Travel & Lifestyle: 21 Heartbreaking Real-Life Examples Of Medical Misogyny

Earlier this year, X user @xevekiah asked: “what’s a clear example of medical misogyny you’ve witnessed or experienced?,” and the prompt immediately went viral, with thousands of women coming forward to share their personal experience of having their medical emergencies overlooked or dismissed.

Some posts have been edited for clarity.

1. “When I gave birth to my daughter, they had to keep me in the hospital for 10 days because I wasn’t doing well. Every time I tried to stand up, I fainted. At one point, according to my husband, I even stopped breathing. He panicked and called a friend, a cardiologist who also worked at the same hospital. The response he got was, ‘You know, sometimes our wives just want attention when they are going through a hard time.’ My husband was furious. He insisted that someone come and actually see what was happening. When the resident arrived, my husband said, ‘Just watch.’ He helped me stand up, and I don’t remember anything after that. When I woke up, the room was full of doctors in a panic. I had stopped breathing again. That was the moment they realized it was not ‘attention seeking.’” — @NeurologistMom

2. “My friend going to the doctor for over a year with worsening stomach pain & bloating. He told her to calm down & try yoga, there was nothing physically wrong with her. She collapsed at work & was taken to A&E where they found stage 4 ovarian cancer.” — @StillDavy

3. “I was in A&E for nine hours with a foot broken in several places and got told to walk between departments while a man also with a broken foot was wheeled around in a wheelchair and treated and discharged hours before me, even though I arrived before him.” — @peddiepascal

4. “I was told I’d be in ‘absolutely excruciating pain’ if bile was leaking into my abdomen after my gallbladder had been accidentally removed. Turns out that roughly 1.5L of bile per day was leaking into my abdomen, and I *was* in excruciating pain. They just didn’t believe me.” — @petiteJeanine

5. “A male gynecologist saying that bleeding a whole year nonstop was natural and my period could be normalized after having sex with a man. I WAS 15 YEARS OLD, MY MOM WAS MAD AS HELL.” — @basingsx

6. “Inflamed gallbladder, nearly died, told it’s just acid reflux. Partner has acid reflux. They get a team of surgeons to check him in case it’s his gallbladder.” — @Hereticalturf

7. “I have a LIST, but the most egregious is how long it took for me to get diagnosed with cancer. Because I’m a fem-presenting 23 year old with a history of mental illness, my inability to breathe properly was dismissed as anxiety for MONTHS until they finally gave me a CT scan.” — @theobites

8. “When I was working at the prison, we had this lady who was having all the classic heart attack symptoms (staff reported this), yet the director said it was anxiety and told her to utilize her coping skills…next morning they found her dead in solitary confinement.” — @xojayceelyn2xo

9. “My mom had cellulitis in her foot & she’d scream at the slightest touch, but the doctors in the ER told my dad it was psychosomatic & she was just looking for opioids. She got sepsis & renal failure & we nearly lost her before another doctor helped & treated her with antibiotics.” — @QueerHercules

10. “A friend of mine complained of a severe, escalating headaches during pregnancy. Doctors wrote it off as hormone related. The aneurysm ruptured & she was dead before she hit the floor.” — @MountainMcRae

11. “The only reason my hysterectomy was granted was because I had life threatening fibroids, PCOS, and endo. Previously, I was told I needed permission from a male guardian or spouse, and counseling sessions to be considered, because I was still ‘of childbearing age.’” — @lenubienne

12. “A doctor told my goddaughter to go home, lose weight, and start making babies. She was dead in less than a month from advanced cervical cancer.” — @lisarobel

13. “Being told for 18months that my fractured spine was just period pains.” — @PCGirlCop

14. “I went to a male doctor saying how much pain I was in, could hardly move, couldn’t eat/drink, puking bile etc., and he told me it was period cramps and to take a painkiller. Turns out I had a deformed kidney.” — @madisongrossman

15. “Uterine procedures/ biopsies (that can only be described as medieval) without any pain relief.” — @EvaKatz_

16. “I knew someone that was told she couldn’t get her tubes tied even though she had four kids and was a widow because ‘what if you meet another guy and he wants to have ‘real kids’ which is both misogynistic af and insulting af to every family that isn’t biologically related!!” — @HollieP80216260

17. “When I had giant tumors that were killing me, they kept checking before each chemo treatment and other treatments whether I was pregnant. Basically, if I got pregnant. I would not get the treatments to save my life. And would have been left to die.” — @BibiBlossoms

18. “I had concerning cardiac issues, I went to doctors, had many tests, only for test results to be dismissed as stress/ ‘hysterical girl,’ and I was told to go for walks and breathe. My boyfriend is now experiencing the exact same symptoms, and not one doctor has even said the word ‘stress’ to him.” — @wascaleywabbit

19. “They gave the consent papers to my husband while I was standing right there, fully conscious, not even in pain, very pregnant, but apparently not the one giving birth.” — @abrar7596

20. “When my best friend had a medical emergency, doctors lost 30 minutes asking if she was sure she wasn’t pregnant and saying she was lying about her pain. They refused to take into account the results of the tests they did. In the end, they told her mother that had they waited one more hour, she would have been dead. When her uncle had the same thing but at a less dangerous stage a few months later, they wasted no time, believed him, and healed him immediately.” — @polobenne

21. And finally: “I had a friend with endometriosis. Her doctor’s advice was to learn how to deal with it quickly so she wouldn’t burden her future husband.” — @LittlePark_uwu