It’s long been a well-known fact of life that anyone who does not fit societal expectations of what a “healthy” person should look like can have trouble receiving adequate medical care. (This seems backwards.) But did you know the reverse is also true? What do doctors even do all day?
According to The Telegraph UK, “thousands of women” are dying of preventable causes because their doctors just kind of gave them the once over and made the highly informed medical assessment that they “looked okay dokey”and hence were “probably fine.” Specifically, a recent study suggests doctors aren’t screening enough women for heart problems that could lead to strokes:
The study of patients suffering from atrial fibrillation – one of the leading causes of stroke – found that women below the age of 70 were 56 per cent less likely to be treated for the condition, compared with men with the same risk profile.
“I think doctors – GPs and cardiologists – often do not realise the risk for women,” says Dr Pierre Sabouret, lead researcher and cardiologist from Heart Institute-Pitie Salpetriere Hospital in Paris. “Too often they will think if a female patient looks healthy, and dresses smartly, and looks after herself, she is probably okay.”
“Probably okay?” Come again? Do you people mean to tell me you spent millions of dollars and years of your life in medical school so you could learn to diagnose people by their vibes? Last I checked, medicine was a discipline that arose when we figured out there are all sorts of confusing things going on inside of people that you can’t see just by looking at their outsides. And last I checked, the kinds of clothes people buy did not have some magical effect on their health, otherwise the cure for heart disease would be a trip to Bloomingdales. But I’m no scientist, so maybe someone can explain it to me.
To remedy this sad state of affairs, Dr. Sabouret recommends better screening practices as well as educating people about tests they can do at home. Personally, I am going to clothe myself only in Gucci from now on, because I hear it wards off the gout.
(Via The Telegraph)