International Women's Day: Women's health issues that are often overlooked or misdiagnosed
International Women's Day: Women's health issues that are often overlooked or misdiagnosed
Digital Desk: When it comes to significant health disorders like heart disease, endometriosis, sleep apnea, and even deadly malignancies, women are largely ignored in medical research and studies that are primarily based on symptoms displayed by men. Read on to learn about a few significant problems that women face so that their doctors can provide them with proper answers on the eve of International Women's Day.
Following are few conditions that women are misdiagnosed with:
Heart illnesses
Experts say that women are less likely than men to experience the symptoms of heart attacks and heart disease. Although the primary indication of a heart problem is chest pain, women sometimes have other less obvious symptoms like nausea, exhaustion, and discomfort in the jaw, neck, and back.
However, because women's circulatory systems have smaller blood vessels than men's, the common testing procedures used by most clinicians to identify heart illness are less effective in identifying heart disease in women.
Therefore, women may experience chronic weariness, nausea, or jaw pain in addition to angina discomfort, which is often misinterpreted as indigestion or stress.
Endometriosis
When the lining of the uterus grows outside of it, it can lead to endometriosis, one of the most crippling disorders that women can experience. This condition can cause heavy periods, infertility, and extreme pelvic discomfort.
Millions of women worldwide suffer from it, although it frequently remains undetected or is confused with severe menstruation pains. According to doctors, endometriosis patients are also evaluated for depression and inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS).
Cervical or breast cancer
Many women worldwide are still not checked for breast, cervical, or ovarian cancers, despite growing awareness of these diseases. Over 31% of all instances of breast cancer are frequently misdiagnosed, according to UN statistics.
Early symptoms like bloating, back discomfort, or irregular bleeding—all of which are either written off as innocuous or mistaken for other conditions like IBS—cause it to occur. Early detection of cancer can be facilitated by routine examinations and understanding what is typical for your body.
