Women’s anatomy and medical students

It's shocking how nearly all research has been done only on male health. We are half the population. I only hope this new medical marvel can help educate them in women's health, particularly the thyroid gland where ignorance abounds,in particular educate GP's and Endocrinologists. I was told by my own GP ( now retired). ' I know nothing about the thyroid gland'. If I had a pound for each time I heard this from different people, I'd be a very rich woman.

It shocking, isn’t it?
Try reading “Invisible Women” by Caroline Criado Perez, and you will be horrified. Would easily turn me into a radicalised feminist.

Throughout nature the longer-living creature is, barring accidents, always the female because she bears and nurtures the next generation. Every species does this. It is why peahens, for example, look dull, drab and can easily conceal themselves from predators but peacocks are colourful to attract mates.

I think I read some serious article quite a while ago about how the "default" for a foetus is always female. Think about inherited diseases or problems that affect only those with Y chromosomes.

It is no surprise to me that medical science still regards male as the "norm". This has less to do with science and everything to do with so many centuries of the way women were regarded. It takes a very long time to undermine preconceptions

I suspect this ignorance of the female body may go far back in time when strict rules of modesty governed women and there was a reticence in using the female body as a naked and displayed the female body carried a elelment that only prostitutes bared their body to the male gaze.

Mind you, in the days before the internet, we had a medical book that included pictures of the stripped of skin male and female bodies.

grandMattie

It shocking, isn’t it?
Try reading “Invisible Women” by Caroline Criado Perez, and you will be horrified. Would easily turn me into a radicalised feminist.

A friend lent me that book. I was so annoyed that I had to stop reading it! Unbelievable.

Is it illegal yet to perform internal examinations on anaesthetised Women?
Sometimes students were ‘invited’ to perform pelvic examinations on women who were already in the operating theatre for other reasons, sometimes more than one student. This was for Training purposes.
Read the consent form before you sign if you don’t want this to happen as I’m not sure if the practice has been stopped.

Yes there are SO many differences between women and men.
Its not just a case of outward appearances.
Can't argue with science.

Floriel, yes, I saw that - a bit horrified that they've only now got around to changing things.

Pepper59

It's shocking how nearly all research has been done only on male health. We are half the population. I only hope this new medical marvel can help educate them in women's health, particularly the thyroid gland where ignorance abounds,in particular educate GP's and Endocrinologists. I was told by my own GP ( now retired). ' I know nothing about the thyroid gland'. If I had a pound for each time I heard this from different people, I'd be a very rich woman.

It may shock you to know that men have a thyroid too. GPS cannot possibly know about the entirety of the human body and its vagaries - hence we have specialists.

We often hear too that things like the menopause and PMT are not sufficiently researched. I'm not sure how true this is, but it is often mentioned on science podcasts and radio programmes.

Argy margy, Im quite aware men have a thyroid gland, in a support group I attended there were many fewer men with thyroid issues. Sadly some men seemed to be ignored just as much as women were. Attitudes to women by medical professionals in my and others experience is far worse. They also tend to talk to you like you are a four year old. I hope you never get thyroid issues and meet the attitudes I have. Go onto the forums at Thyroid UK, read the experiences of thousands of women on the forums there and some awful stories. Then compare the amount of men on that forum. I hope you never suffer and I mean suffer with any thyroid issue. It's destroyed health, careers, relationships, yet we are the poor relatives for health care. You are either depressed or overeating. Anything but taken seriously. There was one man in my group who gave up going to the doctor at all. Other people spent thousands on private treatment. Most Endocrinoligists are patronising and follow outdated treatment from about 30 years ago and it's a worldwide problem, not just here.

Oopsadaisy I was going to say, there’s bound to be a consent form to sign where this would be mentioned.

EVERYTHING is designed for the male body.
Seats, table heights, cars, ladders.... all the things we use every day are based on being used primarily by men.

BlueSky I'd take a wild guess that it isn't stated clearly on the consent form but is in disguised language so that patients don't realise unless they are looking for it .

Fleur20

EVERYTHING is designed for the male body.
Seats, table heights, cars, ladders.... all the things we use every day are based on being used primarily by men.

So true.
Not forgetting seatbelts.
Also, in-ear head phones are designed for mens bigger lugholes.
They don't always fit properly in our 'often smaller' much narrower ear canals.

This goes to prove once and for all all and beyond all reasonable doubt that men and women are completely different and in more ways than we realise.

Its very brave of these people to do this
www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-61258731

Clearly they don't consider it brave, just factual .

That's what's so refreshing
Facts have been put first, before feelings.
For a change.

I have an unusual medical condition, and have to explain it to every single Dr I meet; apart from one Specialist in London. There are amazing gaps in medical training which worry me greatly...

Whilst there is a huge amount of truth in what is said here, I don’t think men’s health is prioritised. Having lost my husband to prostate cancer, where a simple blood test, done early enough would have saved his life. Medics won’t test based on false positives but oh I so wish I’d known we could have asked.

I also saw this piece on the news and could hardly believe it was true! Female anatomies are inevitably more complex than male. How on earth do you show where a uterus, ovaries or fallopian tubes are on a male anatomy?

Many years ago I visited a medical school dissection room for a research project and I saw they had both male and female cadavers for the students to study. Obviously they were not focussing solely on the male body.

I think the program was exaggerating rather. But yes, there should be a whole branch of medicine focussing on women's issues. Hold on, there is. Gynaecology.

Heart attack symptoms can be extremely different for men and women but for years it was only ever the male symptoms that were warned about. As a young female with a blocked coronary artery my gp dismissed me inspite of a strong family history at a young aage.At my request she even said she would do a private referral and then didn't bother. The private consultant in the following letter to her described me as having all the symptoms, in other words a mild telling off. Her behaviour afterwards was even worse. So I think as I was a female she just didn't think it possible.