How many doctor visits can you remember where you shared a concern about your body and were not taken seriously? I can list multiple, even starting from when I was only 10 years old, when a doctor harshly told me that I needed to “stop making up my symptoms to get attention from my parents.” Turns out, about a week later, she discovered I was in fact NOT making up my symptoms!
Could it even possibly be true that doctors dismiss symptoms of girls as young as elementary school?
I remember my mom having to schedule an OBGYN appointment when I was in middle school because I was having such severe symptoms and pain during my period. Despite the fact that I had been passing out, often barely able to walk, and having to miss obligations because of the extreme pain my period was causing, no tests were run, and the only advice or option given to me was to either get on birth control or to take extra ibuprofen… Is this because doctors don’t want to spend the time to take us seriously, or is this because of a gap in research when it comes to women?
On the topic of periods and a gap in research for women’s health, did you know that it has only been three years since they tested multiple brands of tampons and pads on actual blood?
When I first saw the articles about this in 2023, I thought it was a joke. Was it really true that after decades of menstrual products being used and advertised to individuals who menstruate, they had not been regularly using real blood to test the actual efficiency of those products? Sadly, the answer is yes. According to No One Studied Menstrual Product Absorbency Realistically until Now, menstrual products have been predominantly tested using a saline solution. This not only makes the supposed absorbency levels on the packages inaccurate, but it also brings attention to the fact that women’s health is still not the biggest priority.
Even now, despite researchers such as those at Oregon Health & Science University pointing out that results differ when using blood to test absorption, the saline solution is still the most common testing method used.
Although this may not seem like a big deal to some, I think it is. To put it in perspective, when women go to their doctors to discuss potentially serious problems relating to their periods, a commonly asked question is how many pads or tampons they go through within a certain time frame. If the accuracy of what menstrual products truly absorb is compromised by the use of saline solution, how is this question an accurate measurement of the struggles the individual is experiencing?
This opens up an even larger consideration of the fact that doctors may be using the gaps in research surrounding women’s health to make diagnoses. Although this limited research is not the fault of the doctors, when it is used as concrete evidence to ignore the medical concerns of women and young girls, this is a serious issue.
The number of times I, and many other women I know, have been gaslit by doctors saying everything was fine, even when it was later revealed that it was not, is very alarming. Where are we supposed to go for help if the individuals we are told to go to for help won’t even acknowledge our pain?
In the grand scheme of things, women and young girls should not have to fight so hard to be heard. Doctors need to begin acknowledging that they may not always have all the answers and that this is an indication that they should attempt to dig deeper into the concerns at hand, just as they commonly do for men. I personally believe that as feminists, we need to continue to bring attention to the very obvious gap in women’s health to ensure that those around us, and those who come after us, receive the much-needed respect, research, and medical attention that they deserve.