Women less likely to get correct treatment in ER because they're viewed as 'hysterical and exaggerating'

Women less likely to get correct treatment in ER because they're viewed as 'hysterical and exaggerating' READ MORE: Have YOU been affected by the 'gender pain gap' ? By Cassidy Morrison Senior Health Reporter For Dailymail.Com Published: 16:53 BST, 7 August 2024 | Updated: 16:55 BST, 7 August 2024 e-mail View comments Women presenting to the emergency department in pain are less likely to receive medications they need to treat it compared to men, new research shows. An analysis of discharge notes of more than 21,000 patients from Missouri and Israel showed that female patients were less likely to be prescribed pain meds, and their symptoms were more likely to be dismissed.

Dr Alex Gileles-Hillel, a co-author and doctor at Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Center in Jerusalem , said: ‘Women are viewed as exaggerating or hysterical and men are viewed as more stoic when they complain of pain.’ It is the latest evidence of sex bias in medicine, with women also less likely to be treated for a heart attack than men. Physicians put sex bias in medicine to the test by presenting both male and female nurses with identical fictional vignettes about a male patient and a female patient presenting with severe back pain.

When asked to assign a pain management score to male and female patients with the exact same complaint and health history, nurses perceived female patients’ pain as less intense and less deserving of treatment. Pain is subjective, and doctors and nurses rely on pati.