I don’t think I know a single female family member or friend who hasn’t, at some point, felt they were given the brush-off by a doctor or other medic.
It’s happened to me before, most seriously after an operation to remove a huge fibroid from my womb. I felt increasingly worse, had terrible night sweats and was in more pain after the procedure. I was told I would have to live with it.
It was only when I practically demanded something be done that I was offered a scan – as they made out it was to keep me happy – and the hospital discovered I had a massive blood clot.
The kind woman who carried out the scan said in a soft, very concerned American accent “You need to go to A&E now.” Once there I had my temperature checked. It was 40 degrees.
Turns out that far from it all being in my head, I had a raging superbug infection. I had to undergo an emergency operation and was on intravenous antibiotics for the next three months.
I daren’t think what would have happened if I hadn’t pushed to be seen, if I hadn’t trusted my instincts that something was going very wrong.
So while I welcome today’s Women’s Health Strategy announcement, I can’t help but think, what took so long?
The Government announced a series of measures as it vowed to tackle what it called systemic and entrenched gender health inequalities for women.
Trainee doctors will be given extra teaching in women’s health, while improvements are promised for contraception, maternity, IVF and mental health services. These are all steps in the right direction.
More than 100,000 women took part in the consultation. Thousands of respondents said they “persistently needed to advocate for themselves” and had to push for further investigation in order to secure a diagnosis. Meanwhile 84% of women felt ignored when they sought treatment from the NHS.
I hope this is the start of real and lasting change. It’s outrageous that over half of the population is disadvantaged in this way.
