometriosis, was also denied a hysterectomy since she wasn’t a mother and could still potentially have children. She was even told to consider “pilates or yoga” to ease her painful symptoms, making her feel completely dismissed.
The Ongoing Fight to Prioritize Women’s Health
Women are constantly fighting for their health to be put first, not the health of a hypothetical child. The reality is that women are dying for children who don’t exist because of abortion restrictions, roadblocks to certain treatment, and our overall lack of knowledge of women’s bodies. However, these bleak conditions are slowly improving. Femtech is gaining prominence and aiming to close health gaps for women. The FDA’s removal of black box warnings for menopausal hormone treatments could also make these treatments less stigmatized and easier to access. In the end, everyone must join together to push for women’s right to bodily autonomy and the right to be seen as more than just an incubator.
Ready to empower your team and organization? Explore DE&I best practices and success cases. Learn how to get started with our resources.
