'It's infuriating and unacceptable': Frustrating women's healthcare inadequacies in the UK highlighted by Mariella Frostrup
The broadcaster says women are treated as 'unreliable witnesses' to what's happening to their own bodies
Women who have experienced any type of healthcare issue will likely be aware of the gaslighting and misogyny that's sadly ingrained in the UK medical system.
Presenter Ashley James recently spoke about about being told the bladder and bowel incontinence she's currently going through after a traumatic birth, is "all in her head."
After the huge outpouring of support she received for sharing her story across social media and on ITV's This Morning, she returned to the morning TV show to make further comments linking her experience to a Cambridge study that reveals women are far more likely than men to have their physical symptoms dismissed.
Broadcaster Mariella Frostrup now adds to the conversation by highlighting that healthcare provision in the UK isn't just inadequate, but also worse than some European countries.
Appearing on Jo Whiley and Zoe Ball's Dig It podcast, Mariella suggests there are two main problems behind issues with women accessing the care they need.
"One is the NHS and it's being the fact that it's overburdened," she says of the first possible major issue, adding, "The second is that women's health has never really been a priority."
She continues, "You know, under 10% of funding goes into medical research for female specific conditions."
Sharing a personal story and insight into what healthcare in the UK should look like, Mariella reveals that she once went to Italy and forgot to take her oestrogen for her menopause symptoms with her.
She felt "absolute terror" on realising she didn't have the medication, wondering how she'd manage without it and not thinking she'd ever get a replacement - such medicine is often subject to strict gatekeeping by medical professionals in the UK.
Mariella was surprised to be told, "Oh, just go to the chemist down the road and they'll give it to you."
Questioning whether she'd heard correctly, a friend living in Italy explained, "You just go down there and tell them you've left it behind, and you can just get your oestrogen."
She was surprised to find hormones, sleeping tablets and other useful medication just on the shelves. "What this illustrates is a trust in women's judgment that that in this country, we have an absence of" she says.
Mariella says women are often told, "You don't really," "you're too young," or "those aren't the symptoms" when trying to access drugs they know they need. They know their own bodies but are often told they do not, and a medical professional knows better.
Poignantly, she adds, "We're treated constantly as though we're unreliable witnesses to our own experience," calling this grave injustice "one of the most infuriating things" that "curtails progress."
When talking about what we can do about something so "entrenched in society," Mariella says, "It's something we have to just keep talking about, and we have to keep spotlighting until it changes, because it's absolutely unacceptable."
She explains a "recent ITV investigation" found medical students can have as little as "an hour" of training in a women's issue like menopause in their entire five-year course.
"That has to change, right?" she questions. "It highlights a system where women's health is at least at the very best secondary and really at the bottom of the list," she states.
The broadcaster acknowledges that changes are being implemented to how medical professionals are trained in menopause care, but believes it's "going to take at least 10 years for that to impact the women who are going to their GPs" in the future for support.
She highlights that "in too many cases" women are turned away or "being delivered opinions that actually aren't accurate" which is why gaslighting and withholding access to treatments can be wrong.
Mariella urges women to keep advocating for themselves and for everyone to "take responsibility" to move women's healthcare forwards.
However, she does point out that with "recognition of menopause, comes the commercialisation of it," warning women to research carefully and not fall into the traps of those "selling you all kinds of stuff that you don't need and isn't going to make a blind bit of difference."
Her advice for those visiting their GP with their symptoms is to attend an appointment armed with as many facts as possible. This could mean reading papers and books on the subject and accessing as much information beforehand.
Mariella concludes, "We need to take ownership of our own bodies and the responsibility for being informed, in the absence of societal recognition of it," while we "battle for better provision on a governmental and national level."
