The Impact of Women’s Health Neglect on Society

Women's health neglect creates widespread societal impact through delayed diagnoses, increased healthcare costs, and systemic medical trauma, requiring professional therapeutic support to address resulting anxiety, depression, and healthcare-related trauma while developing effective self-advocacy strategies.

Have you ever felt dismissed or unheard in a healthcare setting? The impact of women's health neglect extends far beyond individual appointments, creating lasting emotional wounds and systemic barriers to care. Understanding this reality is the first step toward healing—and you don't have to navigate this journey alone.

How Neglect Of Women’s Health Impacts Society

Equitable healthcare access and treatment are essential for overall societal well-being. However, aspects of women’s health have been historically neglected by the medical establishment, with consequences that continue to impact healthcare delivery today. This neglect has significant negative impacts, including missed diagnoses, inappropriate treatment plans, increased medical costs, lost productivity, medical trauma, and distrust of the healthcare system.

Understanding how disregard for women’s mental health concerns manifests in modern society can help women and people of all genders navigate a healthcare system that is not always inclusive of their needs, and identify when seeking additional support through services like ReachLink may be beneficial.

History of neglecting women’s health

Below are some historical ways women’s health has been neglected and may still be neglected today.

Hysteria

“Hysteria” is a health diagnosis that has existed since ancient Greek and Egyptian medical care practices and has been historically applied almost exclusively to women. Widely used throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, hysteria became a catch-all diagnosis for “female ailments” that the healthcare establishment failed to properly research and understand. This diagnosis was frequently applied when women challenged societal expectations of “proper female behavior.” Some circumstances commonly labeled as hysteria included:

• Demonstrating “excessive emotion”
• Experiencing changes in sex drive
• Weight gain
• Rejecting marriage or seeking divorce
• Being attracted to people of different races
• Being attracted to other women

Hysteria was often used as justification for institutionalizing women. In some disturbing cases, lack of orgasms was considered the cause, leading to sexual encounters with men (sometimes assault) being prescribed as “treatment.”

Remarkably, hysteria remained a legitimate mental health diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) until 1980, demonstrating how stereotypes about “normal feminine behavior” persisted in medical research and public health policy until relatively recently.

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A lack of focus on childbirth

Historically, pregnancy and childbirth—health issues that exclusively impact women and people with uteruses—received inadequate attention from doctors and researchers. Many doctors did not view pregnancy and childbirth as requiring medical expertise and refused to provide services to expectant mothers, instead directing them to midwives. When doctors did provide care to pregnant patients, it was often at a different standard than care provided to men, sometimes with devastating consequences.

By the mid-19th century, anesthesia was better understood, more accessible, and widely used for various medical procedures. However, most doctors continued to refuse pain relief to women in labor. This refusal stemmed from the Christian belief that women needed to suffer during childbirth as punishment for Eve’s original sin. According to this belief, providing pain medication would counteract divine will.

As an extension of this thinking, some doctors viewed maternal death during childbirth as a natural, inevitable part of the process. This belief meant medical researchers did not investigate ways to improve childbirth procedures, and many doctors failed to implement basic safety protocols we take for granted today, such as handwashing between births or wearing sterile gloves. These simple interventions could have prevented countless maternal deaths and protected newborns from exposure to pathogens during delivery.

Exclusion of women from medical research and the medical profession

Women were barred from medical schools and legal medical practice until the late 19th century, with exceptions only for nurses assisting doctors or midwives attending births (due to the persistent belief that childbirth did not require medical expertise).

Even after women gained entry to the medical field, they faced significant gender-based barriers. Harvard Medical School did not admit women until 1945, despite women continuously seeking admission since 1847. Female medical professionals were more likely to experience sexual or gender-based harassment and receive negative evaluations compared to their male counterparts—problems that persist today.

Women have also been chronically underrepresented in medical research, both as researchers (due to educational barriers) and as research subjects. The National Institutes of Health, the largest healthcare research organization in the United States, did not require the inclusion of women in clinical trials until 1990. White cisgender men were considered the “standard,” and findings from trials exclusively studying this group were inappropriately applied to the general population. This exclusion has led to numerous adverse outcomes, including a higher likelihood of female patients experiencing undesirable side effects from medications that weren’t adequately tested on women before approval.

How is women’s health neglected today?

Below are some modern manifestations of women’s health neglect in healthcare.

Skepticism and dismissiveness

Sexist attitudes that lead to women being taken less seriously than men in many aspects of society can negatively impact healthcare interactions. Healthcare providers may consciously or unconsciously assume women are exaggerating their symptoms or that their complaints are less serious because women are stereotyped as “weaker or more sensitive” than men. These attitudes can result in women experiencing symptoms for much longer before receiving a diagnosis, with potentially serious consequences for conditions like cancer.

Healthcare providers are also more likely to dismiss women’s reports of pain. When men communicate that they are in pain, they commonly receive pain medication. In contrast, women reporting the same pain levels are more likely to be referred to therapy, suggesting their pain is psychological rather than physical.

Lack of understanding of women’s health

Due to the historical lack of medical research conducted on women, our understanding of how certain conditions affect women remains incomplete. Healthcare providers who haven’t been trained to recognize gender differences in symptom presentation may miss important diagnoses in women.

Heart attacks provide a classic example—they often present differently in women than in men. Most healthcare providers are trained to recognize male heart attack symptoms, particularly chest tightness and pain. Women, however, may not experience chest discomfort during a heart attack and instead show symptoms like nausea, fatigue, and excessive sweating, leading to dangerous delays in treatment.

Sexism in mental health diagnosis and treatment

Although hysteria is no longer an official diagnosis, women with mental health concerns may still experience gender-based disparities in care. Women are more likely to receive certain mental health diagnoses than men, particularly conditions like depression or anxiety. This pattern has negative implications for both women and men—women may be over-diagnosed with mental health conditions when physical issues are present, while men may be under-diagnosed and miss opportunities for mental health support.

Some medical conditions produce symptoms similar to those caused by mental health disorders. When healthcare providers default to assuming a mental health issue is the root cause for women, other potential diagnoses and treatments may be overlooked.

Support options

If you’re experiencing difficulties navigating a healthcare system with inherent biases, speaking with a mental health professional can be helpful, even if you’re not living with a mental illness. If negative interactions with medical providers make you hesitant about therapy, telehealth services through ReachLink may offer a more accessible option.

ReachLink connects you with licensed clinical social workers who can provide support through secure video sessions. When you sign up, you can specify preferences regarding your therapist’s gender, cultural background, or other important characteristics. You’ll have control over how you receive support, with options for video sessions that fit your schedule and comfort level.

Current research indicates that telehealth therapy outcomes are comparable to traditional in-person therapy for providing emotional support and mental health treatment. Studies show that people who complete telehealth therapy often report higher levels of self-esteem and self-empowerment afterward, which can be particularly valuable when learning to advocate for yourself in healthcare settings where gender bias may be present.

Takeaway

Historical and current neglect of women’s health can lead to negative experiences in healthcare settings, including delayed and missed diagnoses. If you’ve faced discrimination or dismissiveness from healthcare providers due to systemic healthcare-related sexism, therapy through ReachLink could help you process these experiences and develop strategies to advocate for yourself within an imperfect system. Our licensed clinical social workers are equipped to provide support as you navigate these challenges, helping you maintain your well-being while pushing back against ingrained biases.