Women & Health: The Sexism Women Face By Healthcare Providers In Canada
My friend and I recently had a discussion on health. More specifically, we started discussing women’s health. She and I don’t have much in common. But one thing that we do have in common is that we both have PCOS. In fact, we connected because of our shared diagnosis when initially met. In the midst of our chit chat of our shared health struggles, my friend made a really good point, and that is that women’s health isn’t taken seriously by medical professionals. There’s a certain sexism that comes with health. Her sentiment immediately reminded me of my early health struggles. No, not my early struggles with cerebral palsy; rather my early struggles with epilepsy, as these struggles I had to deal with on my own as a woman without my parents having to answer for me. It was a scary time for me, in particular. At the time, I felt that my life really depended on these health professionals that I was seeing, and I was seeing them more than I saw anyone else in my life at the time. Now, so many years later, things look different, and I want to tell you how.