The Stories Behind Inequity
At The Other 49%, we believe that every woman deserves to be heard, believed, and treated with the care she deserves. Yet, for too many women, navigating healthcare means facing dismissal, misdiagnosis, delayed treatment, or feeling unheard.
These are the stories of women who have experienced the inequities within our healthcare system firsthand. By sharing their voices, we hope to shed light on the gaps that still exist, create awareness, and inspire a future where every woman’s health is taken seriously.
Susan Schwab
Mrs. Schwab’s initial symptoms were red skin lesions, which a male dermatologist diagnosed as granuloma annulare, a rare skin condition. Over 1.5 years, she underwent repeated treatments, including topical creams, cortisone injections, and UV light therapy, requiring her to travel 1.5 hours three times per week on top of working a full-time job. Mrs. Schwab showed no improvement despite receiving constant treatment; in fact, her symptoms progressively worsened. Despite no improvement, the dermatologist continued prescribing the same treatment and did not reevaluate or look deeper into the initial diagnosis. The lesions eventually spread to her face, signaling systemic involvement. Her concerns were dismissed, and different causes were never explored by the doctor.
As expected, Mrs. Schwab became frustrated and researched her symptoms herself and learned that similar cases were often evaluated by rheumatologists. She then sought out care from a female rheumatologist, who ordered non-routine blood tests. These revealed: Elevated ALT and liver enzymes, moderately elevated blood sugar, and extremely high ferritin levels (~800; normal range is much lower). Recognizing the red flags, the rheumatologist diagnosed her with a rare form of a rare skin disease and prescribed her hydroxychloroquine, explaining to her that it was a “turtle medication” that works slowly but systemically.
Due to the abnormal ferritin levels and fatigue, she referred Mrs. Schwab to a hematologist, from whom she was able to receive care for a liver condition before it got much worse. Mrs. Schwab believes that a proper reevaluation of her diagnosis after the treatment of her initial diagnosis failed to work could have prevented years of worsening symptoms. She strongly feels that the male dermatologist was dismissive, failed to reconsider the diagnosis, and never acknowledged the possibility of a rare systemic condition.
In a separate incident, Mrs. Schwab experienced continuous pain in a tooth where she had gotten a root canal. For months, she returned to a male dentist, who repeatedly performed X-rays that, according to him, appeared “normal” and insisted nothing was wrong. Even though her pain continued to persist and worsen, the dentist made dismissive remarks, including: “How bad could it be if you can go about your business?” At the time, Mrs. Schwab was caring for a newborn, a 3-year-old, and a 6-year-old; she was a mother who had no choice but to get up every day and “go about her business” to help her kids. She felt that, due to everything that she had to do, this was an unfair assessment of her pain.
After months of unresolved pain, Mrs. Schwab’s husband took a day off work and accompanied her to an appointment. Only after her husband insisted did the dentist agree to open the tooth cap and directly examine the root canal, but Mrs. Schwab had been requesting further evaluation for months on her own. Upon examination, the tooth was found to be affected, confirming that her pain did in fact have a physical cause.
Following this, Mrs. Schwab began experiencing similar pain in another tooth that had previously undergone a root canal. When she returned to the dentist, he again insisted that “this was all in her head.” However, based on her previous experience, Mrs. Schwab persisted and demanded that the tooth cap be opened. Upon examination, this second tooth was also found to be affected.
Afterward, the dentist acknowledged the issue but attempted to excuse the repeated dismissals by stating that “this usually never happens.” Mrs. Schwab noted that this explanation did not account for the fact that the doctor had repeatedly minimized her pain and dismissed her, and was very arrogant towards her.
Anonymus
The patient’s medical struggles began after experiencing a tick bite, which was followed by a sudden onset of weakening symptoms, including severe dizziness, chronic fatigue, headaches, and a profound struggle to walk. Before these symptoms, she was highly active and an eager runner. However, her physical decline was so severe that during a medical stress test, she could barely walk on the lowest setting of the treadmill. She also experienced widespread bodily distress, describing constant generalized pain accompanied by a severe “needles” sensation throughout her body.
Her initial blood work showed baseline indicators for Lyme disease. But doctors determined she did not meet the strict diagnostic criteria required for a formal diagnosis. Consequently, she was denied the standard course of medication that her family members had successfully received for similar exposures. Seeking answers, she spent a year traveling back and forth between various specialists, including a cardiologist and an infectious disease doctor. After testing negative for Multiple Sclerosis (MS), doctors ultimately diagnosed her with fibromyalgia, a choice she felt was made simply because they could not correctly identify the root cause of her suffering.
Throughout this year-long ordeal, the patient felt profoundly frustrated, dismissed, and unheard by her care team. Living in upstate New York, an area highly endemic for tick-borne illnesses, her concerns regarding Lyme disease should have been a primary focus. Instead, the male infectious disease doctor she consulted was remarkably rude, condescending, and outright dismissive of her thoughts and symptom history as a whole. This encounter reflected a broader pattern in her care; she noted that all of the doctors who minimized her pain and stopped listening to her were male. Based on this experience, she developed a strong preference for female physicians, finding them to be significantly more attentive and empathetic.
Eventually, after her physicians completely stopped listening to her and exhausted all conventional approaches, she felt forced to take her health into her own hands and pursue an alternative course of treatment for Lyme disease. Upon starting the course of her treatment and self-medicating, her symptoms drastically improved, validating her initial concerns. The validity of her condition was further underscored when one of her brothers developed identical symptoms and was formally diagnosed with both Lyme disease and a secondary tick-borne illness. She strongly believes that gender bias played a significant role in her delayed care, and that a willingness by her male physicians to truly listen could have prevented a year of agonizing, unresolved illness.