'Health service misogyny left me in serious pain'

A woman who was in serious pain from a suspected ovarian cyst said her condition went undiagnosed because of "medical misogyny".

Rachel from Hertford said the serious pain she was in was dismissed by health professionals who wanted her to "just get on with it".

She has met Health Secretary Wes Streeting to discuss the issue.

The Department of Health said the NHS had "let women and girls down for too long".

Rachel, who does not want the BBC to use her surname, said an indentation in her abdomen had been picked up during a regular colonoscopy for another condition.

She had experienced some pain before the procedure, but it got much worse as a "great big mound" appeared in her abdomen.

Her husband took her to hospital, where doctors performed a CT scan which picked up free fluid in the abdominal area.

Rachel suggested the indentation in her abdomen might have been an ovarian cyst, and a doctor agreed but took no further action.

After she was discharged from the hospital, the pain became more acute and Rachel developed the symptoms of a fever.

She returned to hospital, where she explained her concerns about an ovarian cyst, and a doctor tried to refer her to the gynaecological team but was told to send her to the general surgery department instead.

After a CT scan and a night in hospital, the pain had got worse and new symptoms, such as diarrhoea, started to occur.

She was told the problem was inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and was referred to the gastroenterology department, who rejected the IBD diagnosis.

Rachel said: "All I kept hearing was, 'You're not an emergency patient, you're not a gastro-patient, you're not a surgical patient'. I wasn't anyone's patient."

She was discharged with antibiotics.

At home, she studied her medical records and found two things on the CT scans which meant they should not have been reported as normal.

"The first CT scan couldn't assess the reproductive organs," she said.

"The second one shows global mild stranding of the mesenteric fat - that meant widespread abdominal inflammation".

She added that doctors were "not concerned about the reproductive organs, despite my almost insistence at the time that this is my primary concern".

After a scan at another hospital, Rachel was asked whether she might have had food poisoning.

"I said, 'You're not listening to me'.

"I just can't cope with the constant dismissal and reassigning my pain and my perception of the problem to causes that I don't believe [are] true."

She is still in pain and, after seeking private treatment, she was diagnosed with adenomyosis, a painful condition which involves the lining of the womb growing into the wall of the uterus.

She said she had asked friends and family members if they had experienced similar issues and the response was "overwhelming - the amount of women who came back with 'I've had this kind of issue, they haven't listened'".

She raised the issue with her local MP, Labour's Josh Dean, who asked a question in the House of Commons about the issue and arranged a meeting with Streeting.

Rachel said: "Wes Streeting doesn't need convincing of this issue.

"I think he's doing the right things by challenging the cultural issues [by] the establishment of more pathways and structures to enable women to get the care they need for these gynaecological conditions."

Rachel said the problem does not just affect the health services and is prevalent across society.

"As soon as you introduce menstrual bleeding, it's like, 'Oh, it's all right, then get on with it,' and I think that is something we need to challenge."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: "Our renewed Women's Health Strategy will give women a genuine voice and power over their health.

"We're also going further - introducing a menopause question into NHS Health Checks, bringing in Martha's Rule so women have the right to urgent review, and cutting gynaecological waiting lists."

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