Like most girls of our generation, my knowledge of women’s health began in 5th grade science class, when the girls were pulled aside for a lesson on periods, puberty, and the basics of girlhood.
This conversation marked the beginning of my education about my body and health, but it was also close to the end.
Since that day, every new thing I have learned about women’s health has come from something going wrong. Confusion around things I was experiencing and feeling as I got older constantly made me question whether I was healthy and my body was functioning properly. But rather than answers, I was told again and again that my pain, discomfort, and irregularities were ‘normal’ and just part of “being a woman”.
Painful cramps, permanent fatigue, and constant aches are brushed off as normal parts of growing up as a girl, and most women are never taught why they feel the way they do or how to manage it. From a young age, we are taught to accept discomfort without ever being taught to understand it.
And while we don’t even fully understand our bodies, neither does medicine.
A HIstory of Exclusion
Since the 1970s, women have been systematically excluded from medical research, reinforcing damaging biases and social structures that prioritize the lives and experiences of men. In 1977, the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) created a policy that prevented women from participating in clinical trials, which was not reversed until almost a decade later. Because of this situation, and others like it, modern medicine and the healthcare system in general operates around structures that have historically excluded women.
The lack of research and biases against women’s health are shown through the level of care and treatment many women experience today.
WHAT GETS DISMIssed
Conditions that predominantly affect women are commonly left undiagnosed and untreated, creating a widespread community of women who deal with painful symptoms of undiagnosed disorders with no way to understand or manage them.
Endometriosis is a chronic illness that affects 10% of reproductive age women across the globe, and the lack of research on the condition has left it with no cure and immense difficulty to diagnose. Endometriosis causes excessive tissue growth outside of the uterus, leading to severe pain and inflammation that lasts for years.
Because of how little research there has been about Endometriosis, affected women end up living in pain for most of their lives. As medical advancements continue to evolve, I think it is long overdue for Endometriosis and other conditions that primarily impact women to receive the attention and investment that has been withheld in the past.
Similarly, Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is another condition that affects 1 in 10 women worldwide, yet most of these women remain undiagnosed. PCOS is a hormonal condition that can cause irregular periods, fertility issues, acne, and numerous other symptoms. Since the symptoms experienced by women who have PCOS vastly differ from case to case, it is incredibly difficult to diagnose and treat.
a college girl’s Diagnosis
I remember being so shocked when I was diagnosed with PCOS, because my symptoms were things that I had been convinced were ‘normal’ my entire life. I never bat an eye to my excruciating cramps and incurable hormonal acne, because I thought that was just the price I had to pay for being a woman. I never even knew what PCOS was until it was on my medical history chart.
And as shocking as it initially was, it was mostly fear that stuck with me.
Being told that you have a condition that has no cure, and no standard treatment, was terrifying to hear. I feel lucky to have been diagnosed as a teen, as most people don’t know they have PCOS until they have trouble conceiving in their 30s.
But even with my early diagnosis, it baffles me how many doctors appointments, visits with specialists, and extensive blood tests it took for my (extremely textbook) symptoms to be diagnosed. It made me question why conditions that affect millions of women aren’t talked about, researched, and properly understood.
I have come to realize that the lack of diagnoses for PCOS, and other women’s health conditions, may be partly due to the language we use to talk about our symptoms. When pain is labeled as “normal,” it becomes easy to ignore. When we start to expect discomfort, it becomes increasingly difficult to be able to know when something is actually wrong.
And this is a universal experience.
Most women are taught that their symptoms are normal and not in need of additional consideration. Painful menstrual symptoms and chronic discomfort are the standard for so many women’s daily lives; they have been normalized to the point of invisibility. And when symptoms become invisible, they don’t get diagnosed.
Problem in need of a fix
Women’s health shouldn’t be something we only learn about after a diagnosis. It shouldn’t take years of pain, confusion, and dismissal to begin understanding our own bodies and how they function.
Because when everything is labeled as “normal,” nothing gets questioned.
It’s time we stop calling it normal — and start taking action to understand our bodies, educate others, and encourage greater investments into women’s health as a whole. Because when more people start focusing on what’s “normal”, it becomes easier to talk about what isn’t.