LONG FIGHT FOR FAIR TREATMENT

Heart Disease:

Coronary heart disease kills twice as many women as breast cancer in the UK. But women are more likely to have their heart attack symptoms missed, misdiagnosed and treatment delayed, leading to worse outcomes than men.

Diabetes:

Women with Type 1 diabetes have a 40 per cent higher excess risk of premature death than men with the condition, while women with Type 2 diabetes have a 27 per cent higher risk of stroke and a 44 per cent higher risk of coronary heart disease than men.

Autism:

For decades it was believed the condition mainly affected men.

Figures showed that only one girl was diagnosed for every 10 boys, but the true figure is one in three.

“Without a diagnosis, women and girls are at more risk of developing mental health conditions and being exposed to treatments that are not appropriate,” says Dr Sarah Lister Brook, Clinical Director of the National Autistic Society.

“It is a double whammy that can lead to chronic anxiety.

“They experience difficulties, fractured families and can end up in the justice system.

“Now there is growing awareness as we are running professional training courses and more diagnostic tools are being developed.”

Mental Health: Women who’ve suffered complex trauma are more likely than men to be diagnosed with a personality disorder.

“This diagnosis plays into all sorts of misogynistic narratives about people being manipulative and difficult, which strikes me as unhelpful,” says Andy Bell, Chief Executive at the Centre for Mental Health.

“Psychiatry is reasonably balanced but its origins are very male dominated and we’re still dealing with a legacy way of thinking which is the western male, white middle-class standpoint. We need to ensure women’s voices and experiences are strong.”

Adverse Drug Reactions:

Adverse drug reactions to new medicines is 60 per cent more common in women than men, according to a paper in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. The gender gap is present in all age groups over the age of 19.

Pain:

Nearly three-quarters of women believe men’s pain is taken more seriously due to gender discrimination from healthcare professionals, the Gender Pain Gap Index Report found, stating: “Women don’t just feel ignored, more women than men are experiencing longer diagnosis times for some of the same pain types.”