The Policy Gap in Women’s Health: Why Endometriosis is Still Underfunded
Introduction From the starting blocks of international swimming arenas to the thin mattresses of hospital beds; my turning point came through a healthcare system that dismissed and misdiagnosed my pain. Unfortunately, my tale of misdiagnosis, dismissal, and delay, is emulative of a broader trend in our healthcare system, where women wait an average of 8 to 10 years to receive an official endometriosis diagnosis, giving rise to personal, financial, and economic costs often overlooked and underestimated. This article argues that such neglect and misunderstanding of women’s health conditions is the result of the systemic gender bias that plagues our healthcare systems. This...
I Lost the First 7 Years of Adulthood to Misdiagnosed Endometriosis: why we need to advocate for better treatment of female health conditions.
My Story In pain, dismissed, and misdiagnosed: since I turned 18, my life reads like a rollercoaster of chronic pain, discomfort, self-loathing, self-doubt, consequential depression, suicidal ideation and hormonal chaos. Wait, hold up. You’re telling me those aren’t just rites of passage of being a woman?! Life in 2020 was a turbulent time. I’d just turned 20, navigating what traditionally would have been a chaotic evolution into adulthood with the end of school and the beginnings of a new life at university. Instead, for the covid generation, a never-ending Groundhog Day of sitting behind a screen watching my bank account drain away...