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Doing harm : the truth about how bad medicine and lazy science leave women dismissed, misdiagnosed, and sick / Maya Dusenbery.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : HarperOne, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 2019Copyright date: ©2018Edition: First HarperCollins paperback editionDescription: 390 pages ; 21 cmContent type:
  • text
Media type:
  • unmediated
Carrier type:
  • volume
ISBN:
  • 9780062470836
  • 0062470833
Subject(s):
Contents:
Introduction -- Part 1. Overlooked and dismissed: a systemic problem. The knowledge gap ; The trust gap -- Part 2. Invisible women in a "male model" system. Heart disease and other life-threatening emergencies ; Autoimmune disease and the long search for a diagnosis -- Part 3. Neglected diseases: the disorders formerly known as hysteria. Chronic pain: "pain is real when you get other people to believe in it" ; The curse of Eve: when being sick is "normal" ; Contested illnesses: when diseases are "fashionable" -- Conclusion.
Summary: "In this shocking, hard-hitting expose in the tradition of Naomi Klein and Barbara Ehrenreich, the editorial director of Feministing.com reveals how gender bias infects every level of medicine and healthcare today--leading to inadequate, inappropriate, and even dangerous treatment that threatens women's lives and well-being. Modern medicine is failing women. Half of all American women suffer from at least one chronic health condition--from autoimmune disorders and asthma to depression and Alzheimer's disease--and the numbers are increasing. A wealth of research has revealed that women often exhibit different symptoms than their male counterparts, suffer disproportionately from many debilitating conditions, and may react differently to prescription drugs and other therapies. Yet more than twenty years after the law decreed that women be included in all health-related research and drug development, doctors are still operating with a lingering knowledge gap when it comes to women's health. And they're not immune to unconscious biases and stereotypes that can undermine the doctor-patient relationship. The consequences can be catastrophic: too often, women are misdiagnosed, poorly treated, and find their complaints dismissed as 'just stress' or 'all in your head.' Meanwhile, they're getting sicker. Maya Dusenbery brings together scientific and sociological research, interviews with experts within and outside the medical establishment, and personal stories from regular women to provide the first comprehensive, accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women today. In addition to offering a clear-eyed explanation of the root causes of this insidious and entrenched bias and laying out its effects, she suggests concrete steps we can take to cure it"-- Provided by publisher.
Holdings
Item type Home library Collection Call number Materials specified Status Date due Barcode Item holds
Adult Book Adult Book Main Library NonFiction 613.0424 D972 Available 33111009135464
Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:



Editor of the award-winning site Feministing.com, Maya Dusenbery brings together scientific and sociological research, interviews with doctors and researchers, and personal stories from women across the country to provide the first comprehensive, accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women today.

In Doing Harm, Dusenbery explores the deep, systemic problems that underlie women's experiences of feeling dismissed by the medical system. Women have been discharged from the emergency room mid-heart attack with a prescription for anti-anxiety meds, while others with autoimmune diseases have been labeled "chronic complainers" for years before being properly diagnosed. Women with endometriosis have been told they are just overreacting to "normal" menstrual cramps, while still others have "contested" illnesses like chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia that, dogged by psychosomatic suspicions, have yet to be fully accepted as "real" diseases by the whole of the profession.

An eye-opening read for patients and health care providers alike, Doing Harm shows how women suffer because the medical community knows relatively less about their diseases and bodies and too often doesn't trust their reports of their symptoms. The research community has neglected conditions that disproportionately affect women and paid little attention to biological differences between the sexes in everything from drug metabolism to the disease factors--even the symptoms of a heart attack. Meanwhile, a long history of viewing women as especially prone to "hysteria" reverberates to the present day, leaving women battling against a stereotype that they're hypochondriacs whose ailments are likely to be "all in their heads."

Offering a clear-eyed explanation of the root causes of this insidious and entrenched bias and laying out its sometimes catastrophic consequences, Doing Harm is a rallying wake-up call that will change the way we look at health care for women.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 323-377) and index.

Introduction -- Part 1. Overlooked and dismissed: a systemic problem. The knowledge gap ; The trust gap -- Part 2. Invisible women in a "male model" system. Heart disease and other life-threatening emergencies ; Autoimmune disease and the long search for a diagnosis -- Part 3. Neglected diseases: the disorders formerly known as hysteria. Chronic pain: "pain is real when you get other people to believe in it" ; The curse of Eve: when being sick is "normal" ; Contested illnesses: when diseases are "fashionable" -- Conclusion.

"In this shocking, hard-hitting expose in the tradition of Naomi Klein and Barbara Ehrenreich, the editorial director of Feministing.com reveals how gender bias infects every level of medicine and healthcare today--leading to inadequate, inappropriate, and even dangerous treatment that threatens women's lives and well-being. Modern medicine is failing women. Half of all American women suffer from at least one chronic health condition--from autoimmune disorders and asthma to depression and Alzheimer's disease--and the numbers are increasing. A wealth of research has revealed that women often exhibit different symptoms than their male counterparts, suffer disproportionately from many debilitating conditions, and may react differently to prescription drugs and other therapies. Yet more than twenty years after the law decreed that women be included in all health-related research and drug development, doctors are still operating with a lingering knowledge gap when it comes to women's health. And they're not immune to unconscious biases and stereotypes that can undermine the doctor-patient relationship. The consequences can be catastrophic: too often, women are misdiagnosed, poorly treated, and find their complaints dismissed as 'just stress' or 'all in your head.' Meanwhile, they're getting sicker. Maya Dusenbery brings together scientific and sociological research, interviews with experts within and outside the medical establishment, and personal stories from regular women to provide the first comprehensive, accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women today. In addition to offering a clear-eyed explanation of the root causes of this insidious and entrenched bias and laying out its effects, she suggests concrete steps we can take to cure it"-- Provided by publisher.

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