Medicine has always assumed a male patient, which is why it’s redundant to call something a men’s hospital and why it’s necessary to specify a women’s health center. Women are the “other” under patriarchy, and men the default.
Women weren’t even included in clinical trials in the US until 1993.
That’s because western medicine is based on ancient Greek medicine, where women formed their own bodies of medicine for childbirth separate from the male doctors. The male doctors were HEAVILY involved in the military, so much of their medicine was written down and preserved. A lot of women’s medicine did not survive the Dark Ages for this reason, so medicine as a default became synonymous with “men’s medicine.” That’s also why the birthing position changed for women - men took over their medical jurisdiction over childbirth.
Of course, women have a lot more women specific health issues than men have men specific health issues, so it makes sense.
There are certain areas where, as I understand, women are less diagnosed when they should be compared to men (e.g. heart conditions), but in other areas both men and women face a doctor shrugging and moving on rather than arriving at a diagnosis.
I went to the ER because I woke up with extreme period pain at 4am. Thought my IUD and perforated my uterus, it was so painful. I was givej nothing for the pain, not even Robaxin. Meanwhile, my ex right before that woke up weird and his neck was sore, went to urgent care and they gave him Robaxin for 2 weeks. Lol.
I ask for anxiety meds for IUD placement and get nothing. My ex had dentist anxiety and was given Xanax.
I ask for low dose estrogen, denied. My ex asks for hormones incl finasteride (which increases estrogen in men…) and gets it.
They deserve treatment too ofc, but like, it isn’t the same.
There are 19,102 women’s health centers in the US. There are 233 men’s health centers in the US.
Yeah, our society totally doesn’t care about women’s health 🙄
Medicine has always assumed a male patient, which is why it’s redundant to call something a men’s hospital and why it’s necessary to specify a women’s health center. Women are the “other” under patriarchy, and men the default.
Women weren’t even included in clinical trials in the US until 1993.
read more here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women’s_health
Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sex covers a lot of ground about women being the “other” in case you wanted more on that.
Beautifully executed.
That’s because western medicine is based on ancient Greek medicine, where women formed their own bodies of medicine for childbirth separate from the male doctors. The male doctors were HEAVILY involved in the military, so much of their medicine was written down and preserved. A lot of women’s medicine did not survive the Dark Ages for this reason, so medicine as a default became synonymous with “men’s medicine.” That’s also why the birthing position changed for women - men took over their medical jurisdiction over childbirth.
Of course, women have a lot more women specific health issues than men have men specific health issues, so it makes sense.
There are certain areas where, as I understand, women are less diagnosed when they should be compared to men (e.g. heart conditions), but in other areas both men and women face a doctor shrugging and moving on rather than arriving at a diagnosis.
I went to the ER because I woke up with extreme period pain at 4am. Thought my IUD and perforated my uterus, it was so painful. I was givej nothing for the pain, not even Robaxin. Meanwhile, my ex right before that woke up weird and his neck was sore, went to urgent care and they gave him Robaxin for 2 weeks. Lol.
I ask for anxiety meds for IUD placement and get nothing. My ex had dentist anxiety and was given Xanax.
I ask for low dose estrogen, denied. My ex asks for hormones incl finasteride (which increases estrogen in men…) and gets it.
They deserve treatment too ofc, but like, it isn’t the same.