Poor Health Perceptions

DEFINITION

The percent of women reporting fair or poor general health in 2018.3

OKLAHOMA

Data Highlight: 23.6 percent “Healthcare Gaslighting” is a term that describes how women NATIONAL AVERAGE 19.4 percent are more likely to be told that their perception and experience of their bodily well-being is inaccurate or not of serious concern. This phenomenon can result in poor health outcomes. 77

Why We Care:

How women interpret their health is an often overlooked factor in determining their health outcomes. Well-intentioned clinicians can often undermine the bodily perceptions of female patients who present with symptoms that appear to be caused by stress or anxiety, and women are more commonly told that their ailment is “all in their heads”. 75 This phenomenon has been documented for well over a decade, and is common enough to have its own name: Healthcare Gaslighting.75 Going back as far as 2001, a study showed that women were prescribed less pain medication than men after identical procedures, and were less likely to be admitted to the hospital when presenting with the same symptoms.76 For women of color, this phenomenon is especially dire, as Black and Indigenous women are more likely to die from pregnancy-related health problems, even when socioeconomic variables are controlled.78 As one affected woman explained to Oprah Magazine, “While not every Black woman has had experiences like these, they’re disappointingly familiar to legions of us.79 Indeed, there is enough anecdotal and factual evidence to suggest that a dangerous color-based bias is baked into the American healthcare system, affecting even well-educated, upper-middleclass patients—the type you might expect to be immune from such inequity.”78

What We Can Do:

- Create standards of care that ensure an objective response to women’s sense of their bodily anatomy and feelings about their personal health - Educate on the harm of the “hysterical woman” stereotype in a clinical setting, especially as this relates to medical care provided to Black and Indigenous women

Lookbook Vol. 2

p. 45