Hidden bias that harms women

HEALTH inequality has been in the news a lot recently, with campaigners saying that women get a raw deal — something that has been dubbed the ‘gender health gap’. Research suggests women are diagnosed with Alzheimer’s later, are less likely to be prescribed painkillers and to participate in clinical trials.

Another piece of research this week supports their argument. Doctors are more likely to miss heart failure in women than men, as they assume it’s a ‘male’ disease, despite 40 per cent of sufferers being female.

This isn’t explicit sexism — it simply doesn’t occur to doctors that women might have heart problems. It’s a good example of how unconscious prejudices influence our decisions.

I’m sure this happens elsewhere in medicine. I’ve seen it the other way round when doctors miss anorexia in men.

These assumptions don’t just affect diagnoses based on gender, either. A few years ago, I met a man in his 70s who had just been diagnosed with syphilis after months of illness that no one could explain — because no one thought he might be sexually active.