{"id":28417,"date":"2018-12-09T20:36:58","date_gmt":"2018-12-09T20:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=28417"},"modified":"2018-12-09T20:36:58","modified_gmt":"2018-12-09T20:36:58","slug":"trust-me-trust-me-im-a-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/trust-me-trust-me-im-a-doctor\/","title":{"rendered":"Trust me, trust me- I’m a doctor"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve heard of the pay gap and you\u2019ve followed the horrors of the #metoo movement, now get ready for \u2018The Health Gap.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Women and healthcare have always had a tumultuous relationship. Race and poverty come into play when discussing who has it worse in healthcare, however, they are huge conversations on their own. \u00a0Throughout history women\u2019s health queries have been ignored, misdiagnosed and dismissed as dramatics. From the Ancient Greeks believing most of women\u2019s pains came from a wandering womb\u00a0– to the Victorian times, when doctors had a nasty habit of admitting any woman with mysterious pain to mental hospitals, and diagnosing them instead with the metal disorder \u2018hysteria\u2019 (Greek for of the uterus).<\/p>\n

Some argue that the traditional medical system as it stands now, forces women to question themselves. Most women will experience this when it comes to their concerns regarding gynaecological disorders. Endometriosis affects one in ten women i<\/a>n the UK and yet it can take up to 8 years to be diagnosed according to the organisation Endometriosis UK<\/a>. \u00a0Its symptoms mean women often go misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression or bipolar disease.<\/p>\n

Emma Cox, Chief Executive of Endometriosis UK, told Voice of London: \u201cTimely diagnosis could save women from many years of pain, distress and suffering. The impact a delayed diagnosis has on a woman\u2019s life \u2013 her education, work, relationships and personal life – can be huge. On top of coping with the disease itself, women have to put up with being told, sometimes for years, that what they have is \u2018in their heads\u2019 or \u2018normal\u2019, when it isn\u2019t.”<\/p>\n

One study<\/a> has found that women in emergency departments are less likely to be taken seriously than men, and in a 2014 study from Sweden<\/a> found women were less likely to be classed as an urgent case.<\/p>\n

Lizzie Bates describes her struggle getting diagnosed as a young women in university:<\/p>\n

[soundcloud url=”https:\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/540727149″ params=”color=#282014&auto_play=true&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” \/]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stories of women being waved away by their doctor\u2019s and told to \u201ctake a Panadol\u201d are bleeding together and are now being discussed more openly in social media.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/ambernoelle\/status\/1068891026566336513<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/natalieisonline\/status\/1063414778830483456<\/p>\n

Stories like the birth of Serena William’s daughter in January this year, where she had to repeatedly tell her nurse that she was experiencing a pulmonary embolism, are bringing the lack of understanding in women\u2019s health to the front pages of major publications like Vogue<\/a> and are forcing us to take a closer look at the inequality and disparity that is extremely prevalent in the current healthcare system, and help us to bridge the \u2018health gap\u2019.<\/p>\n

Words & audio by Sorcha Gilheany | Subbing by Fiona Patterson<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019ve heard of the pay gap and you\u2019ve followed the horrors of the #metoo movement, now get ready for \u2018The Health Gap.\u2019 Women and healthcare have always had a tumultuous relationship. Race and poverty come…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":28875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66,93,153,134],"tags":[2893,4458,6538,6957],"class_list":["post-28417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-news","category-nhs","category-uknews","tag-health","tag-nhs","tag-uk","tag-women"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28417"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28417\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}