Gender Bias in Medicine

This NY Times article delves into the way doctors take women's health concerns less seriously than men's. When only the physical symptoms of a patient are given to doctors, they are likely to diagnose men and women the same. Whenever stress was added to the picture, it created a gender bias. Men were diagnosed the same, for the most part. Doctors were more likely to conclude that the women were more stressed out and so were exaggerating their symptoms. Discrimination is always bad, but this is particularly dangerous given that it's a medical setting. Women with legitimate medical issues are more likely to be written off. Doctors do not refer them to specialists or prescribe medication as often as they do for men, putting their female patient's health at even greater risk. I think more people need to be aware of the possibility that medical professionals may not take you as seriously if you are a woman. And more doctors, male and female, need to be more self-conscious about the treatment they prescribe to their patients, male or female.

By Tara Parker
Published: Oct. 13, 2008

Women’s Heart Symptoms Often Blamed on Stress
Signs of heart disease are more likely to be blamed on stress when the patient is a woman, new research shows.
In two studies, 230 family doctors and internists were shown sample cases of a 47-year-old man and a 56-year-old woman. The ages of the patients reflect an equal risk for heart disease. Half the vignettes included sentences indicating the patient had recently experienced a stressful life event or appeared anxious. The doctors read the case and offered a diagnosis and treatment recommendations.
When the case study involved standard heart symptoms like chest pain, shortness of breath and irregular heart beat, there was no difference in the doctor’s advice for the man or the woman. However, when stress was included as a symptom, gender differences emerged. The presence of stress changed the way doctors interpreted a woman’s symptoms, prompting them to suggest psychological factors rather than physical causes. But the presence of stress didn’t change the way men were assessed.
When stress was listed as a symptom, only 15 percent of the doctors diagnosed heart disease in women, compared to 56 percent for men. Only 30 percent of the doctors referred the women to a cardiologist, compared to 62 percent for men, and 13 percent suggested medication for women, compared to 47 percent for men.
The findings, presented at the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics scientific symposium, could help explain why there is often a delay in the assessment of women with heart disease, said Dr. Alexandra J. Lansky, a cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center.