Imagine you are— if not already— a man. A man who is not a part of the LGBTQ+ community. Already, you know you have privilege in terms of your salary, your career, and just how people treat you on a day to day basis, but have you ever thought of the privilege you would have in healthcare? Even after all the progress society has made up until 2020, gender bias is prominent in medical care. Gender bias or discrimination (in medicine) is when a certain sex or gender is not properly treated or taken seriously in terms of their treatments and diagnosis, merely due to their sex or gender identity. However, even with the privilege cis men hold in healthcare, they still face issues regarding mental health treatments and resources; there is stigma men face in society for reaching out for help for mental problems they struggle with. Gender bias, though it hurts mostly women and LGBTQ+ people, affects everyone in some way.
As previously stated, gender bias is still prevalent in healthcare. For women, there are three main areas where this can be clearly observed: cardiovascular care, pain management, and mental health diagnoses. According to “Exploring Gender Bias in Healthcare,” for the past thirty-six years, “the mortality rate of heart attacks has been greater for women than men,” even though the physical aspects of the two sexes mean that there is no reason “women should die at higher rates than men” (MedCity). So what is the cause for women to be more affected by these heart attacks? You guessed it: gender discrimination. In women, the symptoms of a heart attack are often more subdued than in men. Many people, even doctors, are uneducated in what heart attacks look like in women. Thus, many affected women go undiagnosed and subsequently face fatal impacts. Moreover, “many females feel their pain wasn’t initially taken seriously” (MedCity) by doctors who underestimate or don’t even believe their pain. Therefore, they either get the wrong treatment, or no treatment at all. This is a similar occurrence in mental health issues in females and males. Although the rates of depression between the two sexes don’t have much of a disparity, the World Health Organization finds that “women are more likely to be treated for depression than men,”. For example, women suffering with ADHD may often get wrongly diagnosed with depression, or are generally overtreated. Since ADHD shows up differently in women, and most tests for ADHD have been done on men, many women aren’t even properly diagnosed until their later years. Men, on the other hand, rarely get treated. Due to gender roles in society, more females seek the doctor to discuss their mental problems, whereas men are pressured to “be a man” and “keep it inside.” This results in many men left undiagnosed and untreated, suffering with mental illnesses they may not even know they had. Gender discrimination may not be “intentional discrimination” (Duke Health), but occur through outdated beliefs and processes that are just not true anymore. See, a lot of medicinal research is built off the notion that males and females are only different when it comes to reproductive organs. Thus, the fact that “most research has been conducted on male animals and male cells” (Duke Health) contributes to the majority of the gendered bias in healthcare.
Most of the focus on gender bias in healthcare is on cis females and males. But there are whole groups of people who are left to struggle in silence. Nonbinary people and transgender people are constantly turned away or harshly dealt with in the medical field. Nonbinary or genderqueer people are those who identify outside the two binary genders, man and woman. They can identify anywhere between that spectrum, or completely out of that spectrum– out of society’s norms. Their identity is up to them. Genderqueer people can identify under the transgender umbrella; trans people are those whose “gender identity is different from the gender” (National Center for Transgender Equality) they were assigned to at birth. Transgender people are completely and fully valid, but they face immeasurable prejudice from those who can’t understand or choose to be ignorant about trans and nonbinary identities. Gender nonconforming people don’t feel respected in healthcare mainly due to the “widespread assumptions of gender and sex’s inseperable and binary natures” (Mogul-Adlin, Yale University). Society’s gender ideal is fitting in with being male or female. Thus, many people grow up stuck in this notion; when they meet someone who doesn’t fit in this spectrum, they can’t comprehend it and resolve to fear or hate them. Thererfore, trans and nonbinary people feel as if they can’t even go to the doctors anymore due to many healthcare workers not “agreeing” with their identities. A lot of the research done in medicine is based on cis people, so those who don’t identify as cis have a hard time getting the proper support and treatment they need.
Although society has progressed to be more accepting of marginalized people, there is still work to be done. Based on a survey by TODAY last year, “more than one-half of women, compared with one-third of men, believe gender discrimination in patient care is a serious problem” (Duke Health). Women face problems in the cardiovascular, mental, and pain management areas. Men are also struggling in terms of the mental health treatment process. Nonbinary and transgender people go through discrimination and are pushed away in multiple ways. But how exactly can change be pursued? For the medical field as a whole, Janine Clayton, director of the ORWH at NIH, claims that “‘It is important for everyone who works in a medical practice to know how sex and gender—as well as age and race/ethnicity—affect health” (Duke Health). Research needs to be expanded to encompass people of all identities, ensuring that everyone gets the treatment they need. Medical teams must be more inclusive, allowing different perspectives from all people to be taken into consideration. Healthcare workers must ensure that their questions are not suggestive towards one particular gender. In terms of what we can do, as teenagers and people not involved in the professional medicinal career, there is indeed a long list. If you or the people around you are not educated about this issue or about LGBTQ+ identities in general, research and learn. Actively call out your friends and families who say hurtful things about peoples’ identities. Sign petitions to help transgender and nonbinary people get the support they need. If you can, donate to organizations such as the National Center for Transgender Equality to financially support transgender people who don’t have the money to go through important operations. Any small thing you do does impact the people around you and their perspective on issues such as this. Be the change.
- By Aarna Garg
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