Doctor gender: Does it matter?
The results are shocking. Your age and gender could affect your doctor's ability to diagnose you properly. Only if your doctor walks into the examining room with gender biases of their own when it comes to diagnosing you for coronary heart disease (CHD).
An enlightening study underscores this very real, very dangerous possibility. A study was conducted to observe exactly what—if any—biases a doctor brings to the (examining) table.
A group of 112 primary care doctors, divided equally between men and women, were shown videotapes using actors to portray patients giving symptoms and case histories. Their story lines were intended to strongly suggest the possibility of CHD. The actors ranged in age from 55 to 75.
Women, especially those around age 55, were not as likely to receive the diagnosis of CHD. In addition, it was found that the gender of the doctor had an impact on how they diagnosed male and female patients.
It's accepted knowledge in the medical community that age is considered a risk factor for CHD in both men and women. In this study, doctors remembered this fact when it came to making their diagnosis for male patients.
Statistically, 81 percent of doctors said they used age as a factor in their diagnoses for the male patients, but reported it for only 63 percent of the female patients. Female doctors used the age risk factor for 91 percent of the males but only for 50 percent of the females.
And launching us back to the Stone Age is another disturbing trend: Both male and female doctors were more likely to look for psychological causes for the health problems of the females than they did for males. That's an outrage. I would have thought that in this day and age we would have shed the old stereotype of "Lady, it's all in your head." It's one thing to acknowledge the role of mind and emotions in illness and then address those issues as though they matter. It's quite another to fob off a problem as "in the head" in order to dismiss it, which still happens much too often in today's rushed doctor's offices.
Worse yet, the female doctors were more likely to pinpoint what are considered psychological cues from the women than for the men, and use those in their diagnostic evaluations.
Whether you are male or female, and regardless of the gender of your doctor, be aware of this human tendency to look at the world with a bias. Heart disease affects men and women alike, so when it comes to getting the best diagnosis (for this or any health issue), your best defense is a good offense. Know your risk factors, know the facts, and then present your case. Make sure your doctor takes the time to sit down and address all of your risk factors with you.
And ladies, if a doctor ever has the gall to imply that it's "all in your head," walk out of their office and don't look back. Anxiety is one thing—CHD is quite another, and a deadly one at that. Furthermore, anxiety just makes CHD worse if you have it, and more likely to happen if you don't already have it.
