Dr. Deb 0:01
When your body speaks but no one listens, when your pain is dismissed as all in your head, when you're told it's just stress for the fifth time while your health deteriorates, you're not crazy. You're being medically gaslit. Did you know women in America are up to 30% more likely to be misdiagnosed than men? Or that when experiencing a heart attack, women are seven times more likely to be sent home from the ER? This isn't just about feeling heard, it's about survival.
Dr. Deb 0:56
And what if I told you that mysterious symptoms you've been battling for years have real physical causes, and that you've been overlooked because of your gender? But I'm pulling back the curtain on one of the most dangerous epidemics in healthcare, the systemic dismissal of women's health concerns, and what you can do to finally be seen, supported, and strong. Welcome back to Let's Talk Wellness Now, the show where we uncover the root causes of chronic illness, explore cutting-edge regenerative medicine, and empower you with the tools to heal. I'm Dr. Deb, and today I'm diving into medical gaslighting and the epidemic of misdiagnosis that affects millions of women.
Dr. Deb 1:41
If you or someone you have been diagnosed with that you love with a chronic condition or are struggling with unexplained neurological symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, numbness, or chronic pain, this episode is for you. So grab a cup of coffee, tea, or whatever helps you unwind and settle in. Let's get started on your journey to deeper healing.
Dr. Deb 2:03
So today's episode, Silence and Dismissed, Breaking Free from Medical Gaslighting in Women's Healthcare. What if your symptoms aren't your true diagnosis? Today, I'm exploring how women's health concerns are systemically dismissed, misdiagnosed, or undertreated in our current healthcare system. I'll reveal the shocking statistics and historical biases that have created a dangerous epidemic of medical gaslighting.
Dr. Deb 2:36
Many of you know, three years ago, I found myself on the other side of the exam table. After experiencing troubling neurological symptoms, I was diagnosed with MS. And for three years, I lived with that diagnosis, constantly wondering about my future. But recently, in June of 2024, a new MRI revealed something different.
Dr. Deb 3:06
My brain wasn't showing the progressive lesions typically of MS. Instead, my neurologist now believes I experienced post-COVID peripheral neuropathy. Crazy ride, isn't it? I have lesions in my brain. They're not progressing like MS, but they created some damage in my brain.
Dr. Deb 3:30
In October of 2024, I did a brain MRI with a researcher, Dr. Goodenow, who you guys have heard me talk about before. And after being on a protocol that he and I developed together to help my condition, my brain lesions have not only not progressed, but I have increased or grown my gray matter of my brain by 1.4, 1.5. Sorry, I got to give that little extra point in there. This is amazing because as we age, we lose gray matter.
Dr. Deb 4:01
We know that. And up until now, there's really been no way for us to show or even know if we've improved brain health or not. Well, this new MRI technology that he's utilizing has been able to document the protocol that we're doing is actually working and it is growing my brain instead of allowing my brain to shrink with age, which would typically happen.
Dr. Deb 4:30
We are stopping those lesions from progressing. MS or post-COVID peripheral neuropathy, it doesn't really matter what the name of this problem is. The lesions are there.
Dr. Deb 4:43
They're affecting my prefrontal lobe. And I am trying to prevent any consequences or any symptoms that could result of that. So what this journey has taught me is essentially the truth that I share with my patients.
Dr. Deb 4:57
True health lies not in chasing a diagnosis, but in pursuing wellness itself. You know, the statistics around women's healthcare are truly alarming. When a woman enters an emergency room with severe abdominal pain, she'll wait 33% longer than a man with identical symptoms.
Dr. Deb 5:20
Approximately 66% of women report receiving a misdiagnosis in the last two years. Think about that. Two thirds of women are being told that they have conditions they don't actually have.
Dr. Deb 5:35
While their real health issues remain untreated, and the condition that they were told they had either isn't treated at all, or they're given the wrong medication because it's the wrong diagnosis. This is not about incompetent doctors. It's about a system built on incomplete science.
Dr. Deb 5:57
Did you know until the 1990s, women were routinely excluded from medical research and clinical trials? The assumption was that the male body was representative of the human species. So why study women separately? You know, women are not small men. Their bodies function differently at a cellular level.
Dr. Deb 6:20
And even today, this knowledge gap persists. Medical textbooks still primarily focus on how diseases present in men, while women often experience entirely different symptoms. Take heart attacks.
Dr. Deb 6:34
Men typically feel crushing chest pain, while women more commonly experience fatigue and shortness of breath, or pain in the jaw, the neck, the back. And when women feel symptoms that don't match the classic male pattern, they're dismissed, as you've guessed it, anxiety or stress. You're just too overwhelmed with raising your children.
Dr. Deb 6:56
You're burning the candle at both ends. And while some of that may be true, that is not the reason for your symptoms. This misdiagnosis epidemic isn't just frustrating, it's deadly.
Dr. Deb 7:11
It leads to delayed treatments, worsening conditions, unnecessary procedures, and preventable deaths. And for conditions like endometriosis, did you know the average delay in diagnosis is 7 to 10 years? Not months, years. For autoimmune diseases, which affect women at rates up to three times higher than men, that diagnostic journey can span a decade or more.
Dr. Deb 7:42
Now we're going to take a break here and have a word from our sponsor, and we're going to be right back to talk more about medical gaslighting and its roots. Welcome back, everybody. What is medical gaslighting anyway? Well, this happens when health care providers dismiss, minimize, or psychologize physical symptoms.
Dr. Deb 8:09
It's when you're told your debilitating fatigue is just depression, your crushing chest pain is just anxiety, or you're disabling pain. It's got to be all in your head. According to recent surveys, about 72% of the millennial women report experiencing medical gaslighting.
Dr. Deb 8:35
And for women of color, the statistics are even more alarming. While research showing they face compounded biases at every level of care. But why does this happen? The roots run deep, all the way back to ancient Greece, when Hippocrates first used hysteria as a formal diagnosis.
Dr. Deb 8:58
And throughout history, women's bodies have been viewed as mysterious, unpredictable, and fundamentally flawed versions of the male body. What a crock. This bias isn't always conscious.
Dr. Deb 9:16
Even well-meaning doctors operate within a system that has trained them to view women's symptoms through a skeptical lens. And the problem is compounded by several factors. First, there's the knowledge gap.
Dr. Deb 9:30
As Dr. Mark Gordon, a leading expert in neuroinflammation has demonstrated, male and female brains respond differently to identical triggers. The same is true for hormonal systems, immune responses, and even drug metabolism. Yet most medical protocols don't account for these differences.
Dr. Deb 9:53
Second, there's time pressure. The average primary care visit lasts a little longer than you probably think, but just 17 minutes. Barely enough time to address one concern, let alone a complex constellation of symptoms that don't fit neatly into a diagnostic category.
Dr. Deb 10:15
When I see clients for the first time, we're spending well over an hour just having a conversation, and another hour in doing diagnostics in my office, so that we can understand individually what's happening with each client that we see, male or female. A far difference from the 17 minutes. Did you know that practitioners are taught that if someone complains of more than two symptoms, it must be depression or anxiety? That's how our medical system is training these days.
Dr. Deb 10:54
When I was training, it was completely different, and I was blessed to be trained by a pioneer in medicine who was trained even differently than I was, and trained at a time where we didn't have a lot of medications, we didn't have a lot of testing options, so your conversation, your history, your exam had to tell you what was going on with that client. It makes a huge difference today. This is just, I don't know, it's craziness to me at this point.
Dr. Deb 11:25
Thirdly, there's implicit biases. Studies show that healthcare providers of all genders consistently rate women's pain as less severe than men's, even when the reported pain levels are identical. Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with mental health conditions when presenting with symptoms that suggest a physical cause.
Dr. Deb 11:53
This kind of gaslighting creates a vicious cycle. Women begin to doubt their own experiences, become hesitant to seek care, and lose trust in the medical system. They may stop adv...
