WOMEN’S HEALTH

Addressing Misdiagnosis and Other Challenges in Women’s Health

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Women are often misunderstood, both physically and psychologically, due to societal misconceptions and biases. Women are called complicated creatures, very difficult to understand and very fragile to the outside world. These tandem thoughts are playing a huge role in actually not understanding women, physically and psychologically.While it’s true that women have unique physiological differences – such as reproductive health needs – this does not justify the neglect they often face. Yes, we have a different set of organs, we have lesser muscle mass, a whole set of reproductive and gestation processes that they had to make another whole subject out of to understand what really happens in a woman’s body. However, we are as similar as we are different from the men. This notion is pretty hard to digest, leading to misdiagnosis and other complications in women’s health.One major issue is not giving attention to a woman who feels sick. They are often neglected thinking she might be having her periods or mood swings or just wants an excuse to skip work. Women in some societies are even shy to come out and say they are sick because they think it’s shameful for them to prioritise themselves. This leads to major complications in their health as they get diagnosed in the later stages of the illness.

I remember visiting the paediatric ward one day to take history of a child. I asked his mother if she had taken any tetanus injections or done some ultrasound scans during her pregnancy. To that his father replied that we don’t believe in all this stuff in our village. She was so strong after the pregnancy that the next day after her delivery she resumed work and started doing her daily household chores. To him this was a thing of pride, to me it was a feeling of empathy rushing towards the mother as I can imagine how much pain she must have gone through during and after a vaginal delivery.

Some societies drive women into thinking they are unworthy of attention and that they should just stay quiet about their problems. They don’t let her have any character development. Even if she wants to she can’t express her problems in front of the doctors. They struggle to speak about their body, they get shy when asked about periods or sexual endeavours, and they end up giving limited or wrong history about themselves. This leads to misdiagnosis and complications.There is also a physician’s aspect to this: Considering a situation where a male physician is trying to examine a female, it is quite obvious that there will be some sense of uneasiness in the mind of the female while talking about her problems. She might skip some parts about her that she thinks are too private to be talked about in front of a male doctor. She might even refuse for a male doctor to examine her which is very fair given the day and age. Therefore the presence of a female doctor or nurse is mandatory at all times. There is a reason these rules are made and it should not be neglected by male doctors. Some might take the noncompliance of the female patient to their ego and refuse to treat them, which is a very unethical and non-empathetic move by the doctor. This can lead to negligence and further complications if not diagnosed on time.

In our government setup OPDs**, there are no separate beds or rooms present to check a female patient. There are literally two beds side-by-side, separated by curtains from each other and the room. Everyone is supposed to remove their clothing and show where they are having problems in that same room, where fifty more people are standing and eyeing around on what’s happening. How do we expect people to be comfortable and bare themselves in such a poor setting, and with ten more people on the doctor’s head waiting for their checkup how do you expect that doctor to be in their full capacity to make proper diagnosis? Just because they come from rural backgrounds doesn’t mean they should be treated poorly. If I put myself in their shoes, I wouldn’t want to be treated like this so why should I expect them to do so. The mismanaged setup of government hospitals add up to the burden on the doctors leading to misdiagnosis, burnout and less patient satisfaction from them.

The working protocols in an OPD are something that often leads to patients not getting enough time to build a proper history and thus get misdiagnosed. As there is already pressure on the doctors to reduce the patient load as soon as possible, if the patient is not presenting with characteristic symptoms they are often sent away with a basic prescription. This can turn out to be fatal for the patient if the illness exacerbates. There are so many stories where women suffering from aneurysm or pulmonary embolism are sent away without proper investigations saying it must be periods or wrong dietary habits causing nominal symptoms. Therefore investigations should be recommended properly and not shoved to the side. There should be proper follow-up scheduled for the patient so that if there are any serious signs they are diagnosed earlier than usual.To conclude I would like to say that a patient, whatever the gender, should be treated without bias. Proper security measures should be taken by the institution and the doctor, to make women comfortable and make them feel like they are in a safe space. This will not only prevent misdiagnosis but also lead to a good prognosis for the treatment. There should be crowd control measures taken by the institution so that doctors aren’t burdened with sudden rise of numbers which would cause them to make haste in diagnosing the patient. Also, a proper history, investigation, and follow-up schedule will play a major role in early diagnosis of the disease with prevention of complications.

** ODP — Outpatient Department

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