The Sydney Morning Herald logo
Advertisement

This was published 1 year ago

‘It’s all in your head’: How medical gender bias affects Australian women

When journalists from The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age put a call-out to hear from women who had experienced medical misogyny, they were inundated with heart-breaking stories.

More than 500 women contacted us within 48 hours of the series first being published. To date, there have now been more than 1000 responses.

Hundreds of women have come forward.SMH

Many respondents said they had their serious diagnoses missed. Others said they’d been told that what they were feeling was “all in their head”.

Some said they’d only narrowly survived as a result.

Advertisement

Herald health editor Kate Aubusson and Age senior writer Wendy Tuohy talk about the investigation and the history of gender medical bias for The Morning Edition podcast.

Continue this series

Medical misogyny
Up next
More than a thousand women have shared their disturbing encounters with the medical system as part of an investigation into medical misogyny.
  • Investigation

‘Almost killed me’: 1000 women dismissed, left in pain and misdiagnosed

More than a thousand women have shared their disturbing encounters with the medical system as part of an investigation into medical misogyny.

Victorian woman Suzanne Boatto, who was turned away from the emergency department after suffering a heart attack.
  • Exclusive

‘Like someone took a hot poker and stabbed it through my heart’: Women left behind by medical research

Australian medical research currently does not account for the needs of women, a scoping review from the Department of Health and Aged Care has found.

Previously
Many studies have demonstrated women are more sensitive to pain.
  • Opinion

‘We offer anaesthetic but only men need it’: The persistent myth about pain

Do women or men have a higher threshold for pain? It’s a question that raises a number of problems with Australia’s medical system.

See all stories

From our partners

Advertisement
Advertisement