The Sydney Morning Herald logo
The Sydney Morning Herald logo

Medical misogyny

Advertisement
Penny was left traumatised after her pain was repeatedly dismissed as ordinary reproductive symptoms.

Penny was told her agonising pain was just ovulation. The next day, she was begging to die

The case is one of more than 400 accounts submitted to this masthead’s medical misogyny investigation in which women and girls had their pain dismissed, minimised or declared imaginary.

  • Aisha Dow and Kate Aubusson

Latest

Pregnancy is risky and expensive.

Being pregnant is risky and expensive. Should women be paid for it?

If society needs women to fall pregnant to reverse falling fertility rates, then it needs to adequately support and compensate them for doing so.

  • Luara Ferracioli
Rebecca Wallwork, preparing for an endometriosis surgery.

I just had the same surgery I had 24 years ago for debilitating pain. Little has changed, so what does my future look like?

In the 25 years I’ve battled this illness, the treatment has not changed.

  • Rebecca Wallwork
Bindi Irwin says doctors initially fobbed off her pain as just “part of being a woman”.

‘Indescribable, inescapable pain’: Bindi Irwin details three-year endometriosis battle

The conservationist and TV personality says doctors dismissed her pain as “part of being a woman” – now she’s urging “everyone to remember this invisible disease”.

  • Kayla Olaya
Women are increasingly getting surgery for endometriosis.

Why some doctors think endometriosis is being treated with unnecessary surgery

After decades of women’s pain being dismissed, endometriosis operations in Australia have nearly doubled. But some experts warn the system may have swung too far towards dangerous overtreatment.

  • Henrietta Cook and Liam Mannix
Do women’s hospital really offer the best treatment for women?

Women’s hospitals are meant to redress neglect. In reality, they’re punishing women

As a clinician, a husband and a father of three daughters, I’m frustrated that women are receiving second-rate care.

  • Vinay Rane
Advertisement
The Sydney Morning Herald’s health editor Kate Aubusson, reporter Emily Kaine and Age investigative reporter Aisha Dow.

The story behind the Herald’s award-winning investigations

The Herald’s work has been recognised with national journalism awards – but who are the people behind these stories?

  • Liam Phelan
Jana Pittman competing at the 2004 Olympic Games, and as a doctor today.

As an Olympian, mum and doctor, I know our health system fails women

I’ve had patients who’ve been told, and I’ve been told, that pain is “just part of being a woman”.

  • Jana Pittman
Doula generic

Patchy regulation in the freebirthing sector has put lives at risk

There is a role for doulas in supporting women during pregnancy and childbirth, but clarity on the limits of that role is essential.

  • The Age's View
Stacey Warnecke has been remembered for her warmth, generosity and work ethic.

‘Lighthouse in the storm’: Melbourne nutrition influencer dies after home birth

Stacey Warnecke, known to her 19,000 followers online as NaturalSpoonfuls, suffered a complication shortly after delivering her child in a home birth, her husband said in a post on social media. 

  • Angus Delaney