The gender health gap exists. Just ask the 57% of women who feel they are medically misdiagnosed

Allow us to introduce you to yet another element of the patriarchy – the gender health gap. This refers to the lack of research into the female body’s reaction to disease and ill health, with a larger focus on the male body and its physiology.

We don’t know anywhere near enough about how medical conditions affect men and women differently, but what we do know is that women are receiving poorer medical advice as a result.

Research has found that the female body’s symptoms of stroke and heart attack differ to a male’s, while conditions such as PCOS and endometriosis are woefully under-researched. 

Unsurprisingly, this has a direct impact on trust in doctors to correctly diagnose. According to research by digital healthcare Livi, over half (57%) of women fear they have been misdiagnosed at some point – almost a quarter of whom believe this is simply due to being female (22%). 

Of those that Livi surveyed, nearly half of women said their mental health was impacted when they were misdiagnosed. 34% reported that their relationships with partners, friends or family had been affected, along with 23% saying their home life was impacted, 21% citing their work life being knocked 18% reporting changes in their sex life as a result.

So, as well as the potential health impacts of a misdiagnosis, there’s a whole array of resulting circumstances that come with the gender health gap.  

Livi have published a free eBook named Miss Diagnosed to remedy this – it looks at prominent diseases and conditions which present clear disparities in men and women, including heart disease, stroke, autoimmune disease, dementia and cancer.

“Until about 25 years ago, almost all medical research was carried out exclusively on men, and so we still have a lot of catching up to do,” Dr Bryony Henderson, lead GP at Livi, says.

She goes on to highlight that digital healthcare has a “huge role to play in closing the gender health gap”. 

Livi will also be providing specialist women’s health training – covering themes such as menstruation and menopause – to GPs and other doctors across the UK. Talk about putting it forward.

In the meantime, look further into the impact of the gender health gap and educate yourself about your body’s physiology by reading Miss Diagnosed here.