Medicine is made for men

Cheryl! What's wrong, Carl? I just gobbled up Doing Harm by Maya Dusenberry and E. Gadd. Do tell, Carl. Cheryl, the amount I learned from this book horrified and enraged me. Did you know women are often discharged from the ER mid-heart attack with prescriptions for anti-anxiety meds? That happened to me twice, Carl. Those with autoimmune diseases have been labeled as chronic complainers for years until properly being diagnosed. I've seen it, Carl. And several diseases that disproportionately affect women, like chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, were thought to be psychosomatic symptoms and had failed to even be fully accepted as real diseases. E. Gadd, indeed, Carl. In the 70s, the FDA had a policy prohibiting any woman of child-bearing age from participating in early-stage drug trials out of concern about affecting hypothetical fetuses. Hypothetical! The fetuses were fiction, Cheryl! They were also excluded from observational studies. They started one in the 50s that studied normal human aging, and not a single woman was looked at. It wasn't until 1993 when Congress passed a law stating that women needed to be included in NIH-funded clinical research. And though most women are included in studies today, it is not the norm to analyze results by gender to see the differences between men and women. So experts are describing this approach as just add women and stir. This is why women are being over-diagnosed on most drugs. On average, men have a higher body weight than women and a different metabolic response, yet that difference is not normally accounted for. We prescribe drugs based on a one-size-fits-all dosage, but that one size, it ain't women, Cheryl. Say it louder for the people in the back, Carl. Also, women have atypical symptoms when it comes to heart disease, even though it's the leading cause of death for women in the United States. For the first 35 years that we were studying heart disease, we were mostly studying it in men. Now that we're going back and comparing women's experiences to men's experiences, women are more likely to have what we consider to be atypical symptoms. Which are considered atypical because the norm has been the male model. One study found women under 55 were seven times more likely to be sent home in the middle of a heart attack. Even though heart disease kills one in three women, Cheryl, one in three. This is not a tip from Doosenberry, but a medical lab tech. If you believe you're having a heart attack, you want to mention chest pain and ask if they're running a troponin with your blood work. So basically, troponin is a compound that's released when damage to your heart muscle occurs. Reporting chest pain should trigger an EKG and a TROP, but it does not hurt to make sure. Also beware, if you take biotin supplements, those can actually make troponin tests falsely come back as normal. So if you take biotin, definitely mention it to your doctor. Great point, Carl. Thank you. I do take biotin. One of the most disturbing things Doosenberry found in her research was how many women were fighting to get their symptoms taken seriously by doctors. The amount of medical gaslighting women experience IS NOT JUST A MODERN PHENOMENON, CHERYL. Nay, Carl. Hysteria has a very long history. This was fascinating. In ancient Greece, it was thought to be a disorder of a wandering womb roving about the body. The Greeks actually thought women became sick if they didn't get pregnant early enough. Then in Victorian times, it shifted to be believed to be a nervous system disorder. And now, in the 20th century, we're seeing it shift to become a psychological problem. Freud blamed women's physical illnesses on their mental health. Yeah! To the point where so many women are testifying that they bring partners or male relatives to doctor's appointments just to vouch for their sanity. These women noticed there was a different treatment they received when there was a Carl in the room corroborating the reports of their own symptoms. I've actually done this. I've made guy friends come over when I have to interface with plumbers or contractors or anything like that. One time I hired a white guy friend to pretend to be my assistant in a meeting and it worked. So effectively, it was insulting. Cheryl, I can and I cannot believe that for so long, the medical community has taken unexplained symptoms in women and psychologized it as stress or depression or anxiety and hasn't even bothered to do the investigation required to figure out the root causes for these symptoms. We live in a sad world, Carl. Don't get me started on how black and trans women are just utterly screwed by the medical community. God, what can I do, Cheryl? As a lover of science, as a lover of women, as a lover of humankind, what can a wee little Carl do? You gotta be the change, little Carl. Yeah, I'll be the change, Cheryl. You gotta be an ally, little Carl. I'll be the change for you, Cheryl. Little Carl, you are beloved by the internet for your willingness to learn. This book made me sick, Cheryl. It made me absolutely sick with my sex. Your cute little face with your sexy, natural mustache. People love you, Carl. Is this what white guilt feels like, Cheryl? God, I'm gonna do my best, I promise. You can show up to their medical appointments, Carl. I'll go to the appointments with you, Cheryl, whatever you need. You can make me a little treat. You can make me a little snack, okay? Because I'm a little hungry right now. I'm gonna go to the kitchen, I'm gonna make you a sandwich, Cheryl. I need you to go down to the kitchen. I'm a real man. And make me something yummy. This video is brought to you by Squarespace. So my daddy, Squarespace, makes it so easy to create a beautiful website, engage with your audience, and sell anything from products to content to time. 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