Several women have shared their experiences with the ABC of turning up to emergency departments in agony. They say their pain was minimised, and they didn't receive the care they needed. An expert warns those experiences are far from uncommon.
In severe abdominal pain, Chelsi and Zoe went to an emergency department. They say didn't get the care they neededSeveral women have spoken to the ABC about negative interactions with the ACT's healthcare system where they felt their pain was dismissed and they received sub-optimal care.
"I was told that, I'm a woman this happens when it comes to menstruation and everything like that," she said.Except Ms Parker wasn't fine after a few days. "Since then, I think I always push things a bit further than I need to because I'm gaslighting myself like, 'Oh, it's not that bad. I can push through'," she said.
The first time Zoe went to the hospital in this kind of distress she was cared for and given pain relief and monitored in a bed."I was told I was constipated and wasn't going to get any painkillers and to go home," she said."They said: 'Oh, no, you can be constipated and have diarrhoea at the same time."
But she worries the emergency department is not always the best place for treating injuries that can't be seen."I think unless you have something that they can actually see that's wrong with you, you're not really treated by ." She said there was specific stigma around women who were experiencing pain in the abdomen and pelvis.
"We know that women are repeatedly asking for help from our healthcare system, from healthcare professionals and they're repeatedly being told that their pain is normal. It's just not true," Dr Chalmers said."We know that's not true, pain is pain, regardless of whether there's a physical cause that we can identify or not," she said.But above all, she urged "validation".
"Right across our health system, there is a growing understanding of what is known as medical misogyny and the experiences of women who have had ... their pain dismissed or their illness minimised or being misdiagnosed as having a mental health condition when there was a genuine physical condition going on," she said.
Canberra Local News Local Women's Health Emergency Departments Pain Chronic Pain Minimisation Canberra Hospital Canberra Health Services Bleeding Chelsi Parker ACT Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith Gallstones Gaslighting
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