Meanwhile, your life is on hold—relationships strained, career opportunities missed, and simple joys of life overshadowed by relentless pain.
You’re not alone, and more importantly, you’re not imagining things. Unfortunately, the history of endometriosis care is deeply intertwined with medical misogyny.
What is medical misogyny?
Medical misogyny refers to the systemic bias and discrimination against women within healthcare systems. It’s not just about individual doctors with outdated views—it’s embedded in medical education, research priorities, clinical guidelines, and healthcare delivery. This bias manifests as women’s symptoms being dismissed or psychologised, their pain undertreated, their conditions underresearched, and reproductive concerns being considered ahead of their quality of life.
Medical misogyny isn’t always conscious or intentional; it’s often the result of longstanding cultural attitudes and knowledge gaps that have been institutionalised within medical practice.
Medical misogyny is nasty, but it’s very real—and it’s affecting the rate at which women’s medical care can advance.
Here’s how it’s manifesting in our medical system today.
The Pain Bias
Studies consistently show women wait longer in emergency rooms, receive less pain medication, and are more likely to have physical pain symptoms attributed to mental health issues. Women’s pain is, statistically, taken less seriously than men’s. In fact, women are more likely to be prescribed psychotherapy rather than pain medication compared to men presenting with identical symptoms. For endometriosis patients, this translates to years of having legitimate pain dismissed, undertreated, or attributed to psychological causes.
Research Funding Gap
Endometriosis affects roughly as many people as diabetes, yet receives a fraction of the research funding. This disparity shows exactly how conditions primarily affecting women rank on the medical priority list (spoiler: not high).
The “Fertility-First” Approach
Some of us just want to exist without pain, regardless of our reproductive plans. But traditional endometriosis treatment focuses heavily on preserving fertility, even for patients who have zero interest in having children, rather than addressing pain and quality of life.
The system should place the person above the potential of a person, but some endometriosis patients are turned away from surgical options as “they might want children later”. While fertility concerns are very valid for many endo-warriors, the assumption that every woman’s main concern is baby-making is both outdated and harmful. It reinforces the problematic notion that a woman’s primary value lies in her reproductive capacity.
Diagnostic Delays
Imagine if men had to wait 7-10 years for a diagnosis while a condition progressively damaged their organs. There would be protests! Public outrage! Special task forces! Yet, for endometriosis patients, this wait time is a reality. It’s a systemic failure that simply wouldn’t be tolerated for conditions predominantly affecting men. These delays allow the disease to progress, often leading to more severe symptoms, additional organ involvement, and decreased treatment effectiveness.
Where do we go from here?
- Medical education reform is needed
Medical professionals-to-be need better training on recognising symptoms early, understanding the varied presentations, and taking patients seriously from day one. The current “one lecture on endometriosis” approach clearly isn’t cutting it. - Don’t let ‘The Man’ get you down
If you’re dealing with symptoms and getting nowhere, trust your gut. Document everything. Find doctors who listen (they do exist!). Connect with support groups online where others understand what you’re going through. You are your own best advocate. - Demand better research
We need more funding, more studies (like the EndoCann Clinical Trial from Astrid and Western Sydney University), and more options beyond “hormonal birth control or surgery.” Period. (Pun absolutely intended.) - Change the conversation, change the cultural attitude
The normalisation of menstrual pain and the dismissal of women’s health concerns are cultural issues that extend beyond medicine. So let’s stop normalising period pain. Let’s talk openly about symptoms. Let’s teach young people about what’s normal and what’s not. The sooner we stop accepting suffering as inevitable, the sooner we can change the system.
Perhaps the most radical act in a system steeped in medical misogyny is simply this: believing women when they say they’re in pain.
Medical misogyny and gender bias shapes our healthcare experiences, research priorities, and treatment approaches. Your pain isn’t just physical; it’s the result of systemic failures that have consistently pushed women’s health concerns to the periphery of medicine.
But here’s the thing about systems: they can change. They must change. And that change begins with each of us refusing to accept the status quo.
Your story matters. Your experiences are evidence of a broken system that needs fixing. By sharing them, you help create the momentum needed for real, lasting change in how endometriosis—and all conditions affecting women—are approached.
Submit your story to the Bodies of a Broken System project, and add your voice to the growing community demanding better care, better research, and better outcomes for all of us.
