In 2015, Martha began to feel joint pain and extreme fatigue. In addition, a lot of hives appeared on his skin. Since none of the painkillers helped, she was referred to a doctor. rheumatologistwho not only ignored her, but also reported, without her knowledge, that he made up his symptoms. The other specialists she contacted later also did not take her seriously, perhaps because they had read the rheumatologist’s report. She had to move to another city to be referred to another hospital. Finally, there were diagnoses of two autoimmune diseases in 2019 and 2020, and multiple sclerosis in 2021. Martha’s case is one of many cases of misdiagnosis in women that continue to occur today.
In 1986, a study was published that analyzed cases of patients with serious neurological disorders who were misdiagnosed as hysteria. There were two main risk factors: have a previous psychiatric diagnosis and be female. Luckily, we don’t usually talk about hysteria anymore, but stress and anxiety are the main causes of these mistakes.
It is curious that mental pain is overtreated, while women’s physical pain is often alleviated. underrated. Especially when it comes to pain that is mistaken for normal. Even though it is revealed that menstruation This should not cause harm, or at least not to an intolerable level, since the diagnosis of diseases such as endometriosis or adenomyosis is still very late in time. This may occur due to the shame of the patients themselves, who have been taught by society not to complain about their pain. But also because of the indifference of the doctors themselves.
It’s something that happens less and less oftenfortunately, but there are still bugs that can be very dangerous.
When women’s misdiagnosis can be fatal
Unfortunately, one of the diseases that most often leads to misdiagnosis in women is cancer. At least this is what a large number of studies indicate.
For example, a study published in the UK in 2013 analyzed the number of primary care visits required for a group of patients to be referred to a specialist for suspected Bladder cancer. Twice as many women as men took more than three visits to receive a referral. Something similar happened with cases kidney cancer
In 2016, the charity, also based in the UK, published data on the average time it takes to receive a diagnosis. brain cancer. It found that a third of patients required more than five visits to the doctor, but this was much more common in women. In fact, there were more women and low-income patients who needed 10 months or morefrom the onset of symptoms to diagnosis.
“It will be alarming”
Logically, this means an increase in misdiagnosis in women. But what were these diagnoses? In an article from BBC Statements from a 39-year-old patient who found herself in such a situation were collected on this topic. A woman explains how her doctor bullied her by asking if she thought she had a brain tumor. In the meantime he devoted himself to the appointment anxiolytics and antidepressants.
Something similar happens to another woman who testified. Hypertext. Noelia (not her real name) was 30 years old when they discovered myoma. She continued to feel unwell and when she insisted, she was told that she was worried and should not worry because she would be operated on. 7 months have passed and a new test has shown that he actually suffers from endometrial cancer.
This is usually an option. Depression or anxiety. There is no longer talk of hysteria, but in the end the diagnoses are more or less the same.
These delays can be very serious because with cancer it is vital to detect the disease as early as possible. But this is not the only disease in which it occurs. In fact, very often, in the face of suffering, women are immediately prescribed both antidepressants and anxiolytics.
All you have to do is review your medication prescriptions.
In 1989, a study was published in the United States that analyzed prescriptions for psychotropic drugs separated by gender. It was found that women were much more likely to receive prescriptions for anxiolytics and antidepressantsBye sleeping pills and antipsychotics They were administered equally to both sexes.
We might think that this study is many years old and that perhaps there were more cases of depression in women. Both assumptions quite possible. But this is where two other studies come into play.
One was published in 2023, also in the USA. It didn’t talk about recipes, but it did talk about advertisements. Curious, antidepressant advertising In this country, where this type of medicine can be advertised, it was targeted mainly at women, compared to other types of medicines where there were advertisements that featured both men and women.
Shortly before this, in 2018, a survey was published in Sweden in which patients had to answer about the symptoms that prompted them to seek medical help and the medications they received for this. It was clear that the men reported more depressive symptoms than women. However, they received many more prescriptions for antidepressants or anxiolytics, even if they did not directly report having symptoms that made them think they might be depressed.
From infections to heart disease
This overuse of medications is partly a consequence of misdiagnosis in women. Anxiety may be accompanied wide range of symptoms and it is true that many diseases can be confused. But it seems that in the case of men it is more often necessary to explore, and in the case of women it is more often necessary to directly indicate anxiety.
It is precisely because of how varied the spectrum of symptoms is that the number of diseases that may go undiagnosed is very large.
Sylvia (not her real name) was 15 years old when she became ill. He had constant cramps, in addition to lack of appetite, which caused him to lose a lot of weight. Added to all this was a fever that did not subside for more than a month. The doctors told her everything: that she didn’t want to eat, that she was nervous, that it was a matter of age… Finally one day she went to the emergency room with her mother, who said that they wouldn’t leave her there until they knew something else. The tests they carried out showed that he had tuberculosis and a severely swollen spleen.
Maria was the same age when her tachycardia began. He was told it was “Indian age” and prescribed Tranquimazine. However, he only got worse, even losing consciousness several times. After one of these episodes in intensive care, he was diagnosed with cardiac pathology: Wolff-Parkinson-White disease.
A case of digestive diseases
Misdiagnosis is also common in women with digestive disorders. Anxiety often affects this system, but obviously the first step is to check that there is no physical cause causing the symptoms. However, this was not the case for Julia. She was 13 years old when she began to have very severe abdominal pain, due to which she could not even stand up. At primary care she was assured that it was anxiety, although she insisted that she felt calm. It took four years and several changes of doctors to finally get a diagnosis. irritable bowel syndrome.
Andrea has been diagnosed with anxiety for many years. However, when she saw her doctor last year about problems with burning and reflux, she felt like there might be something else going on. They told him they would run some tests, but there was sure to be concern again. Since these tests did not yield any alarming results, he stuck with this option. However, when he did not get better, he went to another doctor who suggested a new test. So they saw what he had digestive parasite.
Not all doctors misdiagnose women
It is important to make it clear that such misdiagnoses in women are not the norm today. They used to be much more common. All that remains is to turn to the topic of hysteria.
Now doctors are much more careful and such cases They are usually the exceptions. But there are exceptions that need to be taken into account.
Likewise, society also needs to know this data to change its vision. But the fact is that sometimes it is not doctors who give such assessments about women’s discomfort. In many cases, this can come from your own environment. Such is the case with Gema (fictitious name). She felt very tired, constantly hoarse and with a severe sore throat. He felt like something was wrong, but when he told his family and friends, they told him it was a cold that wouldn’t heal, or maybe it was anxiety. Also this I need to go to a psychologist.
These comments made her feel so insecure that she didn’t trust herself and put off going to the doctor. When she did this, a year later, the doctor who treated her was more understanding. As he palpated her neck, he noticed a lump, so he requested an urgent ultrasound and biopsy. It turned out that I had cancer. She underwent surgery and radiation therapy and is currently doing well. However, she was told that if she had sought help earlier, radiation therapy might not have been necessary.
What should we do
Therefore, you should not talk about anxiety or depression at the slightest symptom. Neither men nor women. In this article, we do not intend to minimize the pain of men who have experienced something similar. But it shows that for some reason it is more often thought that we are prone to exaggeration, that we are inventing symptoms or simply somatizing our nerves. It may be a little redundant to talk about “crazy and exaggerated”, but almost every one of us has been someone’s crazy ex. March 8 He’s here to talk about that too.
Source: Hiper Textual
