Women's pain dismissed: a history of medical misogyny

The history of gynaecology reveals a persistent pattern where women's testimony about their health has been dismissed, and their pain treated with less urgency. This has often led to unwarranted surgical interventions.

Rooted in historical medical views of women's bodies as volatile and emotional, this approach has made women's health a target for profit-driven medicine. Contemporary issues like gaslighting in medicine and the exploitation of reproductive bodies echo this historical context.

Biomedical research has frequently used male bodies as the norm, neglecting conditions affecting women and applying treatments tested only on men. Gynaecology exemplifies this, with a history of innovation intertwined with violation.

Radical gynaecological surgery, particularly hysterectomy, has been presented as an unavoidable solution. However, its history shows instances where patients were not fully informed about procedures, and consent was compromised by societal assumptions rather than autonomous choice.

As late as the 1970s, some surgeons proposed hysterectomy for class-based population management and contraception, contributing to forced sterilizations. This highlights how hysterectomy served various purposes beyond direct medical necessity.

Complaints about patients being steered towards hysterectomy for benign tumors without full understanding of alternatives are not isolated incidents. They reflect an ongoing pattern of clinical authority overriding informed consent and patient autonomy.

While surgical safety and consent standards have improved, technical progress alone does not ensure justice in care. Addressing medical misogyny requires confronting the historical roots of treating women as unreliable witnesses of their own experiences.