#medical bias

[intersectionalpraxis]

Defend and Protect Black Women!!

Misogynoir medical bias is KILLING Black women disproportionately. If you know even a little history of how Black women have been systematically dehumanized and objectified in the medical industrial complex -you'd know this is FAR too common and it's despicable. These medical professionals should be losing their licenses to practice medicine.

"Black women are three to four times more likely to experience complications during pregnancy and childbirth and die from these complications compared with white women. Additionally, infants born to Black women are two times more likely to be born premature (<37 weeks of gestation) compared with infants born to white women."

"In the 19th century, J. Marion Sims performed experimental surgery on enslaved Black women without their consent to develop a cure for vesicovaginal fistula. These experiments facilitated the generations of two key health care scripts about Black women in the context of reproductive health care: (1) it is acceptable to perform procedures on Black women without their consent; and (2) Black women have a high tolerance for pain."

"Although there is a plethora of research documenting Black women's experiences of racism and discrimination while navigating perinatal care, much less has been reported regarding the relationship between racism and clinical care through the lens of clinicians' caring for Black women during pregnancy and childbirth."

[lifewithchronicpain]

Physicians are using excuses to intentionally dissuade people with disabilities from their practices, researchers say in a new study exposing just how pervasive discrimination against this population is in health care.

In focus groups, doctors described making strategic choices to turn away individuals with disabilities. They reported telling patients with disabilities that they would require specialized care and that “I am not the doctor for you.” In other cases, physicians said they simply indicate that “I am not taking new patients” or “I do not take your insurance.”

The findings come from a study published this month in the journal Health Affairs. It is based on focus groups conducted in late 2018 by researchers at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, the University of Massachusetts and Harvard Medical School with 22 primary care and specialist doctors who were selected from a national database.

Many of the participants described accommodating people with disabilities as burdensome and some used outdated language like “mentally retarded.” Doctors frequently indicated that individuals with disabilities account for a small number of patients, making it hard to justify having accessible equipment. They also had little knowledge of their obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act, with one suggesting that the law works “against physicians.”

The latest study builds on findings published earlier this year from a survey of 714 doctors that was done by some of the same researchers. Just 56% of physicians who participated in the survey said they welcome people with disabilities at their practices and only 41% indicated that they could provide such patients with a similar quality of care to others. Meanwhile, more than a third of doctors queried said they had little or no knowledge of their legal obligations under the ADA.

“Taken together, the focus groups and survey responses provide a substantive and deeply concerning picture of physicians’ attitudes and behaviors relating to care for people with disabilities,” the study authors note.

The findings suggest that bias continues to greatly influence health care more than 30 years after passage of the ADA, which prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, including in medical services.

Tara Lagu, a professor of hospital medicine and medical social sciences at Northwestern University and an author of the study, described the doctors’ attitudes toward the ADA in particular as “upsetting and disappointing.”

“Our body of work suggests that physician bias and discriminatory attitudes may contribute to the health disparities that people with disabilities experience,” Lagu said. “We need to address the attitudes and behavior that perpetuate the unequal access experienced by our most vulnerable patients.”

[alwaysbewoke]

[celepom]

Over the years as I've learned more about ASD and similar neurodivergent spectrums there's been the persistent feeling that this sounds like me... and I had it confirmed for the first time by a professional recently.

I feel...many things. Relieved, upset, mad, but most of all tired.  Hopefully now, once I've processed this a bit more, I'll be able to find some help and support that I could have used a long time ago.

Read on: TAPAS | WEBTOON | TUMBLR

[daniemililly]

It's not that medical professionals are evil or something, it's that they're not equipped to judge the lives of disabled people because they largely have no experience comparable to it. They can't empathise because medical culture is fundamentally different than disabled lives, and in the cases of neurodivergent people, they largely can't empathise as neurotypicals with us. We need a culture of care/support that trusts disabled people/those we nominate to be the judge of our own needs

You can read more about the "triple empathy problem" for neurodivergent people in healthcare settings in this paper here: https://sussex.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Barriers_to_healthcare_and_a_triple_empathy_problem_may_lead_to_adverse_outcomes_for_autistic_adults_a_qualitative_study/24424333

[grandmatapati]

2015 article that I missed at the time, but it's a great antidote to the constant push from doctors and the diet industry (especially at this time of year).

Excerpt:

One of the principles driving the $61 billion weight-loss industries is the notion that fat is inherently unhealthy and that it’s better, health-wise, to be thin, no matter what you have to do to get there. But a growing body of research is beginning to question this paradigm. Does obesity cause ill health, result from it, both, or neither? Does weight loss lead to a longer, healthier life for most people?

Studies from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention repeatedly find the lowest mortality rates among people whose body mass index puts them in the “overweight” and “mildly obese” categories. And recent research suggests that losing weight doesn’t actually improve health biomarkers such as blood pressure, fasting glucose, or triglyceride levels for most people.

[raynedayys2]

Friendly reminder that diagnosis is a privilege & many doctors still have biases against minorities. It's not that the person is faking it, but the system is literally working against them so they can't get the treatment they need.

[nokingsonlyfooles]

Your Daily Reminder that Bias Kills!

This intersects with use of algorithms, which predate AI, and seem to postdate the more obvious racism of the past... but a lot of this shit was just calculated on paper back when they came up with it. But the kidney algorithm dates to 1999! It was based on a small study that was quickly discredited, but it got embedded in the system and kept killing people for decades! Wow!

Just as a precaution, they began including a number in standard reports that suggested maaaybe Black people don't really need kidneys. Maybe they do! But there's a possibility they don't! And that's all it takes to get your doctor to kill you. If maybe they don't need to provide complicated and expensive care, they won't.

Don't trust your doctors. Check their work whenever you can. Hell, that goes for anyone with the authority to gatekeep shit you need to live. And when you can't... hope like hell for systemic progress and fight for it whenever you can.

[fanficfanattic]

One of my greatest pet peeves is when a doctor looks at my fat body and is like “have you ever heard of fruit or veg-e-tables?”

Like I don’t pay for fresh fruit and vegetables all of the time. (And also consume them). I love fruits and vegetables. I just also like cake and am on meds that have weight gaining properties.

Which is always very apparent in my chart!

[sirenium]

I got a professional autism diagnosis yesterday and I'm upset about it again. It was such a simple process for the person; all they had to do was look at me really. Why did it take so long for somebody to do this for me? It took years of inner turmoil and me bringing up autism for somebody to fucking do something. I was left to the wolves for YEARS, I even had 'rule out autism spectrum disorder' in my records since FOUR YEARS OLD. They never did anything for me. NOBODY, not the schools, not the medical profession, not my countless counselors. Nobody wanted to help me for years.

[trash-and-trash-accessories]

Researching Intersex conditions after being diagnosed with one at age 30 has been an absolutely WILD ride. (This post is absurdly long and niche)

First of all there's no 100% agreed upon definition of Intersex. Doctors and scientific researchers use the term in a very different way than the intersex community does. And the popular definition most cis people think of only refers to people with ambiguous genitalia or both sets of genitalia.

Even in the medical community there's not a set standard for what is Intersex. Some define it as specifically the chromosomal abnormalities like XY androgen insensitivity, XXY, and other specifically chromosomal variations. Others add in other genetic conditions. Some include any disorder of sexual development. Some consider any kind of condition which results in an AFAB person being masculine and vice versa to be an intersex condition, including PCOS which causes AFAB people to have traits like extra body hair, infertility, and high testosterone levels, and hypogonadism in AMAB people which can result in a micropenis.

The Intersex community and experts in intersex conditions consider what I have to be an intersex condition but general practice doctors don't necessarily see it that way. Some doctors do consider it an intersex condition in AMAB people but not AFAB people, despite AFAB people also experiencing sexual dysfunction and infertility but because untreated it makes our bodies resemble the current beauty standards (hairless and child-like), it's very rarely seen that way by regular doctors.

Doctors are also very unwilling to prescribe Testosterone as a treatment for the symptoms despite a growing body of evidence that it alleviates a lot of the worst symptoms much better than an estrogen-progesterone regiment (fatigue, sexual dysfunction, low bone density).

Because I have a hypogonadism condition, only a small segment of the medical community consider me to be Intersex, but the Intersex community considers me Intersex. And judging by how the way I feel about my body, my mental health, and my actual health improved when I started taking "cross-sex HRT" (that's what my chart says), I am 100% on board with it being called an Intersex condition. I was on Estrogen-Progesterone for years because I thought pregnancy was a risk (HAHAHAHA it was NOT) and it made my mental health worse, it made me grow boobs which I HATE, and it didn't actually improve any of the problems the condition causes. The treatment that worked the best was literally transitioning.

I also found out there is no good medical literature on how much testosterone a cis woman should have. Doctors have decided that AFAB people with hypogonadism conditions need ZERO testosterone despite the levels considered healthy in cis women being 15-70, but the studies on how much cis women should have are heavily skewed because they eliminated basically any woman they considered too hairy or manly from the studies, even if she was perfectly healthy. So we literally don't even know what the actual average range or healthy range of testosterone is in cis women. We just don't know.

Finding out how much the medical community doesn't know and doesn't care about intersex conditions/dsds is so concerning. Like AFAB people who have what I do experience all kinds of horrible things and doctors are like "Nah testosterone will make you ugly so you have to suffer and keep having fatigue and sexual dysfunction but I can offer you pills that make you grow tits and increase your risk of stroke."

It's so so frustrating. Like we're literally not strictly female, we don't have entire female or male reproductive systems we just have like non-functional stuff in there and for some reason doctors are like no you absolutely can't become an ugly man you have to be an attractive, suffering girl. Even though you literally aren't one. Since you're naturally hairless and small and cute you have to stay that way even if it means you can't have pain-free sex.

[intersectionalpraxis]

It's not "going to be a good outcome" if his patients don't "align with his values" -you mean people who don't align with your genocidal apologism and zionist terrorist agenda have the potential to be harmed during their surgeries??

That medical license needs to be revoked.

You can also report him here:

One of my friends is a nurse, and has had to treat people and work with staff who are racist pieces of shit, but she would be the one losing her job/be isolated if she tried to address it with her management team. Seeing zionists like him proudly say he would use his position of power to hurt and abuse people... just despicable.

Also update: to the recent anon who was berating me in my inbox for 'labeling him a zionist' I did a little more research on him, and this is my update for those interested in reading my follow-up.

He's pro-Israel and was in Jerusalem with his family when the October's 7th attack happened. Here is some more context:

[lifewithchronicpain]

Doctor: Okay you told me about your back pain, what else is going on?

Me: I have fibromyalgia.

Doctor: Okay, let's skip over that and never come back to it. How's your mental health?

[spoonful116]

Once asked to be worked in for an earlier appointment with a specialist and was denied because "you don't work and use a wheelchair so it's not as urgent"

😳

[factoidfactory]

Autism Acceptance Month Fact #8

If you’re trans, you might have to choose between an autism diagnosis and gender-affirming surgery.

It’s much much harder (and in some cases impossible) to be approved for gender-affirming surgery if you’re diagnosed as autistic.