What will the NHS do about its 悲惨な sexism problem? As BBC presenter Naga Munchetty tells MPs about her appalling 治療, readers 株 their own harrowing stories
It was?more than three １０年間s ago that doctors first told Naga Munchetty, then a 十代の少年少女, that the 激しい bleeding and 苦痛 she 耐えるd for nine days of every month was normal.
The BBC Breakfast presenter told a 議会の 調査 last month that the agony of her debilitating 月毎の cycle was so 厳しい she would be 肉体的に sick and lose consciousness, 影響する／感情ing her schooling and later her career.
The now 48-year-old told MPs: ‘I would not sleep because I would have to 始める，決める an alarm every four hours to change my sanitary wear. It made 関係s difficult. I had to have very understanding partners. I would worry about what I wore, 特に when I was in 前線 of the camera, because of 漏れるing.’
にもかかわらず 捜し出すing help, Naga said the 態度 of GPs had been: ‘These are your 治療 選択s and if they don’t work, suck it up.’
She 追加するd: ‘When women do try to speak about it they get labelled troublemakers. It’s really hard for women to 勝利，勝つ ? but if the 医療の profession understood more, then we wouldn’t have to fight as hard and feel like such a nuisance.’
BBC Breakfast presenter Naga Munchetty, 48, told a 議会の 調査 last month of the agony of her debilitating 月毎の cycle and said women are often labelled 'troublemakers' for speaking out about it
It was only last November, when Naga’s husband had to call an 救急車 because of her excruciating 苦痛, that she was finally 診断するd with adenomyosis, a 貧しく understood 条件 which 原因（となる）s 独房s from the womb lining to grow 深い within the muscles of the uterus. It 影響する／感情s about one in ten women, おもに over 30, and doctors have no idea what 原因（となる）s it.
After Naga spoke at the 調査, women ? of all ages ? took to social マスコミ to say they too had been failed by the 医療の profession: ‘解任するd’, ‘gaslit’, ‘ignored’ or told they were 苦しむing mental illness when, 最終的に, there was a physical problem 原因（となる）ing their 苦痛. The 推論する／理由, for some of those women, is （疑いを）晴らす: an ingrained sexism 存在するs at the heart of the 医療の profession.
GP gave me the 小衝突-off and said that Ijust had ‘women’s problems’?
Emma Nelson, 47, who lives 近づく Brighton, was left in agony with adenomyosis
Emma Nelson?苦しむs from 厳しい adenomyosis and ? just like Naga Munchetty ? says she was ‘小衝突d off’ by doctors.
The 47-year-old former ダンサー from East Sussex, pictured 権利, who 作品 in a 第２位 school, 述べるs the 苦痛 as ‘like a big bowling ball rolling around and grinding away at my pelvic bone’.
The problems began に引き続いて an 操作／手術 for a benign ovarian tumour last year. Emma says: ‘The 激しい bleeding was almost continuous and the chronic 苦痛 影響する／感情d everything. I couldn’t socialise or join family days out, and I’d just はう through the 前線 door after work and cry.
‘Endless 量s of phone calls to the GP resulted in useless 小衝突-off comments, because I had “women’s problems”.
‘I was told it was hormones and it would settle 負かす／撃墜する. It didn ’t. It tore me apart, 肉体的に and mentally, because I had no one to talk to, no support, no way of 取引，協定ing with it.’
After Emma went to A&E 予定 to 過度の bleeding and 厳しい 苦痛, an 緊急 ざっと目を通す showed she had adenomyosis. It had 原因（となる）d her womb to swell so much it took up her whole pelvis. She was 申し込む／申し出d 治療 with アイロンをかける tablets, the progesteron-only contraceptive pill and a coil ? but nothing worked.
‘結局 they said they didn’t know what to do,’ she says. ‘In the end, I went 私的な and had a total hysterectomy in August. The moment I opened my 注目する，もくろむs after 外科, the 苦痛 had gone. I got my life 支援する.
‘But although I know I need to move 今後, it is 脅すing knowing that the system I thought I could turn to when I needed help is not there.’
Doctors, too, 受託する that 薬／医学 can be biased against women. ‘We aren’t 取引，協定ing with women’s 復部の 苦痛 all that 井戸／弁護士席,’ wrote one, a psychiatrist, with some understatement.
‘This doesn’t surprise me at all,’ said another. ‘Even 女性（の） doctors take women’s 苦痛 いっそう少なく 本気で.’
The Mail on Sunday’s 居住（者） GP, Dr Ellie 大砲, asked 女性（の） readers to get in 接触する if they, like Naga, had experienced 医療の sexism. She then received a 激流 of emails and letters 詳細（に述べる）ing 破滅的な experiences which stretch 支援する over the past six １０年間s. Many are historic, but the 苦しめる they 原因（となる）d has lasted a lifetime.
Even today, women are still 存在 fobbed off by doctors for a 範囲 of debilitating problems ? from 激しい 苦痛 and bleeding to incontinence and urinary tract 感染s.
Keira Creedon, 17, from Cardiff, 行方不明になるd so much school because of her ‘incredibly 激しい’ periods that she had to 奪い返す a year.
She was 結局 定める／命ずるd the progestogen-only pill, which made her periods ‘ten times worse’, often bleeding for two weeks at a time, with 苦痛 so unbearable she couldn’t get out of bed. When she told her GP, he told her to ‘stick it out’.
研究 by Phs Group, a hygiene 製品 provider, shows she is not alone: 激しい or painful periods are the biggest 推論する／理由 for classroom absence の中で teenage girls.
What is （疑いを）晴らす is that 医療の sexism remains a 重要な and 耐えるing problem in the NHS.
Professor Dame Lesley Regan, the 政府’s Women’s Health 外交官／大使, is endeavouring to change this. ‘It’s heart-breaking to hear these stories where women 苦しむing from 苦痛 have been 解任するd or even disbelieved,’ Dame Lesley told The Mail on Sunday last night. ‘We （不足などを）補う 51 per cent of the 全住民, and if our 苦痛 is not 存在 recognised, let alone 扱う／治療するd, it is （疑いを）晴らす the system has not been working.’
Some 前進するs have already been made. The Women’s Health 戦略, a 詳細な計画 for 減ずるing 不平等s 直面するd by women, was 開始する，打ち上げるd by the 政府 last year, and £25 million is now 存在 分配するd across England to build ‘women’s health 中心s’ ? one-stop shops to 診断する and 扱う／治療する women’s health problems. But there is a long way to go.
MP Caroline Nokes, chairwoman of the Women and Equalities 委員会, which is 調査／捜査するing the challenges women 直面する 存在 診断するd and 扱う／治療するd for reproductive health 条件s, told The Mail on Sunday: ‘The stark reality is that the health 関心 doesn’t seem to 事柄. Whatever the 条件 is, the narrative around it is the same ? women feel they’re 存在 told to just suck it up.
‘The striking thing is that women are giving the same stories about the same experiences. Some are 最近の, some are historic. But it shows that nothing has changed, にもかかわらず more women working in the 医療の profession.’
The MP for Romsey and Southampton North 追加するd: ‘When women do go to the GP, they have either an 活発に 消極的な experience or a dismissive one. That is wrong and has to change.’
Several 熟考する／考慮するs have shown that women experience poorer 結果s than men across many areas of their health. A 熟考する／考慮する by University College London 設立する women with dementia receive worse 治療 than men with the 条件, making より小数の visits to the GP and receiving いっそう少なく 監視するing.
Women have to wait longer to be 定める／命ずるd painkillers and, when they are in 激烈な／緊急の 苦痛, are いっそう少なく likely to be given them than men.
いっそう少なく is known about 条件s that 影響する／感情 only women, 含むing gynaecological 条件s. For example, it takes seven years on 普通の／平均（する） for women to be 診断するd with endometriosis, a 条件 in which tissue from the lining of the uterus grows outside it, 原因（となる）ing scarring and 激しい 苦痛.
Lauren Page Smith, 29, was 設立する lying dead on the 床に打ち倒す with her daughter on her chest on January 6. She had earlier been 安心させるd by paramedics sent to help her after she complained of chest 苦痛s and vomiting.
Women with a blockage of the coronary artery ? a major 危険 factor for a heart attack ? are 59 per cent more likely to be misdiagnosed than men, and women are twice as likely to die in the 30 days に引き続いて a heart attack, によれば 研究員s from the University of 物陰／風下d. Women’s symptoms are different to men’s ? they are more likely to 伴う／関わる 疲労，（軍の）雑役, 支援する 苦痛 and nausea rather than 激しい chest 苦痛.
Earlier this month, a 検死官 結論するd that Lauren Page Smith, 29, a young mother from Wolverhampton, died after paramedics failed to recognise she was 苦しむing from a heart attack.
When the medics arrived, Lauren said she was 苦しむing from chest 苦痛, had been vomiting and had a sore throat. The 検死官 設立する that these symptoms were a ‘（疑いを）晴らす 調印する’ of a life-脅すing heart problem.
But the paramedics carried out a heart ざっと目を通す ? known as an electrocardiogram (ECG) ? at the scene and 報告（する）／憶測d no 関心s. They decided to take no その上の 活動／戦闘 and left.
However, the 検死官, Ms Jo 物陰／風下s, 公式文書，認めるd that Lauren’s ECG had been incorrectly 解釈する／通訳するd. A separate 調査, carried out by West Midland 救急車 Service, also 設立する the paramedics did not believe Lauren was in as much 苦痛 as she （人命などを）奪う，主張するd because of her ‘静める’ demeanour.
Several hours after the paramedics left, Lauren was 設立する dead at home by her mother. Her two-year-old daughter was lying on her chest.
Misdiagnoses like Lauren’s may also be linked to gaps in 研究, which has 歴史的に 焦点（を合わせる）d on male animals and male 裁判，公判 関係者s, after scientists 結論するd that women’s fluctuating hormones might 影響する／感情 the results. But some also 告発する／非難する doctors of unconscious bias against women, which 原因（となる）s them to 解任する their 苦痛.
Ms Nokes said she had been 接触するd by a 選挙権を持つ／選挙人 about her struggles to have her gynaecological 苦痛 taken 本気で. She said the woman ‘強調d that she felt she was 扱う／治療するd that way because she was a woman.’
Women 令状ing to the MoS have had 類似の experiences ? but, crucially, not always from male doctors. 女性（の） doctors can also be ‘just as bad’, some say.
Alison Kimber, 64, from Ryde in the 小島 of Wight, 苦しむd from excruciating period 苦痛 from the age of 12, and was only 診断するd with endometriosis and adenomyosis １０年間s later, when she was referred to a 女性（の） 顧問.
‘I gave up trying to have children in the end,’ she said. ‘I could no longer put up with the 苦痛 and 激しい bleeding, and elected to have a total hysterectomy when I was 40. The 救済 I felt after 外科 is indescribable. I just wish I’d done it sooner.’
Ten years later, Alison again went to her male GP with 強調する／ストレス incontinence and was ‘繰り返して fobbed off’ and told to put up with it. Instead, she saw a 女性（の） gynaecologist 個人として and had 外科 to 訂正する the problem.
‘It should not be necessary for women to make repeated 外科 visits to make their 発言する／表明するs heard,’ she says. ‘I bet if men had periods it would be dealt with in a jiffy.’
For some women their experiences have been so 苦しめるing it has 妨げるd them from 捜し出すing help for 潜在的に serious symptoms. Fiona Jackson was left so distraught に引き続いて a botched contraceptive coil 除去 in 2021 that she put off seeing a GP for six months, にもかかわらず experiencing pelvic 苦痛 and 地位，任命する-menopause bleeding ? a possible red 旗 for ovarian 癌.
The former 銀行業者, 58, who lives 近づく Coventry, is still tearful talking about the 出来事/事件 today. She says: ‘I’m intelligent, forthright and 独立した・無所属. But what happened 絶対 took me 負かす／撃墜する.’
She 述べるs the 手続き to have a coil fitted in 2014, に引き続いて a lifetime of endometriosis, as ‘a 大虐殺’. She left the 外科 in a 車椅子 and the GP advised that, when it （機の）カム to 除去するing it, the 手続き should be carried out under anaesthetic in hospital.
But seven years later this advice was overruled by a male GP. ‘He was dismissive and 辞退するd to 受託する it couldn’t be done in the practice,’ she says. ‘I was made to feel like I was making a fuss.’
The 手続き 原因（となる）d 厳しい 苦痛 and bleeding, and a 女性（の） GP who stepped in to help managed to snap the coil in half.
‘The nurse was in 涙／ほころびs and the GP was on the phone to the A&E asking for advice,’ Fiona says. ‘I was 叫び声をあげるing in 苦痛, shaking and 苦しめるd. I still shudder at what happened to me,’ she says.
Some women also told The Mail on Sunday of sexually 不適切な behaviour by doctors.
Paula Mulvaney, 59, from Aberdeenshire, 述べるd an 出来事/事件 15 years ago when a GP reached under her blouse with a stethoscope, telling her it was ‘one of the perks of the 職業’.
Another woman, now 70, who did not want to be 指名するd, told how, as a 26-year-old first-time mum, she was humiliated twice at antenatal 任命s.
‘The male doctor had a male student with him and, before 診察するing me, he turned to him and said, “We’ll see if she’s a natural blonde,’’ she says.
At the second visit, again with a male student 影をつくる／尾行するing him, he said: ‘Look at her, she used to have a nice 人物／姿／数字.’
Today, she says: ‘Young, 攻撃を受けやすい and 自信のない of myself, I never について言及するd it. I’ve never even told my husband about it, to this day. But nearly 50 years on, I have never forgotten how awful and belittled it made me feel.’
Dr Marieke Bigg wrote her 調書をとる／予約する, This Won’t 傷つける: How 薬／医学 Fails Women, after her gynaecological 苦痛 was 解任するd at a hospital 任命.
‘He said there was nothing much they could do unless I was planning to have a child,’ Dr Bigg says. ‘I was 混乱させるd. It seems my symptoms only 事柄d if I 手配中の，お尋ね者 to 再生する.’
But gynaecology is only a small part of the 調書をとる／予約する. ‘There are lots of under-調査するd areas for women,’ Dr Bigg says. ‘Women have died because heart attack symptoms are mistaken for the menopause.
‘Wome n’s experiences may be all on a spectrum ? from 医療の gaslighting on one end to 性の 強襲，強姦 on the other. But they all 伴う／関わる women feeling unempowered, unable to 主張する their needs or their 境界s, and not feeling 安全な or listened to.’
As part of the Women’s Health 戦略, the 政府 ran a 調査する for women to help better understand their reproductive health needs. But to truly make changes, the work needs to go beyond the NHS, says Ms Nokes.
‘The women’s health 中心s will be real 進歩,’ she says, ‘but we need to start educating girls in schools to recognise what a normal period is and when to see a doctor. We have to make sure doctors are trained in 医療の school to recognise their unconscious bias. And we need to 納得させる the 財務省 that these 問題／発行するs ? which 原因（となる） women to take time off work or stop working altogether ? are 衝撃ing GDP [甚だしい／１２ダース 国内の 製品].
‘It’s amazing how that can 軍隊 people to sit up and listen.’
