Paradox of medicine regarding women’s health- decoding enigma  

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don’t know if it’s just me, but during my adolescent years, I was told that women only lose a tablespoon of blood during menstruation. I believed it, even though I experienced very heavy flows, to the point of soaking my clothes and bedding. This was especially true recently at work. Despite wearing one of the largest tampons for an hour, I still managed to soak my jeans. With no option to go home or change, I hoped nobody would notice, or if they did, they wouldn’t say anything.

This experience made me realize that I had been systematically gaslighted by medicine and healthcare professionals, who perpetuated the myth that women and people who menstruate only lose 1 to 2 tablespoons of blood. However, recent findings suggest otherwise: ‘It’s widely accepted that the average person loses between 30 and 40 milliliters, or two to three tablespoons, of blood during menstruation. But some research suggests that this figure may be closer to 60 milliliters or about 4 tablespoons (Holland 2018)

Having recently purchased a book by Elinor Cleghorn titled ‘Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World,‘ I felt the need to write an article on how our society not only normalized women’s pain but also ridiculed it, and even romanticised it, and how the medical field itself propagated such a state, making many women, yes, unwell.

Women mystical creatures or not creatures at all

One recurring theme in discussions about women’s health is the persistent belief that women’s bodies are too complex to be accurately diagnosed and included in modern research. It has come to light that the majority of drug trials often exclude women due to the perceived complications introduced by female hormones. Despite the medical profession’s reputation as fearless seekers of answers, women are often dismissed because their hormones are considered too risky a variable for study, leading to perhaps ‘illogical’ (or just too complex) and less linear outcome studies.

This tendency not only portrays women’s health as mystical but also contradicts the fact that women’s bodies are treated as communal property, not their own as if they are owed to the system simply because they bear a uterus. Women’s bodies are treated as defaults to men, with only their reproductive function differentiating them from men. This difference had also become a defining feature of women’s social and economic roles. The uterus serves as an instrument of control and simultaneously makes their health status relegated to ‘medical mysteries’ and ‘illogical hormonal tendencies’ due to having this reproductive function.

Interestingly and ironically, Cleghorn points out that while scientists once despised women’s ‘erratic hormones’ in their studies, this perception has now completely changed. The medical community now appreciates women’s hormones.

You might ask why. Well, COVID-19 changed this perception. As most of us have heard, COVID-19 killed twice as many men as women (BBC 2020). Moreover, surviving COVID-19 had negative long-term health implications for men, including ‘worsening semen parameters, potentially lower testosterone levels, and an increased risk of erectile dysfunction’ (Dubin, Benett, et.al 2022).

Although research on this gender gap is still developing, it is widely hypothesized that the difference comes as a result of the ‘biological variables’ between men’s and women’s immune systems. Current research suggests a correlation between women’s hormones, particularly estrogen and progesterone, and anti-inflammatory properties that make women’s immune systems more protective against COVID-19. The appreciation, not yet conclusive but highly probable, seems to stem from the fact that such hormones can help save the other half of the population—men (Cleghorn 2022)

Thus, once again, a woman’s body is instrumental, and most importantly her reproductive system itself becomes a weapon instrumentalized for men. In the realm of medical research, it is called a ‘Yentl syndrome,’ where women are misdiagnosed and mistreated unless their symptoms conform to those of men. Anything outside the male standard is labeled as an abnormality (Perez 2017).

Despite the medical field’s claim to logic and rationality, it appears rife with contradictions. As mentioned, being a woman in medicine is also being simultaneously is being also treated as default to a man. This assumption can be traced back to Aristotle, who described the female body as the ‘inverse of the male, with its genitalia turned outside in.’ Yes, that is why many diseases exhibit similar symptoms in both genders.

Well may apart from heart attack symptoms, for example, differ between men and women, with women more likely to experience stomach pain, nausea, and fatigue instead of the classic chest and left arm pains. Women also often have additional stroke symptoms, including loss of speech, sudden weakness on one side, fainting, hallucinations, vomiting, pain, hiccups, and seizures. Additionally, women are less likely to experience symptoms of STIs, such as chlamydia and gonorrhea, leading to dormancy. Left untreated, these silent infections can result in severe complications, including infertility or chronic pelvic inflammatory disease in women.

Consequently, women in medicine are both defaulted to men, as the Bible states ‘created from Adam’s limb,’ and simultaneously seen as abnormalities, hence why they are perceived as mysterious creatures. It is almost as if women navigate a medical landscape filled with conformity and the romanticization of pain that encroaches on their autonomy and quality of life. Women in the medical field are almost perceived as like centaurs—half human, half beast. This narrative becomes a profoundly conclusive description of the entire women’s experience in the medical field, where they are belittled, not believed, accused of hysteria, or blamed for their health issues by medical professionals. Women’s testimonies of their health concerns are perceived as irrational; they do not exist and are figments of their imagination, just like centaurs.

Seeking answers

I want this article to serve as an introduction to a series exploring medicine as a projection or socio-political system in itself. As I navigate my health concerns with GPs regarding menstruation, I wonder if my experience will be any different. Would I be belittled and not believed too?

As I read Elinor Cleghorn’s book on Unwell Women, which she claims is her case study due to being misdiagnosed by medical professionals only to be finally diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in her 30s – lupus (which affects more women than men and is often the hardest to diagnose among women), I contemplate my investigation, and the series is a case study based on my experience too. The author herself notes having typical symptoms in her 20s, yet doctors often dismissed her as over-dramatic, attributing her tiredness and fatigue to lifestyle choices.

Anyway, I want to explore this myself. Will the medical field betray me too, or perhaps has it already betrayed me?

Dominika Szarek

Hi, I’m Dominika, the sole author of this article. I created this space to connect my ideas and express my political and social commentary in the vast digital void. Here, my consciousness speaks through.