The women who claim SEXIST DOCTORS are putting their lives at risk

Symptoms dismissed as women’s trouble. Told they need a spa day instead of treatment ... DIAGNOSIS It’s just a headache. Get some rest, dear

After a brief examination, the middleaged male gynaecologist sat Paula Brunt down and delivered his diagnosis. then 39, Paula had been suffering from chronic pain in her abdomen for 18 months, as well as heavy bleeding and an exhaustion that sometimes overwhelmed her.

Later, she would discover that these symptoms were being caused by a cancerous tumour on one of her ovaries.

But at this appointment, there was no sense of alarm or urgency.

‘there is a history of cancer in my family, so I told him this, but he didn’t carry out any tests,’ says Paula, now 48. ‘He said it was most probably the menopause and there was nothing he could do. He was very matter of fact. It seemed as if he was telling me I had a cold.’

A few months later, Paula’s condition worsened and she went back, only to be told the same again. ‘I was so unwell, I knew something wasn’t right,’ she recalls. ‘It was impacting on all areas of my life.’ eventually, it was her GP — a woman — who made an emergency appointment for a scan.

‘She was fabulous,’ says Paula, adding: ‘I could tell by the female sonographer’s face that something wasn’t right. I was a slim size 8 and looked nine months’ pregnant.’

Once her tumour was spotted, Paula underwent major surgery to have it removed, followed by a hysterectomy.

Her recovery from this has been slow and, seven years on, she’s still in pain.

Of course, doctors are not infallible. It’s possible that Paula was simply unlucky. But what concerns her is that she believes diagnosis took so long because she is a woman. ‘If I had been listened to, if my condition wasn’t just put down to “women’s problems”, then I believe my cancer would’ve been picked up sooner and I wouldn’t have had to have a hysterectomy, which made me really ill,’ she says. ‘I’ve still not recovered from it.’

While Paula complained to the hospital, she says she never received a proper explanation nor the apology she feels she was owed.

And she is not alone in claiming the severity of her symptoms were overlooked because of her sex.

Indeed, there is a growing number who