Doing Harm

Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick by Maya Dusenbery    400 pages

This book,is filled with extensive research that reveals how gender bias infects every level of healthcare and medicine today (yes, even today) and how that leads to inadequate, inappropriate and sometimes dangerous ignoring of symptoms and lack of treatment.  The author pulls together research, both sociological and scientific, along with interviews and personal stories and provides what appears to be (and I'm saying that because I have never read something this extensive and well-researched) the first book that takes a comprehensive and yet still accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women. And not in the past, way back when ---- how medicine harms women now, in 2018. The author does delve into history so that you understand the roots of some of the entrenched biases that exist now, and she also lays out those side effects and how there are steps that can be taken to address these biases.

I found this book absolutely fascinating, although at the same time, extremely frustrating. While I knew some of what is covered in the book, like how studies on certain diseases were only done on White men, I really found my knowledge was quite shallow.  It's completely disconcerting and frankly, alarming. 

However, at the same time, I found myself feeling "It's not just me. !!"  In my own medical history, I have experienced being dismissed by doctors, or told something that isn't true. In just one example, a nurse practitioner refused to give me a referral to another doctor (because I was part of a HMO) when I asked for help with what were increasingly painful joints in my feet. Her solution of "take some Advil" never worked . . . because when I finally got up the courage to see a podiatrist years later, I found out I have large spurs and a broken piece of bone in my foot.  My own experiences are absolutely tiny when compared to what some of the women Dusenbery experienced went through. And I didn't realize the huge advantage I have because I am White; apparently, research documents the fact that Black women experience worse reactions from medical personnel (the least of which is to be told that these women are just "drug seeking").

So, a good book, and I believe one that many people should read. Just be prepared that your blood pressure might go up a little bit!