One woman’s video about feeling overlooked in a Toronto emergency room is sparking conversation online about women’s experiences with health care, as some advocates are continuing to call for better staff training, focused research and education.
In a TikTok video posted on Tuesday, Toronto resident Joanne Simpson warned other women in the city about health-care neglect after she felt overlooked by medical staff during an emergency.
Last Thursday, Simpson headed to St. Joseph’s Health Centre with intense abdominal pain. Upon arriving in the emergency department and going through triage, she answered questions about her symptoms and informed staff about her family’s history with appendicitis.
To that, the staff responded by telling her she could either have appendicitis or, most likely, a ruptured ovarian cyst, and told her she should go home and rest until the next morning when they could perform an ultrasound.
“I wasn’t convinced that it was a female reproductive issue. My pain wasn’t like a cramp,” she said.
After insisting on getting the CT scan and refusing to leave the hospital, Simpson said the doctors eventually performed the test, which indicated she in fact had appendicitis.
In the comments, other residents are calling out doctors for overlooking women in need of health care, with many sharing their own experiences.
“Medical gaslighting towards women is horrible in Toronto. Especially by male physicians,” one user said.
“This is a classic medical gaslighting and it happens to women too much. Thank you for sharing your story,” another user added.
“I’m a 45F and went in having a literal heart attack and they sent me into general waiting because I didn’t fit the symptoms,” a different user said.
“Doctors told me I was probably ovulating. A few days later I was rushed into surgery to remove my gallbladder,” another user chimed in.
Simpson, who is now recovering from her appendix removal surgery, spoke with Now Toronto on Wednesday, saying she is thankful she insisted on not leaving the hospital, and that the experience made her second guess herself.
“I felt less confident…I think that’s like what they took from me, because when I walked in there, I was pretty confident about appendicitis, but then when they started not listening, it made me question if I was in tune with my own body,” she said.
The TikToker said that even though she had heard of other women having issues with health care before, she was shocked to see the comments in her video sharing similar experiences.
“I was looking at the comments, and I’m shocked, and then not shocked at the same time, that so many women had similar experiences, if not worse experiences,” she said. “I was that woman who thought that it could never happen to me until it did.”
In a statement to Now Toronto, a spokesperson for Unity Health Toronto, the Catholic hospital network that St. Joseph’s belongs to, said they encourage patients who had issues with their care to reach out to the hospital.
“We encourage anyone with concerns about their care to reach out to our Patient Relations Office so a dedicated person can offer support and hear more about their experience.”
ADVOCATES SPEAK UP
Alita Fabiano, chair of the Women’s Health Coalition of Ontario, tells Now Toronto that she has heard from other female patients in the province who often feel overlooked when it comes to health care.
“They feel like their concerns are not taken seriously. And as such, it usually takes, you know, a few years before…they’re diagnosed with something. We see this a lot,” she said.
According to her, these experiences reveal a bigger systemic issue with medical research, which is often performed on male patients.
“Because the research isn’t as diverse as it should be it leads to medical professionals having a harder time diagnosing women,” she added.
In fact, a survey by Canadian-based technology platform Maple released last Monday suggests that over half of Canadian women believe that the medical system in the country doesn’t meet their needs.
According to the report, 76 per cent of respondents think the system isn’t made with their needs in mind, while 74 per cent feel their concerns are not taken seriously, and 43 per cent have experienced delayed diagnoses.
Amy Flood, executive director of the Women’s Health Collective Canada, an alliance of Canadian hospitals and organizations focused on female health, says that oftentimes medical research and health professionals assume that women are “smaller versions of men.”
“Our biology, our anatomy, our makeup, and even our brain health and our hormonal health, they’re very different. And so often, a lot of research conditions and women are often missed completely or misunderstood. And then there’s the knock on effect of that. So, without the research, training has not caught up,” she said.
Flood revealed that this lack of preparedness not only affects how women are diagnosed but also how confident they feel in the health-care system.
Additionally, Flood called on governments, businesses, and organizations to raise awareness and ask for more resources for medical research on women, and said she feels confident that the health-care industry is changing.
“It’s about raising awareness and education around the lack of funding. We also raise money for research and we are appealing to the federal government to develop a national health-care strategy for women, one that is measurable, one that can be held accountable, and has, planned-out outcomes,” she said. “There is hope. We’re seeing momentum. So, more people are speaking up. Change is happening.”
Meanwhile, both Flood and Fabiano advise women to educate themselves as much as possible about their symptoms, and come prepared to advocate for themselves if needed.
“No one knows your body better than yourself. And as women, we really do need to take charge of our health, and as much as it can be, you know, spiritually. Do advocate or speak up, especially against a medical professional. I think it’s important to find that confidence and really kind of hammer in how you’re feeling and advocate for yourself to have the treatment and have those tests done,” Fabiano said.
Similarly, Simpson hopes that her story inspires other women to stand up for themselves when accessing health care.
