Women's Health and Fitness
- Lauren Whitaker
- Oct 1
- 3 min read
Lauren Whitaker, Social Media intern
10/02/2025
Introduction
The Last Wednesday of September (this year it was on September 24, 2025) was Women’s Health and Fitness day. On this day, women are encouraged to prioritize physical and mental health specific to their gender.
Structural Discrimination of Women in Medical Settings
This day is important to women for many reasons, one being the structural discrimination of women in medical settings. This occurs at almost every level - in studies, in hospitals, at PCPs, at specialists, and more. Women receive less diagnoses for their symptoms than men at PCPs, indicating that they are not taken as seriously.
In studies, men are seen as the “default” body, and many studies historically have been done with just men, under the assumption that outcomes of said studies would occur in women just the same. There are a multitude of medical differences between women and men: not just on the physical level (different anatomy is an obvious one), but on the hormonal, neurological, and immune level.
While in some cases, many see women and men as the same, this is not reflected in PCP, hospital, and specialist settings. In fact, the opposite is true. Many doctors blame physical symptoms of undiagnosed diseases on psychological causes.
Women are more likely to be told that medical illnesses, especially chronic medical illnesses which are not psychological are psychological, and are sent to psychiatrists when they should be sent to a specialist. That, or they’re just told the symptoms are in their head and are sent home. Women are also more likely than men to have autoimmune diseases.
The point, that women, who are more susceptible to chronic autoimmune illnesses, are being told that their real illnesses are all in their head, is incredibly dangerous. Women may be going weeks, to months, to years, to their whole lives, without proper diagnosis, and are going all this time with no treatment.
Jennifer Brea's Story
contd.
Other times I wouldn’t be able to speak or move at all. I saw every kind of specialist: infectious disease doctors, dermatologists, endocrinologists, cardiologists. I even saw a psychiatrist.
My psychiatrist said, ‘It’s clear you’re really sick, but not with anything psychiatric. I hope they can find out what’s wrong with you.’
The next day, my neurologist diagnosed me with conversion disorder. He told me that everything — the fevers, the sore throats, the sinus infection, all of the gastrointestinal, neurological and cardiac symptoms — were being caused by some distant emotional trauma that I could not remember. The symptoms were real, he said, but they had no biological cause.”
The History of Women in Medicine
There is a tendency to domesticate certain roles, delegating them to women, while creating a separate, “professional” role, delegated to men. For example, women historically cooked, baked, and prepared food - within the household. However, most professional chefs are men. Similarly, women were historically healers within the household, but professional doctors were men. Even today, nurses, lower on the medical industry’s hierarchy, are expected to be female, while higher position doctors, such as surgeons, are male. The initial reasons for this previously came from a deep institutional barrier - a lack of education - that inhibits women.
For example, the first woman accepted into a medical school- Elizabeth Blackwell- was only accepted as a joke.
However, today there are other reasons why women don’t want to become higher level medical personnel such as doctors and surgeons. One being emphasis women place on family life. Being a nurse is less of a time commitment as well as financial commitment. Women tend to report more conflict in trying to balance work life and family life, and often choose to work less hours to care for their children.
Conclusion
Recognizing that there are differences in women’s health is a step in the right direction. The sexist ideas that have been passed down from ancient Greek times still pervade, both in regular settings and medical settings. Women are often assumed to be faking illnesses by many people- friends, medical professionals, family. It is an unfortunate fate - to be suffering with very real symptoms, and to be met with disbelief by others, the ones who should be most empathetic towards the women suffering. Steps have been taken, fortunately, to ease the suffering of women in medicine.
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