Artistic Science

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sweetpotatodotcom:

The medical community on literally every female specific health issue ever: “very common condition” “no known cause” “no known cure” :))))))

What the fuck is tumblr? Like honestly what is this? Do you guys pull shit out of the inner most depths of your rectum and then just throw it on your keyboard and have it turn into a post???? This site is something else what the fuck is wrong with you people????!?!?

Endemetriosis

Vaginal Thrush

Menorrhagia

Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Fibroids

Very common conditions, causes are unknown or only speculated, long term cures have not been found. Most can cause chronic pain or discomfort, all can seriously impact your quality of life.

Men are so damn privileged they can’t even imagine female bodies have different healthcare needs than theirs and that our healthcare needs are important even if they can’t be affected by one of these conditions.

Endometriosis causes excruciating pain and is a leading cause of infertility. Thrush is extremely uncomfortable, and expensive to treat repeatedly; over-the-counter preparations rarely completely eradicate it. Menorrhagia, which I have, makes you anæmic. PCOS causes hormonal symptoms that are socially difficult (facial hair, acne, hair loss, weight gain). Fibroids are so common, and are often treated with a hysterectomy.

Add in fibromylgia, which affects 8x as many women as men, as well as lupus (and almost any other autoimmune condition), systemic exertion intolerance disorder (SEID), iron deficiency anæmia (all of which affect more women than men), and you have well over 25% of childbearing-age women globally living with chronic pain and tiredness.

Chronic pain is overwhelmingly experienced by women, and women are less likely to be taken seriously or given treatment by medical professionals. I went through two years of diagnostics to finally find out I had occipital neuralgia; I felt doubted when I described my pain at every step of the way, but was lucky to have a partner who was persistent in helping me get treatment.

Basically, this is a huge problem, and also one of the reasons I have been considering medical school.

Don’t forget that most pharmaceuticals go to market without ever having been tested on people with a uterus, lest someone get pregnant… seriously that is the whole rationale behind not testing >50% of the population. This has been legislated against in some countries, but still persists in the of majority drug development because of other regulations, and traditions and laziness. The use of a drug is of course monitored in the population after release, but the people “trying” it in this capacity get none of the insurance, close and regular medical examination or monetary benefit of essentially being in a late stage drug trial. Drugs that are pulled from market after release are sometimes done so on the basis that the dosage is just too high for females/afab people and this is, of course, after they’ve experienced the adverse affects. 

This is why if you get pregnant your doctor will take you off basically any and all medication you’re taking (including mental health medication, can’t imagine any implications/dire consequences there), not because they know it will have an adverse affect on the foetus but because they have no idea. How wonderfully kind of them to prioritise the health and life of an unborn foetus over that of a living person, let’s just hope they don’t become ill whilst pregnant. How charmingly logical it is that they wouldn’t even bother to test drugs in people with a uterus because it’s all too difficult and gosh, darn what an ethical conundrum we’ve been faced with, let’s just not! Which is so in the spirit of capital S, Science!  

Sources: Nature, Nature, Medscape, Biomedcentral.

Indeed, the issue is so severe that, in many cases, folks with uteruses are routinely told that their diseases and disorders are not, in fact, disorders at all, and are just a normal part of having a uterus.

Take menstrual cramps, for example. Everybody knows that cramps are a normal part of menstruation, and that virtually all people who menstruate experience them throughout their lives, right?

Except that’s not right at all.

Yes, it’s true that about two-thirds of individuals who menstruate begin to experience menstrual pain during adolescence, but it’s basically a side effect of puberty, and normally subsides by your late teens. Only about 20-40% of menstruating adults experience menstrual pain on a regular basis - and according to some estimates, as much as 80% of that figure is due to undiagnosed endometriosis or some other underlying medical condition.

Yeah, roll those numbers around in your head: if you’re an adult who experiences menstrual cramps, it’s overwhelmingly likely that your pain is a symptom of some potentially serious medical condition.

And yet we tell folks it’s just a normal thing that everybody has to deal with.

Bonus round: Look up PCOS and gender identity.

Then look up PCOS and diabetes.

Ok, to show how incredibly important this post fucking is, I just looked up endometriosis and I match just about every sympton, and it would explain not just my incredibly painful periods but many other things as well. I had no idea this existed.

Please, read this post and reblog this so others can learn.

Tumblr is the fucking education we weren’t given anywhere else.

It’s people, talking to people, about anything and everything, and it’s been far more helpful to people than it has been hurtful to them - especially for women, people with health problems, and people with questions about their sexuality or gender identity.

And then there’s the handful of people belittling it because not every post conforms to *their* view of what life looks like.

Throwing in a personal note here - I had endometriosis, it was extremely painful, and it took me nearly two years to find a doctor who took it seriously and had it diagnosed and treated properly.

Now, 25 years on, it infuriates me to see that women are still putting up with this shit.  We’ve come a long way, baby–NOT!

Also a shout out to the historic lack of Migraine research due to the large percent of women sufferer’s casting doubt in physicians past and present as to the validity of the pain. Once considered a Part of Hysteria the migraine was long ignored by the medical community. We still barely understand migraines.

Also we are less likely to be diagnosed with Autism- because a past  lack of diagnoses of women in the spectrum (probably due to a lack of concern for our education and lifelong accomplishments and functionality) lead some to think it was conclusively uncommon in women- so lets not bother checking. They literally assured my mother (who at that time had just gotten her diagnoses of Autism and recognized the signs in me) that I couldn’t possibly have it because of my gender- she insisted- 15 minutes with me and they confirmed it. They didn’t even want to check.

And even if you hit the jackpot and your doctor actually gets off their ass and diagnoses you with any of the above - your pain and difficulties still won’t be taken seriously by the majority of people you interact with in the outside world, including teachers, family, co-workers or even your actual healthcare professionals. 

I went to the ER once with UPPER abdominal pain so bad I was constantly crying and could barely walk. They checked for UTI and then said “well it’s pretty common, and normal, for young women to have stomach aches”. I couldn’t do anything the following week, I spent all of it in bed.

Women deal with a lot of shitty pains so when it’s bad enough for them to go to the doctor, they should be taken really fucking seriously.

(Source: trufemale420)