Medical Gender Bias: A Threat to Women’s Health

By Teresa Tamika Tjahjadi – Community Engagement Co-Director

Teresa discusses medical gender bias and why it is detrimental to the health of women across the globe. 

Medical gender bias, or gender bias in medicine or healthcare, describes the differential treatment, attitudes, and outcomes experienced by individuals based on their gender within the medical or healthcare system. This bias can impact people of all genders, although it often disproportionately impacts women. Medical gender bias can manifest across different medical fields, structures, and processes and is reflected by diagnoses differences or misdiagnoses, treatment and pain management disparities, disproportionate gender representation in research and clinical trials, healthcare access barriers, and how healthcare professionals communicate with and stereotype women. 

Why is this Dangerous?

It is known that women are burdened with a greater risk of certain health conditions. For example, autoimmune diseases impact around 8% of the global population, alarmingly, 78% of the people impacted are women. In addition, women are three times more likely to develop rheumatoid arthritis and four times more likely to be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis compared to men. While there may be biological reasons underpinning women’s predisposition to certain health conditions, inadequate funding and research dedicated to women’s health are barriers to understanding why such health disparities occur and prevent women from receiving the appropriate healthcare and treatment. Moreover, such flaws in medical knowledge result in women receiving delayed diagnoses and treatment, dismissals of their pain, and often positioning them in situations where they have to fight for their right to be heard by healthcare professionals. Such disparities are more pronounced for women belonging to minority groups including First Nations women, women with a lived experience of disability, women who belong to racial minorities or of refugee and asylum seeker backgrounds, women who live in rural or remote areas, and those who belong to the LGBTIQ+ community which highlights the diversity of experiences that influence the health and women and the complexity of inequities that some women experience.

The representation, diagnosis, and treatment of cardiovascular disease is a prime example where sex and gender bias come into play. When we think about someone experiencing a heart attack, we typically imagine a male clutching his chest in pain. This depiction of a heart attack has been established by decades of research conducted by males, and primarily on male participants. However, women tend to experience different signs and symptoms such as shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, and back or jaw pain. Since the representation and diagnostic testing of cardiovascular diseases and heart attacks favour males, women are often dismissed when they present to healthcare facilities and subsequently experience delayed diagnoses or even misdiagnoses. Evidence suggests that women receive heart disease diagnoses seven to ten years later than men on average. Ultimately many women are left receiving substandard healthcare and at greater risk of adverse health outcomes.

The Destructive Legacy of Female Hysteria

Female hysteria, historically a term used in the medical context, referred to a constellation of psychological and physical symptoms that afflicted women and lacked a clear medical explanation. Originating from ancient times and persisting into the 19th century, hysteria encompassed a wide range of symptoms including mood swings, anxiety, irritability, and various physical manifestations. Hysteria was often attributed to the belief that the uterus could wander within the body causing such symptoms. The concept of female hysteria has been highly problematic for several reasons. It has pathologised normal emotional and physical experiences of women and consequently perpetuated gender bias in medicine. Moreover, it has been used as a form of social control, often leading to oppressive treatments, such as forced institutionalisation, isolation, or even unnecessary and invasive surgeries. The dismissal of women’s experiences and concerns as hysterical has undermined their autonomy and contributed to a long history of medical and societal neglect of women’s health needs. 

Fortunately, modern medicine has moved beyond this harmful concept. It is starting to recognise the diverse forms of gender bias within the healthcare system and the importance of a more inclusive and evidence-based approach to women’s health.