‘Aurat ko dard nahi hota’

One night last year Anshumaa Sharma found herself passed out on the floor because of extreme abdominal pain and vomiting Something was wrong she realised thinking back to the past few weeks she had been suffering silently ldquoI couldnrsquot eat or drink properly I couldnrsquot even keep down water My stomach would hurt nonstoprdquo she recallsThe doctor sent her home with acidity tablets he had done no investigations The next doctor she consulted a gastroenterologist was quick to blame her weight without considering that it was caused by preexisting conditions thyroid imbalance and Polycystic Ovary Syndrome PCOS ldquoI told him I was on a diet and had not eaten junk food for six monthsrdquo she says Despite her clarification there was no probing into Sharmarsquos actual symptomsAnshumaa SharmaTo add insult to injury the doctor turned to her parents ldquoand said I must be lying about my diet because I am fatrdquo At the age of 29 Sharma instantly felt infantilised invisible before the doctor who was meant to fight for her medical rights ldquoI asked sarcastically lsquoWhy are you talking to my parents and not me I am eating nothing but lauki bottle gourd and curdrdquoAfter weeks of being bent over in pain and looking for answers Sharma went to a radiologist for a test and it was she who listened to the full medical history and recommended a doctor mdash another woman mdash who finally identified a pattern to the symptoms and made a diagnosis Coeliac disease a painful autoimmune condition that strikes the small intestineWithin four months not only was the pain much better but Sharmarsquos thyroid levels also stabilised and her weight started dropping too Sharma says she has more energy through the day and is even able to hit the gymItrsquos a story that most women will relate with mdash the dismissal of genuine health concerns with a callous prescription of ldquoLose weightrdquo The systemic neglect of their pain by medical practitioners who blithely say ldquoDonrsquot be dramatic If you canrsquot bear this pain how will you bear childrenrdquo Therersquos a term for it medical misogyny And unfortunately Sharma is far from the only woman to be acquainted with itAs we celebrate International Womenrsquos Day and are bombarded with spa discounts and distracted with jewellery coupons in our inbox letrsquos not forget to ask the tough questions mdash is the medical fraternity especially your trusted family doctor really listening to your painDid you knowVenus WilliamsThe tennis starrsquos uterine fibroid symptoms mdash pain heavy bleeding mdash were dismissed by doctors for years as ldquonormalrdquoHalle BerryThe actor was misdiagnosed with herpes after complaining of pain after sex It later turned out to be a symptom of perimenopauselsquoOh yoursquore being dramaticrsquoShivani Lia had always had a painful period ldquoEven my first year was very painful and I bled for 12 days Irsquod miss a lot of school but teachers wouldnrsquot take me seriously because none of the other girls were facing this issuerdquo recalls the 29yearold event operation managerShersquod been to many gynaecologists to no avail ldquoIt was constantly implied that I was being dramatic But it felt like someone had taken a grater to my insidesrdquoIn Class 8 a womenrsquos health specialist told her parents ldquoGet her married soon so she can have a baby and everything will be resolvedrdquo ldquoI was 13 years old thenrdquo she recountsShivani Lia struggled with debilitating pain for years before being diagnosed with endometriosis PicNimesh DaveIt would be years before she found answers on a Facebook group for endometriosis a painful condition in which cells similar to the lining of the uterus endometrium grow outside it On the same group she found a specialist in MumbaildquoHe assured me that my pain was real that I wasnrsquot making it up I wept mdash it was the first time I felt seenrdquo says Lia She was diagnosed with endo and adenomyosis endometrial tissue grows into the muscular uterine wall causing it to enlarge and thicken Four years on she has had as many surgeriesLia rues the lack of research even today ldquoThe crazy thing is therersquos such little research even now about endometriosis but there are multiple papers on how it can impact the partnerrsquos pleasure patient is more likely to refuse sex because of pain and on how people with endometriosis are attractiverdquoThe default is maleUntil the 1990s women were not even part of most clinical trials because their monthly menstrual cycles added unwanted variables to the research This means that modern medical textbooks donrsquot teach how the same ailment can present differently in a man and a woman Take heart attacks a University of Leeds study found that women are 50 per cent more likely than men to be misdiagnosed because doctors often mistake their symptoms for acid refluxDr Sukhpreet Patel MD Obgyn India MPH UK and founder of MenopauseWize points out that in medicine male is default mode ldquoWe have paediatrics a branch of medicine just for children because we recognise that their physiology is very different There are specialists for paediatric neurology paediatric cardiology But what about women Our bodies are structurally anatomically different and yet there is no dedicated research or practice around thisrdquo she saysWomenrsquos health issues get clustered under the umbrella of gynaecology But the gynaecologist mdash like any other specialist mdash is taught to focus on their field womenrsquos reproductive health ldquoFor instance we talk about menopause as a separate gynaec problem Is it really separate It impacts neurology cardiology orthopaedics and so much more Which means each of these practitioners should have been educated about what happens at menopauserdquo says Dr Patel who recently launched a menopausededicated clinic at Nana ChowkThe issue is manifold she adds including the social conditioning of women to make as few complaints of demands as possible ldquoEvery woman must speak up for herself to say I am NOT taking no for an answerrdquo she says while adding ldquoBut doctors in training should go through sensitisation training to stop us from dismissing a womanrsquos painrdquoAdd to that therersquos little funding for research on women because of low purchasing power among a gender restricted to unpaid labour at home for generations A 2024 report by the McKinsey Health Institute estimates that the womenrsquos health gap equates to 75 million years of life lost due to poor health or early death per year or seven days per woman per year It also pointed out that closing this gap could boost the global economy by 1 trillion annually by 2040lsquoFed up of being gaslitrsquoMini Mathur TV personality and founder of Pauseitive pauseitivein a perimenopause platformlsquoWhen I hit perimenopause a few years ago it started with brain fog insomnia and anxiety It felt off because I was doing nothing differently with diet or food A GP recommended sleeping pills and antianxiety medication while a gynaec just said ldquoitrsquos normalrdquo I was fed up of being gaslit and decided to study menopause for two years I certified in the US in womenrsquos health functional nutrition and hormone health Now Irsquom using this knowledge to advocate for women and their health in midlife and developing Pauseitive a platform for women to learn more about perimenopause menopause I think whatrsquos most important is for the narrative around menopause to change for women to become aware about it and their longterm healthrsquo Talk medicine to meEven in fields that work closely with women such as gynaecology and IVF doctors lack the sensitisation to communicate clearly with patients Aparna Kulkarni name changed recalls going for IVF rounds with little to no warning about the side effects and limitations ldquoThere was no counselling for me or my partner on how the hormones would wreak havoc My husband had no idea why I wanted to kill him until he started reading about it onlinerdquo she quips Even more problematic is the promise of guaranteed conception that some IVF centres make when outcomes are much still hitandmiss Kulkarni and her husband read up extensively but even they were not prepared for the final shock women can only undergo three to four cycles of IVF after which the risk of hormonesensitive cancers like breast or cervical rises After the fourth cycle they were forced to abandon their attempt at conceptionHold the judgmentManjusha Pillai had been suffering from shortness of breath for a few weeks when she went to see a pulmonologist Strangely he never asked her if she was a smoker ldquoIt seemed like hersquod assumed I didnrsquot smoke because Irsquom a womanrdquo says Pillai ldquoWhen I told him that I smoke he asked if I was married I said yes His next question was lsquoDoesnrsquot your husband mind that you smokersquordquo When Pillai asked how it was relevant to her breathing problem ldquoHe brushed it off saying I should be careful about smoking if I plan to have children I never went back to him againrdquo5037Likelihood of heart attack being misdiagnosed in women over menSource University of Leeds7Estimated number of days of life lost per woman per year due to the health gap McKinsey Health Institute 2024