Do patients less heard or taken seriously than patients by doctors? According to a study by the Ipsos Institute for the French Hospital Federation, which BFMTV reveals this Saturday, March 8, on the occasion of the International Women’s Rights Day, “sexist prejudices” persist in health professionals by establishing a diagnosis and a protocol of care, compromising women’s care.
In detail, more than one in two women (51%) consider that the symptoms described to their doctor were “at least once minimized or not taken seriously because they are women.”
A little more than a third of women (34%) claim to have received “inappropriate comments about their physical appearance or personal life” from health professionals.
More than 4 out of 10 women (42%) still say that the described physical symptoms have been attributed “at least once to psychological and hormonal causes without in -depth investigation.”
Those under 35 years of particularly concerned
“Unfortunately, women’s health is still marked by the stigma of medicine thought by and for men,” the study deplores.
These biases are not exempt from consequences. Therefore, the survey recalls that, according to the Academy of Medicine, women are victims of “excess mortality” in terms of cardiovascular diseases due to “systematic care delays.”
This phenomenon particularly affects young women. Almost 6 out of 10 women (58%) under 35 say that “having undergone a trivialization of their health problems under the pretext that they are” normal “for a woman” and more than 4 out of 10 women (42%) say they have received “inappropriate comments from their loved ones in relation to changes in the body.”
This causes a “self -censorship” of young women, according to the study. Almost half (49%) says “it underestimates their level of pain.”
“Sensitize” health professionals “
The French Hospital Federation says it wants to “raise awareness about all health professionals in gender biases and adapt medical protocols to guarantee the fair and efficient care of patients.”
“The persistence of sexist inequalities in attention is not only A matter of rights, but also a matter of public health, “says FHF general delegate.
The Federation had also published a column on January 17 in the newspaper Le Monde to denounce “a world of health (which) continues to carry the stigma of medicine designed by and for men”, this “at risk of ignoring the specific needs of women and the risks to which male domination continues to expose them.”
Source: BFM TV
