Thousands of women have been left suffering thanks to 'gender inequality' in healthcare a doctor has claimed.
Dr Shirin Lakhani, a leading cosmetic doctor and intimate health specialist shared accounts where she has witnessed women receive incorrect treatments because of healthcare gender inequality. According to Dr Lakhani, the healthcare system’s efforts to improve the gender equality gap don't go far enough.
Dr Lakhani, whose family is from Merseyside, claims the severity of women’s health conditions continues to be downplayed and women often go incorrectly treated. She also said damaging taboos and a lack of information on female health mean women feel as though they can’t seek help.
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She said: “We need to take a holistic-joined up approach so women feel they can come and talk to professionals about a range of symptoms from incontinence to mental health to menopause and that they will be listened to, and their symptoms looked at as a whole so they can be effectively treated.”
Speaking to the ECHO, she said: “During my time as a GP, I noticed that sexual dysfunction was never taken seriously - not least because sexual pleasure is not required to enable women to procreate.
“I often found that I was unable to prescribe anything for my patients on the NHS to treat vaginismus - a painful spasmodic contraction of the vagina in response to physical contact or pressure. One patient told me that they had previously been told to drink a glass of wine prior to intercourse.”
Dr Lakhani also spoke of lichen sclerosus - an uncommon condition that creates patchy, white skin - that can affect the genital and anal areas of postmenopausal women. Without treatment it lead to a bacterial skin infection and permanent scars. She said: “Lichen sclerosus is often misdiagnosed for many years with patients experiencing significant pain that can have a huge impact on their lifestyle.
“99% of women I’ve treated have been told for years and years it’s thrush and they haven’t even been examined. There’s lots and lots of cases, and women will go in and they won’t get examined.”
Another condition that often goes undiagnosed for women is endometriosis, where tissue starts to grow in other places, such as the ovaries and bladder.
Dr Lakhani said: “Women with endometriosis often get told they’ve got a low pain threshold and it’s all in their head, and there’s nothing wrong with them. Endometriosis still takes on average eight years to diagnose. Even when diagnosed they’re told to just live with it and go on the pill.”
She spoke of how one young woman used to bleed out of her ears every month due to endometriosis, but nothing was done to treat her. Dr Lakhani continued: “We need to make sure women feel like they are listened to and that they can talk to family, friends, and their doctor about their symptoms. Nobody should be suffering at home with conditions which can be treated.”
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