Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick
Maya Dusenbery
HarperOne, New York: 2018
This insightful book on how the medical system can (and often does) fail women patients comes from the longtime editor of the website Feministing.com. Maya Dusenbery is a compelling writer, but what truly makes Doing Harm a must-read is the depth and breadth of her research on her topic. Dusenbery interviews doctors, patients, policymakers, health care advocates, and medical historians to create a complex, richly textured indictment of male-centered medicine.
Some of the stories related in the book are shocking, from personal anecdotes of misdiagnosis and medical neglect, to reviews of pharmaceutical studies including only male subjects, no matter how much more likely the drugs in question were to be prescribed to female patients. Even animal trials, Dusenbery tells us, are disporportionately conducted with all-male test subjects, though no clear reason for this has been established.
The good news here is that more research and more advocacy than ever before are being done into sex and gender-linked differences in how health care is provided. New programs for physician education and awareness on issues like endometriosis and vulvodynia are one aspect, but some more surprising areas where sex differences in diagnostic and treatment approach are vital include heart attack, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, and migraine are highlighted.
Dusenbery has the rare gift of presenting a wealth of scientific material in a straightforward, engaging way. The immediacy of the patients' stories shared in the book are also impressive; the author captures each woman's voice clearly. Issues of race, class, ethnicity, language difference, and the specific health challenges of trans women and trans men are also addressed respectfully, and the obstacles faced by male patients diagnosed with "women's" illnesses are noted. There is more work still to be done on the inequities of health care, but this book is an impressive beginning.
