Status Updates From Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis ...

Chronic diseases (which mostly affect women) have been misunderstood for so long. With their causes largely unknown and pain felt by women patients not ‘objectively’ measurable or diagnosable, many physicians dismissed symptoms as mental. This led to completely unnecessary, extremely harsh mental health treatments like lobotomies.

The NHS was launched in 1948 by Aneurin Bevan. This was a landmark move for Britons, especially people who had less money. However, the attitude of treating women as reproductive vessels did not change, and knowledge of women’s health issues did not grow overnight, and attitudes towards women’s knowledge of their own bodies and pain levels were not overhauled.

~10% of women of ‘reproductive age’ have endometriosis. It takes an average of 8 years to be correctly diagnosed (from the point of reporting symptoms). There is still no cure.

An initial idea on the cause of endometriosis was that it was excessive menstruation due to a woman being childless. Endometrial tissue spreading due to too much menstruation as no pregnancies. The solution is of course to marry and make lots of babies to reduce how many times you menstruate.