Patricia Schroeder: “I want to bring to my colleagues' attention an article in the March 1994 edition of Lear's magazine entitled ``The Most…”

“I want to bring to my colleagues' attention an article in the March 1994 edition of Lear's magazine entitled ``The Most Common Misdiagnoses.'' As the article points out, doctors too often misdiagnose female patients because they do not take their complaints seriously or because they don't think a disease affects women. As the magazine points out, some of the ailments most commonly misdiagnosed in women are endometriosis, cardiovascular disease, thyroid dysfunction, interstitial cystitis, ovarian cancer, clinical depression, and lupus. All this is no surprise to women, who historically have been slighted when it comes to health care research and treatment. Recently, we learned that the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project used falsified data in critical breast cancer studies. What is worse, 3 years have passed without a published reevaluation of these findings. Recently, women's confidence in the science behind their doctors' recommendations was shaken again when the National Cancer Institute retreated from its national mammography screening guidelines for women in their forties. And we know in the past women were not included in Government-sponsored clinical trials or drug studies, which prompted the Congressional Caucus for Women's Issues to introduce the Women's Health Equity Act. This blase attitude toward women's lives must change.”