Is the medical industry complacent when it comes to women's healthcare?

Question

I mentioned the idea of debating this to Sparrow yesterday (?) on the post about the link between heart attack and pre eclampsia. So, what do you think, do you think the medical industry is complacent and women are at a disadvantage when they need care specific to them?
Some examples of complacency to get the conversation started, feel free to add more... 
- A very large number of women show that they no longer experience symptoms of PCOS after they have a successful pregnancy. HCG is currently used in the medical field as a treatment for obesity. Women who happen to have PCOS and receive this treatment for obesity also report that their symptoms have gone away. Why is there still "no known cure for PCOS?" Why hasn't there been more research on how HCG affects PCOS? 
-The link between pre eclampsia and heart attacks is not commonly known, not even by women who suffer from pre eclampsia. 
- I didn't know that during your monthly self-check, you're supposed to feel for lumps all the way out to your elbow until my doctor was worried that I had breast cancer. When I asked my mom and several friends if they knew, they also had no idea.

Accepted Answer

I think the ridiculous amount of different illnesses that surround the female reproductive system, that have a constant impact on females, yet there’s no known cause or cure, suggests that there is a level of complacency.

Answer

Yes, and that “yes” is even more amplified when we’re talking about women of color. 
The stat is something like black women are 3-4x more likely to die as a result of pregnancy-related causes than white women. The New York Times published a story back in April 2018 called “Why America’s Black Mothers and Babies Are in a Life-or-Death Crisis.” It’s really fucked up.

Answer

Women are still very excluded in Biomedical Research for many reasons. 
- women are less likely to sign up for trials or agree to have tests run on them or their samples. 
- some scientists refuse to acknowledge the differences between male and female cells and samples, so assume male samples speak for both sexes
- lack of funding in women’s health research
There are other reasons but those are the main reasons I have learned so far. 
When it comes to diseases like cancer, the research groups aren’t wide-ranging. Younger females need to be included as they are more likely to use certain products that were not available to the older generation until now.  
Believe it or not, there are some things in evidence based medicine that do not apply to females due to gender bias in research.

Answer

Okay story time.
When i had my first child about a month after i gave birth i started bleeding. A lot. As in filling up pads in 5 minutes bleeding all over my bathroom floor bad. I rushed to the ER freaking out. When i saw a doctor, this is before having an exam. He told me that i just "forgot" what it was like to have a period. Those were his exact words. 
A littke while later he does a vaginal exam. And says, "oh, i guess you were right you are bleeding a lot". I wanted to scream. The nurses immediately called my OB and rushed him to thr hospital. Within 10 minutes of him getting there i was given a tilt test and rushed into emergency surgery. I had retained placenta that was infected in my uterus. I nearly had to have a blood transfusion. It was terrifying.
If i had gone home after listening to that first male doctor i might have died. I was absolutely not taken seriously and i think its because i was a young women. 
That was one of the scariest moments of my life. Women are not taken as seriously as men and its horrible, i couldve died from it.

Answer

Sexism plays a part in this too. Women's health didn't really have any advances until the 1980's. 
Working in health care, I can say that women's health more often than not, isn't taken seriously. Which makes me forever thankful I have a doctor who actually listens to me and doesn't dismiss me as "It is all in your head" 
Women can go in with symptoms of a heart attack (women's symptoms vastly differ from men's symptoms) will be told it is all in her head and be sent home. One doctor at the hospital I work at did that, and the lady died on the front steps of the hospital. 
On the other side, women are less like to sign up as test subject after they pass.
I have more to say on this but I have to go to work now.

Answer

TOO COMPLACENT 
Especially with young people’s health, too.
I made a topic about this a few weeks ago which had some interesting insights. I can’t even begin to tell you how many concerns I’ve had that have been shrugged off as my “period” or my “anxiety”.

Answer

Thank you for posting an actual good topic and saving CC lol!
And yes I think a lot of women are ignored when it comes to them having specific concerns, I think this is a big issue that sadly many women specially with fertility issues face!

Answer

Yes totally.  I didnt know about the pcos treatment, my sister has it terribly and they told her the only treatment is  an IUD or oophorectomy.  
Heart disease is the #1killer of women and doctors still dont recognize the difference in women's heart attack symptoms and dismiss concerns as stress related or over reaction 😒

Answer

Yes, especially with PCOS or mental illness. Women are classed as dramatic or exaggerating trying to find help with possible mental disorders, I also find women often don't tell the dr everything which could contribute to less help. I've had PCOS for 8 years, I've been repeatedly told there is no cure and the only thing that will help is the pill, I was told there is nothing they can do when I refused the pill due to intolerance to hormonal meds. It's a very common illness but yet there is very little research. 
Another thing that irritates me is the hpv vaccine. There are thousands of girls that have been diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis within a year of the vaccine. They did one study and said they're no known causes between the two but refuse to do another despite the large amount of women who had stomach/urinary issues before the vaccine, women have been requesting it be looked into but have been denied yet there were talks of doing a male study of the vaccine (to my knowledge no male study has been done yet).  Women are at a disadvantage and until something major happens I think they will be for a very long time.

Answer

Yes and I think women are even afraid to tell the truth about their medical conditions. Maybe a weird example, but there’s a commercial I see on tv for endometriosis. The doctor is asking her questions and she’s not being honest about the severity of her symptoms. I think women are afraid of being told they’re exaggerating or over dramatic.

Is the medical industry complacent when it comes to women's healthcare?

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