Confronting Medical Misogyny

Imagine walking into a doctor’s office with searing pain and asking for help. Instead of being treated, you are told it is just anxiety. Imagine waiting years for a diagnosis, only to be told it’s probably just stress. Unfortunately, many women do not have to imagine this – it is their lived experience when accessing healthcare. All over the world, women are routinely taken less seriously in the doctor’s office than their male counterparts, and are more likely to be diagnosed later than men. This is known as medical misogyny.

In this episode, we speak to Maya Dusenbery, a journalist and author who explains why there is a trust gap between doctors and female patients; Dr Ingrid Briggiler, a gynecologist and obstetrician who is hoping to give women better access to care through her company Nume, and Paula Bellostas-Muguerza, the global head of healthcare and life sciences at Kearney and the founder of [w]Health, who explains why women are not represented equally in medical research.

Plus we hear from Dr Nigina Muntean of the UNFPA and Lalita Taylor, Executive Producer of EDI programmes at CoStar National R&D, who discuss why the medical gender gap persists.

Learn more here:

Maya’s book: Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed and Sick

Nume

[w]Health

UNFPA

A co-production between the UNFPA and City St George’s, University of London.

Produced by Isabella Anderson, Hannah Grieve and Mokshika Sharma. Executive Producer: Brett Spencer. Artwork by Yaman Mohammed. With thanks to Nathalie Bastin, Emma Heitaniemi and Maria Julia Da Silva Benini.

Main theme by Ben Edwards. Additional music by Arthur Benson, Anna Landstrom and August WIlhelmsson.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.