Did you know that it is more difficult to diagnose a female with Coronary Artery Disease than a male? Or that women are more likely to suffer a heart attack than men? As a woman in STEM, I always tried my best to make it a priority to keep up with current medical events so I can further improve my knowledge as well as gain a better understanding of the revolutionizing field.
As I am sure everyone knows, the most up-to-date medical event in the news is COVID-19 and the release of booster vaccine shots. However, I came across a news article that was not as widely discussed but still reported crucial information. The article was about gender bias in healthcare, especially amongst patient care, and as someone who is aspiring to be in the healthcare profession, I had never been taught such a topic in my academic life so I took it upon myself to research more about it.
Gender bias is the preference of one gender over the other, and it may be done unconsciously. Unfortunately, within healthcare, gender bias does exist. According to Duke Health, approximately one in five women have stated that their healthcare provider has ignored or dismissed their symptoms and concerns.
My question is… why? And what can we do to address the problem? The main distinction between men and women occurs when evaluating reproductive organs, so theoretically medical science should evaluate each gender separately when it comes to conditions that can affect both genders. However, medical training is based on the average patient being a 165 lb white male which results in gender discrimination when working with female patients.
Not until too long ago, women were also excluded from clinical trials in hopes to protect them and their fetuses; however, that limited the amount of knowledge healthcare professionals had regarding the female body. In fact, it was found that women under the age of 50 are at risk for blood clots from the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine.
Additionally, the CDC has not tested the vaccine on women who plan to breastfeed or women who are currently breastfeeding. All COVID-19 clinic trials excluded pregnant women from participation although it was found that pregnant patients had a 13.6 higher risk of death from the virus. The lack of inclusion of sex and gender can negatively affect accessibility to an accurate diagnosis, pharmacological treatments, medical care as well as the availability of social and economic support for patients.
It is unfortunate that there is still so much research left to be done to effectively treat and diagnose female patients. We have made progress in identifying and recognizing the problem but a further step can be taken by diversifying the healthcare team as well as encouraging clinicians to ask patients open-ended questions to understand their concerns.
As students in STEM, clinicians, researchers and healthcare professionals, we must strive to mitigate this disparity and recognize the fact that women may display different symptoms or require different approaches to treatment. Awareness of the disparity and bias is just the first step to working towards a better healthcare system.