WHAT IS MEDICAL MISOGYNY?
I wasn't sure if the term 'medical misogyny' was something that I had heard before, or the best term I could come up with to describe the way the medical community not only chose to treat me throughout my illness, but also the way they choose to treat women in general. After a quick google search it seems that while it still isn't a common term to be heard, there are others who have used this term to describe the blatant disrespect that is so often given to women who seek out western medicine.
Endometriosis is an illness that affects approximately 1 in 10 women worldwide which translates to about 176 million women. Despite these huge numbers, it's an illness that isn't taken seriously by the medical community. Quite frankly it's because it only affects women. I can't even begin to describe how horribly I was treated throughout my journey with endo within the context of western medicine. They were going to let me die rather than help me, because they decided from almost the moment I stepped in to see them, that I was crazy not sick. That's how I was treated over and over again. The only reason that I am alive today, and writing this is because I decided to find a cure for myself.
What is medical misogyny and what does it look like? In my case it was the constant dismissal from doctors, it was the blatant disrespect and abuse that I faced from them. This included being subjected to a massive amount of unnecessary medical procedures which never yielded any results, or so little information that there was no reason for them to subject me to it in the first place. It was the time I ended up in the hospital for a collapsed lung and the doctor who treated me decided to yell at me. Yes yell at me, because he didn't like the fact that I was crying. It was being subjected to an transvaginal ultrasound despite my very vocal declaration that I did NOT want one. The fact that when I was pressured into it, a female nurse who had nothing to do with the procedure kept walking past and opening the doorway to the hall, while I was unclothed from the waist down facing that very door she kept opening. It was the fact that they didn't attempt to treat me and when they did, they treated me like I was something way less than a human being. It's the fact that it took a women like myself almost 4 1/2 years to get what should've been an easy diagnosis, that the average time it takes a women to be diagnosed with endo is between 5-7 years, and for women of color who are Latina, African-American or Native American it takes even LONGER to get a diagnosis due to the combination of misogyny and racism in the medical community. They used to believe that if an African-American woman came in with period pain it was because she was promiscuous not sick.
It's amazing to me how many issues the women's rights movement has addressed yet when it comes to the way we're treated in the medical community it's not something that's ever really been talked about. Yet, it could be the determining factor between us living or dying. It's crucial that we are watching the way doctors and medical staff treat women and girls, because we're also put in their care in cases of violence against women in which we will need their help. Any misogyny in those cases could result in further trauma, abuse, and damage to a woman who has already been victimized. I feel like there has to be a lot of stories of this happening, yet for some reason I've never really read any. If they chose to treat me the way they did for my illness, how do you think they would treat a woman or a girl who sought medical attention after being raped? or being beaten by a boyfriend? Maybe she'll be respected, but if she ended up with almost every single doctor I encountered it didn't seem like it was possible for them to show compassion, so I cringe to think how they would treat her. I also imagine in cases like that her race would also factor into the way she was treated.
I know that when it comes to endometriosis my endo specialist told me that he had seen multiple cases of girls as young as 13 who had come to him still having endometriosis pain, after they had already had surgeries in which they were given hysterectomies. First off, a hysterectomy doesn't treat endometriosis and every doctor should be well aware of this by this point. Second removing any body part should not be taken lightly, let alone a girl's uterus. These girls will never be able to have children and they are 13. Their entire reproductive future has been decided for them, by someone who butchered them. If you're going to take out a 13 year old's girl womb you better be 100 percent sure it will solve this. This isn't the only case I've read like that. When I was trying to find a specialist in my area I first made an appt. with another doctor. At this point I was getting more and more skeptical about doctors so I looked into him online. I immediately found this story about another woman who had seen him for surgery. He decided to perform a bowel surgery on her that had not been approved by any medical group. I found two different articles that talk about this and included a link to both of them below. Women and girls who are sick with endometriosis or other illnesses, we really have to protect ourselves and be our own doctors. After I read the articles the first thing I did was called and canceled my appointment. The receptionist asked me why in that way like she already knew. He is still doing endo surgeries at least according to his website and is the head of some EndoMarch.
"Eight years into the lawsuit, the case has put the Nezhats under national scrutiny. Mullen and her story raise troubling questions about medical ethics, experimentation of women, corporate sponsorship of doctors, and whether the pressure to be "pioneers" is leading gynecologists to place surgical firsts before the safety of female patients. Mullen says the Nezhats are guilty of all of the above.
The Nezhat brothers hold positions at Standford Medical Center, where Camran Nezhat serves as the director for the high-tech Stanford Endoscopy Center for Training and Technology. The stakes are high for the brothers, and for the prestigious medical center."
http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/07.05.01/cover/nezhet1-0127.html
http://www.sfgate.com/health/article/Stanford-Surgeon-s-Procedures-Raise-Ethical-and-3240298.php
