Medical Misogyny, its Impact on the Medical Industry and How it Can Lead to Medical Negligence
Taylah McGregor
Medical Negligence Lead | NSW Business Development at MedicoLegal Assessments Group Pty Ltd
Hi,
I hope that your October has been pleasant! Here at MAG, we’ve had a bit of down time to be able to focus more on improving our services and reaching out to connect to our valued clients. It’s been such a valuable experience and I’m glad that our now complete team has allowed me to be able to focus my attention and energy onto this important part of my job.
Next week Michelle and I will be heading down to Wollongong to visit some of our valued clients and we’ll be dropping into my old stomping grounds of Campbelltown and Liverpool on our way back home. I’ll also be doing my best drop in to see our valued clients in the Sydney CBD, if you’d like to arrange a catch up for a coffee, or maybe a virtual meeting if you’re no located in the Sydney CBD, please let me know as I’m always down for a chat! (as everyone in the office will attest to).
I also just wanted to take a moment to congratulate all of those who have been listed as preeminent, leading or recommended lawyers in the 2024 Doyle’s Guide. It’s such an amazing achievement and is do doubt well deserved by all.
First of all, I just wanted to share the statistics for our Medical Negligence Triage Service from September 2024.
In September there were 64 Medical Negligence Triage Cases lodged through our service!
Out of those 64 cases, 39 of them requested Free Preliminary Opinions, 4 of them proceeded to teleconferences, 15 of them proceeded to a full report while quite a lot of those requests are still currently in progress.
17 out of the 39 Free Preliminary Opinions requested received a “negligence not probable” response from the specialist and did not proceed any further.
We are happy to have been able to provide the plaintiffs with the closure they need as well as helping them avoid the emotional and financial burden of proceeding straight to a report, only to receive an unfavourable/unsupportive opinion.
This month’s topic is Medical Misogyny, its Impact on the Medical Industry and How it Can Lead to Medical Negligence
Two in three women in Australia say they’ve experienced medical misogyny. This is not only frustrating, but it can unfortunately lead to medical negligence claims resulting in worse health outcomes, or in some severe cases, even death. I feel like most women have a story relating to some form of medical misogyny. A woman I know was experiencing severe stomach, back, hip and groin pain last year and after presenting to her GP and testing for a UTI (negative), she was told to monitor symptoms over the weekend in case her appendix burst.
After appendicitis was ruled out and the pain persisted, she was referred for an ultrasound for suspected Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) or endometriosis. The results returned negative for both, however there was no further action from her GP. They didn’t even bother to call her back to discuss the results – she had to ask to view them and understand them herself. A year later, she still experiences the pain but luckily, she didn’t give up. She did her own research, and discovered that many women with similar symptoms have PCOS and that this can now be diagnosed with a blood test which picks up on high levels of androgens in the blood. This test can be used where ultrasound has failed to detect the ovarian cysts – and it turns out that this is actually quite common!
Mis-diagnosis, or no diagnosis equals medical negligence
Delayed diagnosis and treatment, over-prescribing and dismissal of pain are just some of the consequences women face as a result of medical misogyny. Broadly speaking, medical misogyny refers to the gender biases that affect (or create barriers to) medical care for women — whether they are conscious or unconscious.
In recent years, growing awareness of conditions such as endometriosis and PCOS has helped shine a light on the issue. It takes seven years, on average, for women to be diagnosed with endometriosis. Partly that's because the condition has historically been under-recognised by both the medical community and the public. However today nearly 1 million Australian women are estimated to live with endometriosis at some point in their life.
It isn’t just health issues like endometriosis or PCOS that go ignored, misdiagnosed or untreated in women, it’s also health issues that affect men as well. Physical symptoms of common and often life-threatening health conditions are often dismissed as stress and anxiety. A crucial factor for medical misogyny’s persistence in modern health care is the tendency of medical research to focus exclusively on male study participants.
Hopefully now with more women in positions of power in the medical research industry this will allow for more research to be completed based on women’s bodies and their needs and therefore avoid part of the issue causing medical misogyny.
Spotlight on our Medical Negligence Specialists
Recommended by LinkedIn
A/Prof (Prasana) Chanaka Wijeratne graduated in medicine from the University of UNSW (UNSW), and trained in psychiatry at Concord Hospital and the Institute of Psychiatry/Maudsley Hospital, London. Whilst a sub-specialist in old age psychiatry, he has continued to assess and treat adult patients. He has expertise in mood (depressive and bipolar) disorders, cognitive disorders such as dementia, and in managing the neuropsychiatric symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. He was the lead author of Assessment and Management of People with Behavioural and Psychiatric Disorders of Dementia (BPSD). A Handbook for NSW Health Clinicians. He has expertise in the assessment of testamentary capacity; capacity to appoint Power of Attorney and Guardian; and capacity to practise in health professionals.
A/Prof Paul Myers ’ experience includes the endovascular treatment of abdominal aortic aneurysms and thoracic aneurysms, general surgery, trauma and DVT. His areas of expertise also include peripheral vascular disease, angioplasty and stenting for stroke prevention, hypertension and renal failure as well as venous disorders and varicose veins.
Dr Philip Vecchio is a Rheumatologist who specialises in diagnosing and treating autoimmune diseases and diseases affecting joints, bones and soft tissues, commonly known as rheumatic diseases. Diseases treated by rheumatologists include lupus, fibromyalgia, gout, osteoporosis and various forms of arthritis.
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any queries, questions or concerns via my direct line or email address.
Kind regards
Taylah McGregor
Medical Negligence Lead & NSW Business Development
Direct Line: (02) 9056 4471
Medical Negligence Bookings & Queries: (02) 8090 7616
Don’t forget to connect with me on LinkedIn
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