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Gaslighting in Medicine is Still Putting Women's Health at Risk

Your dream of relief is turning into another nightmare of frustration. You feel you are getting no respect for your ongoing suffering. For the few times the doctor looks away from the computer screen and actually gazes over at you, you sense an air of skepticism. You are dealing with a show of arrogance that proclaims that if you were seriously ill, then the tests would show it. At this point, you start to doubt your own sanity. Is it possible that all this pain and discomfort is just in your head? Maybe you only need to "toughen up” a bit and not waste the time of these medical professionals. After all, they must have real patients to take care of. A wave of guilt washes over you and you…

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Featured

 How Doctors Gaslight Women into Doubting Their Own Pain

Maya Dusenbery’s book, "Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick," explains how women’s health issues have historically been dismissed—and what we can do about it now.

 Medical Gaslighting Is Real, Especially For Black Women

Have you ever walked into a doctor's office, voiced your concerns to a provider, and essentially been told that it's either in your head or just the result of stress, when you know it's something more? Well, there's a name for what you may have experienced — it's called medical gaslighting. You may be familiar with romantic gaslighting, which refers to a form of psychological abuse, wherein someone manipulates their partner into questioning their own reality. Medical gaslighting, on the other hand, occurs when medical professionals disregard their patients' feelings or reported symptoms, attributing their experiences to psychological causes (like stress) or denying their symptoms entirely.

Articles of Interest

Women Are Calling Out ‘Medical Gaslighting’

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A Female Physician Shares Her Shocking Gaslighting Experience with the Healthcare Industry

Society has become increasingly aware of the pervasive and potentially hazardous issue of gaslighting within the healthcare industry and its alarming impact on women's health. Gaslighting, where medical professionals overtly dismiss symptoms, leaving crucial health issues untreated, has led to women on average being diagnosed with diseases four years later than men.

Downplayed distress: Gaslighting in women’s healthcare

Women deserve better from the United States healthcare system. Despite paying more for their care than those in comparably wealthy countries, American women have the highest rate of death from avoidable causes, including the highest maternal mortality rate. They also have one of the highest rates of multiple chronic illnesses.

Feeling Dismissed? How to Spot ‘Medical Gaslighting’ and What to Do About It.

Experts share tips on advocating for yourself in a health care setting.

Female Millennials Most Affected by Medical Gaslighting, According to New Research by Mira

Women have been excluded from medical research for years, which has contributed to the gender gap in healthcare and led to dismissive attitudes towards women’s symptoms and complaints. It’s a known fact that women receive 25% fewer painkillers in emergency rooms and hospitals compared to men, are diagnosed with cancer 4 years later than men and are referred to mental health professionals 4x more often than men when facing physical symptoms.

Gaslighting in women’s health: No, it’s not just in your head

There’s a dirty little secret in health care that doesn’t get the attention it deserves: Female patients are continuously gaslighted about their physical and mental health. Whether it’s heart disease labeled as anxiety, an autoimmune disorder attributed to depression, or ovarian cysts chalked up to “normal period pain,” many women’s health issues are likely to be misdiagnosed or dismissed by doctors as something less critical. One study published in Academic Emergency Medicine found that women who went to the emergency room (ER) with severe stomach pain had to wait for almost 33% longer than men with the same symptoms. We've asked four leading specialists at the Katz Institute for Women’s Health—a cardiologist, a gynecologist, a pain specialist and a psychologist—to offer insights as to why gaslighting still occurs and, most importantly, what women can do to protect themselves from its harmful effects.

How To Avoid Gender-Based Medical Gaslighting

What do I do if a healthcare provider doubts or dismisses my symptoms?

How to Tell If Your Doctor Is Gaslighting You — and How to Advocate for the Care You Need

If you’re in an underrepresented group or have an “invisible” illness, you may be particularly prone to medical gaslighting.

Medical Gaslighting of Women Is Real and So Is Its Toll

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Medical Gaslighting Remains Rampant for Women: Whose Job Is It To Stop It?

Have you ever gone to a medical appointment, knowing and feeling with certainty that something is wrong, only to have a doctor downplay and write off your symptoms? Medical gaslighting, a relatively new, non-clinical term, refers to the practice of minimizing or dismissing a patient’s symptoms, concerns, or experiences. Often, symptoms are written off as psychological in nature, or patients are told that what they are experiencing isn’t serious or that it is normal.

Medical gaslighting: when conditions turn out not to be ‘all in the mind’

Today, the term “gaslighting” is widely used to describe psychological manipulation, where a person is made to doubt their perception of reality. Politicians are accused of it, as are celebrities. The term also used in discussions about health. Medical gaslighting refers to cases in which a healthcare practitioner imposes a pattern of questions, testing or diagnosis that runs counter or tangential to the history or symptoms the patient is describing or experiencing. There is usually a clear power imbalance at play. More often than not, gaslit patients are women, members of the LGBTQ community, people of colour and older adults.

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People with long COVID continue to experience medical gaslighting more than 3 years into the pandemic

Medical gaslighting occurs when health-care practitioners dismiss or falsely blame patients for their symptoms. While new information about long COVID has become more readily available, some patients continue to face gaslighting and feel that their symptoms are treated less seriously by some health-care professionals. This dismissal can erode trust in the health-care system and can also lead to stigma and shame.

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Physicians have long dismissed or downplayed women's sexual- and reproductive-health concerns—but in 2018, stories about "health-care gaslighting" are consistently breaking through to the mainstream.

The toxic power dynamics of gaslighting in medicine

Early in the black-and-white movie Gaslight, the protagonist (played by Ingrid Bergman) sits alone in her bedroom. As she stares at a dimming gas-fueled lamp, confusion sets in. Did the light just dim on its own? Much later in the film, she questions this again, but this time screaming, convinced she is losing her mind. This film, and the play on which it is based, gave rise to the term gaslighting—a form of psychological abuse.

When Doctors Don’t Believe Women’s Pain

Medical gaslighting makes women sick. The problem is more complex than a few bad doctors.

When Doctors Medically Gaslight Moms: How to Advocate for Yourself When You Feel Dismissed

If you’ve ever felt like a medical provider dismissed or minimized your concerns, you are not alone. There is a long history of doctors who medically gaslight women, failing to take them seriously and leaving them questioning their own judgment.

When Your Doctor Doesn’t Listen to You: Gaslighting in Women’s Health

How many times have you gotten angry only to have someone ask if you’re on your period? Or maybe expressed concern in your doctor’s office about weight gain, only to be told it’s a “normal” part of hormones and womanhood? Despite decades of advocacy, there’s still a belief in the medical community that women’s pain–and their health issues and concerns–are all in their head.

Women suffer needless pain because almost everything is designed for men

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Resources

5 Sneaky Signs Your Doctor Is Gaslighting You

Medical gaslighting is more common than you think. Here's how to tell if your symptoms are getting dismissed and what to do.