Gender Bias and the Female Sexual Health Revolution

vanessa looked broken

when i walked into the exam room i

extended my hand

and i said hello i’m dr javaid

can you tell me what’s wrong we’re going

to call her vanessa

to protect her privacy she looked me in

the eyes

and she said i’ve suffered a stroke i’ve

driven

two days to come see you i’m exhausted

i’ve been to doctor after doctor in

florida

and no one could help me in fact they

told me

i should just be thankful to be alive

dr javade i need you to help me save

my marriage i have no libido

during our one hour long discussion i

pointed out to vanessa

that there were multiple treatment

options available for her

she began to cry for what felt like a

really

long time she was grieving the amount of

time

she had lost while getting to me

unfortunately

vanessa’s story is all too common she is

just one of

millions of women that struggle with

sexual dysfunction

in fact according to a recent article in

a medical journal

two out of every five women struggle

world

wide with their sexual dysfunction these

patients

often go undiagnosed dismissed

and passed from doctor to doctor

they endure shame isolation and guilt

and when they finally get to a provider

they hear things like

it’s all in your head or drink some wine

and you’ll be fine or women were born

to bleed breed and die

i wish i was making that last statement

up but that was just

said to my patient a few months ago by

her gynecologist

these repeated dismissals are what have

led

to up to an eight and a half year delay

in diagnosis

in medical conditions for women eight

and a half years

of suffering in silence eight and a half

years

of feeling like they were broken imagine

that you could not be intimate with the

person that you love

imagine that it hurts to have sex or

that you’ve lost your sex drive

imagine now that you judge yourself you

ask yourself what is wrong

with me you go to the doctor

and you find out that there are only two

fda approved treatment options for women

and 26 for men

26 to 2. your male partner can go to the

doctor

pretty readily get a diagnosis and get a

medication like viagra

viagra was fda approved in 1998

in only six months addie the first ever

female sexual health drug

was fda approved in six years

and was not available until

ob 2015. like me we specialize in

women’s healthcare

yet our training is limited to anatomy

contraception sexually transmitted

diseases

and pregnancy why why

are we ignoring an entire body system

why are we ignoring

the sexual health care of millions of

women

i’ll tell you why there is a glaring

gender disparity in sexual health care

in the united states women’s health care

lags behind in research funding

and female leadership women

our decisions about our bodies about our

very health care

are not in the hands of women and we are

often treated by protocols that are only

studied in men

leading to a dangerous one-size-fits-all

approach

and in survey after survey female

patients report

feeling gender bias at the hands of

their providers

and despite what we see on tv and in the

movies

or here with our musical lyrics

culturally

the us is far behind the rest of the

world when it comes to their views

on sexuality and the more these patients

are dismissed

the less likely these female patients

are to come forward or to get needed

treatment options

rendering them invisible women are

invisible patients but i believe that

there is hope

i believe the women’s sexual health care

revolution

is happening now i opened her md

five years ago in cincinnati to give all

women a safe place

to get treatment for their sexual health

care

we provide access to sexual health care

counseling

surgery medications and imaging we

participate in clinical research trials

that are improving female health care as

we know it

we recognize that female health care is

complicated

i wish it was as simple as writing a

prescription for a patient

but that would be like giving her a car

filling it with gas

and forgetting to give her the keys we

have to treat

both body and mind her md is one of the

few centers

around the country that number one

specializes in female sexual health care

number two takes this multi-disciplinary

team approach

and number three does so within an

insurance model

and it’s a start we’re revolutionizing

women’s healthcare

as we know it and if we circle back to

my patient vanessa

the last time i saw her she said i’m no

longer crying

about my sex life in fact she had a big

smile on her face

and she said her husband was smiling too

and getting back to those husbands

i believe all men deserve all the health

care they have

and more i just want women to have equal

access to health care

i don’t believe women should have to

drive thousands of miles to get the

health care that they need

i want women to educate themselves

advocate for themselves and empower

themselves to align themselves

with the provider that will allow them

to live their

best life women want

need and deserve to be visible

you