Women are unheard, misdiagnosed and undertreated
While representing a new mother who had a severe injury misdiagnosed by her consultant, the question I kept returning to was did her gender impact on her care?
The woman suffered a severe grade 3c anal sphincter tear following the delivery of her first child, but post-delivery the obstetrician assessed it as a grade 3b perineal tear. He performed repair surgery – unsupervised – and she was discharged.
In the months that followed my client reported distressing symptoms and pain, but it was nine months before she was properly examined and found to have suffered a severe anal sphincter injury. She suffered incontinence and required secondary repair surgery alongside long-term management of her injury.
Like many women we represent in medical negligence claims, there was a sense from my client that she was not properly listened to when she raised concerns about distressing symptoms.
The Times recently reported that women are more likely to have a range of health conditions misdiagnosed or dismissed when they present to medics. According to the Women’s Health Strategy for England in November 2022, 84 per cent of women have felt a doctor did not listen to their concerns, while 57 per cent feel they have been given the wrong diagnosis.
Heart disease is the biggest killer of women in the UK, but it is routinely "underdiagnosed and undertreated" due to the perception that it is a male disease, say academics in a report in the medical journal Heart. It affects over 3.6 million women in the UK, but women are 50% more likely to receive a misdiagnosis and 70% more likely to die within a month of a heart attack compared to men.
Symptoms like chest tightness, nausea, and anxiety in women are often dismissed as indigestion or panic attack. Experts highlight the need for more education among doctors, as women’s specific heart disease risks, such as complications from pregnancy and menopause, are often overlooked.
Similarly, brain tumour diagnosis in women faces significant delays. The Brain Tumour Charity found that 30% of women wait over a year for diagnosis, double the rate for men. Women’s symptoms, such as headaches or fatigue, are often dismissed as anxiety or hormone-related issues, leading to dangerous delays. There may also be an “institutional presumption” of “mental imbalance and frailty in women,” the charity told The Times, which “could literally be killing us.”
Stroke is another area in which women's symptoms are missed. Although men have more strokes, women face more severe consequences, including higher rates of disability. Misdiagnosis is common, with women 25% less likely to receive an accurate stroke diagnosis. As with many areas of female health, more robust research is needed to address the disparity.
A report by the men’s health platform Manual found that Britain has the 12th-highest female gender health gap in the world thanks to “the misdiagnosis of women’s symptoms”.
My client was incredibly brave throughout the claim process while also coming to terms with her disabilities as a new mum. We achieved a substantial settlement on her behalf, but if her injury had been accurately assessed in the hours after birth, she could have avoided the significant anxiety and physical stress she faces daily.
As the consultant cardiologist Dr Sonya Babu-Narayan says: "Women are unheard, underdiagnosed, misdiagnosed and undertreated" which can cause "needless damage" or worse, cost a life.
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