Studies show that women with heart attack symptoms are less likely to be treated as quickly as men
The Toronto Star recently published an article in their Life section titled “Younger women with heart attack symptoms wait longer than male counterparts, study shows.” The study this article is referring to apparently issued results that suggest “younger women experiencing a heart attack or other cardiac event wait longer for essential care in emergency rooms than men of a similar age.” The study further states, “Both women and men who score as having more feminine traits on a standardized test wait longer for care.”
“At the triage, maybe these patients are just less assertive,” suggested the conductor of the study, Roxanne Pelletier, a clinical psychologist at the McGill University Health Centre.
Sure, maybe women entering an emergency room complaining about heart attack symptoms are being treated less quickly than men because they are being too unassertive. It couldn’t be due to the known fact that women are not taken as seriously as men in a hospital setting. No, that would be silly.
This example is a classic case of victim blaming. Alternatively, the study should have focused a little less on the personality traits of the patients (part of the study asked the patients to fill out personality questionnaires) and more on the receiving end of the patients’ complaints. When a female walks into a doctor’s office or hospital and reports symptoms, the likelihood of those medical practitioners initially blaming those symptoms on hormones or menopause is unnecessarily high. Yes, this still occurs.
Perhaps the most intriguing claim made by Pelletier’s study is that “the study related to patients showing signs of anxiety. Women with this symptom were less likely than other women to have an ECG within the recommended 10-minute window; the same was not true for men.”
It is interesting that the women who showed signs of anxiety were treated even slower than those who did not. Perhaps this has something to do with the stereotype of the hysterical woman? Although female hysteria – arguably the most oppressing diagnosis in medical history – is no longer a valid medical diagnosis, the stereotype continues to linger. In the past, female hysteria was diagnosed to women who exerted symptoms such as a loss of appetite or sex drive, irritability, shortness of breath, or sexual desire. Basically, it was diagnosed to any woman who showed signs of being human. The common treatment for female hysteria was a hysterectomy.
Today, if a woman walks into a triage demanding medical attention and actively asserting that she is experiencing symptoms of a heart attack, she will apparently be judged as an overdramatic woman before she is seen as a patient in need of medical attention.
On an even more ridiculous note, USA Today published an article describing another recent study which showed that “women having heart attacks are less likely than men to get immediate treatment and more likely to die in the hospital.” This is not something that should be a problem in this day and age – yet it still is.
So no, women do not need to be more assertive in a triage. Rather, the response rate of those on the receiving end needs to be quicker, and the efficiency of care should not be determined by ones sex.