I was hoping to learn something I could put to good use after reading this book, which I did, but I had no idea the extent to which it would essentially validate something just shy of my entire experience with the medical industrial complex over the course of the last near-twenty years of contending with chronic illness. Anyone struggling with chronic illness or pain should read this book, and, in the words of another reviewer, "take [it] to [your] next doctor's appointment, smack him upside the head with it, and then stand there and read the whole damn thing out loud to him!" but that's probably about all you will be able to do, especially if you have a male physician.
This exhaustively researched expose details the catastrophic failures of the medical industrial complex to address women's health, resulting in untold human suffering. It systematically and convincingly exposes the gender bias inherent in the medical industry. This includes everything from the failure to include women in studies in order to simplify procedures and to standardize results (even female rats and mice were generally excluded to avoid skewing results) to chronicling in detail the disgusting and indefensible practice of accusing women complaining of everything from pain resulting from heart attacks, slurred speech and paralysis caused by strokes and chronic pain and a litany of other symptoms associated with autoimmune diseases such as lupus of having nothing more than some form of modern-day hysteria.
It convincingly argues that rather than being diagnosed with the devastating medical conditions they actually have, women are instead labeled by biased medical practitioners of all descript as being afflicted with some nebulous and often-unspecified "psych-o disease" (my term, not hers), such as "somatization disorder," itself a highly questionable "diagnosis" by practitioners in a field which, in my opinion, is rooted in little more than pseudo-science, akin much more to religion than actual science; much of its traditional orthodoxy has been long since debunked, but the spectre of hysteria still looms large, if simply called by another name. In fact, much of the book describes the common (prevailing, really) practice of invalidating women's health complaints, essentially labeling them as "chronic bitchers" with "anxiety," "depression," and "stress," which are themselves symptoms of undiagnosed medical conditions, mental or otherwise, including complex autoimmune conditions which physicians are typically too intellectually lazy and apathetic to spend the time and effort diagnosing.
In terms of weaknesses, some of the reviewers have noted that certain sections are repetitive, but I believe that the intent of the author was to pack as much information into this book as possible, to give readers as much ammunition as actually exists, to fight back. As such, I would have liked to have had more readily accessible references, with actual numbered footnotes, and a comprehensive bibliography, as the book was clearly well-researched, but some of the sources are difficult to access. Although certainly a topic worthy of an entire book in and of itself (and, indeed, several have been written in the past few years), material on the connection between big pharma and the "psych-o" industry, whose multi-billion-dollar-a-year business centers largely on prescribing questionable, ineffective and damaging drugs is surprisingly light. I might recommend, perhaps for future editions, that some of the repetition be omitted in favor of more attention on the pharma-psych-o racket.
Notwithstanding these issues, however, it's a worthwhile read for anyone dealing with chronic illness, as well as for medical providers, but trying to get any of the latter to undertake the effort and initiative to educate themselves about the plight of their female patients, something they clearly missed out on in medical school, is probably a lost cause.
Best wishes, love, light and support to any and all fellow chronic pain/illness warriors out there. Your experiences are valid; your suffering is real, and we who know, believe you.
This exhaustively researched expose details the catastrophic failures of the medical industrial complex to address women's health, resulting in untold human suffering. It systematically and convincingly exposes the gender bias inherent in the medical industry. This includes everything from the failure to include women in studies in order to simplify procedures and to standardize results (even female rats and mice were generally excluded to avoid skewing results) to chronicling in detail the disgusting and indefensible practice of accusing women complaining of everything from pain resulting from heart attacks, slurred speech and paralysis caused by strokes and chronic pain and a litany of other symptoms associated with autoimmune diseases such as lupus of having nothing more than some form of modern-day hysteria.
It convincingly argues that rather than being diagnosed with the devastating medical conditions they actually have, women are instead labeled by biased medical practitioners of all descript as being afflicted with some nebulous and often-unspecified "psych-o disease" (my term, not hers), such as "somatization disorder," itself a highly questionable "diagnosis" by practitioners in a field which, in my opinion, is rooted in little more than pseudo-science, akin much more to religion than actual science; much of its traditional orthodoxy has been long since debunked, but the spectre of hysteria still looms large, if simply called by another name. In fact, much of the book describes the common (prevailing, really) practice of invalidating women's health complaints, essentially labeling them as "chronic bitchers" with "anxiety," "depression," and "stress," which are themselves symptoms of undiagnosed medical conditions, mental or otherwise, including complex autoimmune conditions which physicians are typically too intellectually lazy and apathetic to spend the time and effort diagnosing.
In terms of weaknesses, some of the reviewers have noted that certain sections are repetitive, but I believe that the intent of the author was to pack as much information into this book as possible, to give readers as much ammunition as actually exists, to fight back. As such, I would have liked to have had more readily accessible references, with actual numbered footnotes, and a comprehensive bibliography, as the book was clearly well-researched, but some of the sources are difficult to access. Although certainly a topic worthy of an entire book in and of itself (and, indeed, several have been written in the past few years), material on the connection between big pharma and the "psych-o" industry, whose multi-billion-dollar-a-year business centers largely on prescribing questionable, ineffective and damaging drugs is surprisingly light. I might recommend, perhaps for future editions, that some of the repetition be omitted in favor of more attention on the pharma-psych-o racket.
Notwithstanding these issues, however, it's a worthwhile read for anyone dealing with chronic illness, as well as for medical providers, but trying to get any of the latter to undertake the effort and initiative to educate themselves about the plight of their female patients, something they clearly missed out on in medical school, is probably a lost cause.
Best wishes, love, light and support to any and all fellow chronic pain/illness warriors out there. Your experiences are valid; your suffering is real, and we who know, believe you.
