Women face struggles as patients with Covid-19 — and beyond - CNN

That was true long before the coronavirus pandemic struck, says Maya Dusenbery, author of "Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick."

Women already face many inequities in the health care system, documented in Dusenbery's 2017 book, including dismissal of symptoms and lack of gender-based research.

In order for women — and men — to receive the best medical care, it's important for health care providers and researchers to be aware of these differences.

It means that she's likely to face a longer diagnostic delay compared to her male counterpart, especially for rare or difficult-to-diagnose diseases, because health care providers are quicker to conclude that her mysterious symptoms are "just stress" instead of doing a more thorough workup.

This idea is dangerous for all patients, and it continues to particularly harm women, who frequently encounter health care providers who say or imply that their symptoms are "all in their heads."

CNN: Many Covid-19 patients have reported persistent symptoms months after infection.

Consequently, many long haulers, regardless of gender, have faced skepticism from health care providers convinced that their lingering symptoms couldn't be related to Covid.

Hopefully, as long haulers have gotten media coverage over the last few months, that's starting to change.

Medicine's long history of viewing women as especially prone to psychogenic symptoms (illnesses without a clear biomarker that are believed to have arisen from emotional stressors), which means that when a woman is reporting symptoms that aren't readily explained, doctors are more quick to blame anxiety or depression or stress.

For example, I spoke to another long hauler who felt that, as a Black woman, she received the worst treatment by health care providers when she pushed back against their dismissals.

Above all, if you feel like you're not being taken seriously, if you can, seek out another health care provider until you find one who listens and is willing to work with you to get to the bottom of your symptoms.

CNN: How has social media changed women's ability to advocate for their diseases and seek out adequate care?

Dusenbery: Social media — and the internet in general — has been a game changer for women with a range of diseases — and especially for women with conditions that have been under-studied and marginalized within medicine.

In this current pandemic, we've seen the rapid formation of Covid support groups, which have been extremely effective in gathering data about the experiences of long haulers and pushing the media and public health institutions to start paying attention to it.

CNN: What opportunities do you see to use the pandemic to help build a more equitable health system?

Dusenbery: This pandemic has exposed so many existing societal problems — including problems in our medical system.