“The #MeToo of healthcare”: Why everyone’s talking about medical misogyny

Two in three women say they’ve experienced gender bias and discrimination in healthcare. In Beyond Hysterical’s debut episode, host Grace Jennings-Edquist explores where medical misogyny began, how the idea of hysteria persists today — and whether we’re finally seeing a shift from ideas to real action. Plus: Grace talks to cancer survivor Alex Dunn about how Alex’s grapefruit-sized kidney tumour almost went undiagnosed for so long, and the shocking responses many women still hear from doctors (“you’re female, get used to it.” Yelp.)

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains descriptions of medical gaslighting and medical trauma.

Guests:

• Gabrielle Jackson, author of Pain & Prejudice and Deputy Editor, Guardian Australia
• Dr Ramya Raman, specialist GP with a passion for women’s health; member of the National Women’s Health Advisory Council; Vice President of the Royal Australian College of GPs
• Dr Alex Dunn, who saw multiple doctors because her cancerous kidney tumour was finally diagnosed
• Dr Sue Haupt, senior research fellow at the Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health and Medicine at the George Institute for Global Health at UNSW

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Pain & Prejudice, Gabrielle Jackson, 2019
• #EndGenderBias survey, Australian government, 2024.
• “Yes, trans people are still being refused health care in Australia,” Dr Sav Zwickl and Tomi Ruggles, February 2025.
• “What’s the ‘wandering womb’?” Living History by Dr Julia Martins.
• “Disparities in Physicians' Interpretations of Heart Disease Symptoms by Patient Gender: Results of a Video Vignette Factorial Experiment” by Nancy Maserejian et al, 2009.
• “Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites” by Kelly Hoffman et al, 2016.
• “Statement on Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation in Health and Medical Research,” NHMRC, 2024.
• “Women emerge faster than men from anaesthesia,” by Pramila Bajaj et al, 1999.