Pain and prejudice

Gabrielle Jackson for The Guardian (with my spacing for clarity/emphasis):

“Women wait longer for pain medication than men,

wait longer to be diagnosed with cancer,

are more likely to have their physical symptoms ascribed to mental health issues,

are more likely to have their heart disease misdiagnosed or to become disabled after a stroke, and

are more likely to suffer illnesses ignored or denied by the medical profession.”

And much more. Healthcare has a problem with systemic sexism. Even if no doctor was ever obviously sexist, let alone misogynist — ha! as if! — this would still be a problem, because “almost everything we know about human biology comes from the study of men.”

“Or male animals!” as Ms. Jackson added on Twitter when I shared this. See her book, Pain and Prejudice: A call to arms for women and their bodies.