Women's Health Isn't Taken As Seriously As Men's, So One Artist Is Speaking Out | HuffPost Life

'I thought of myself as myself as a ‘problem patient’, when really I was a patient with a problem.'

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Senior Editor of commercial partnerships, HuffPost UK

From misdiagnosed endometriosis to the sinister reality of vaginal mesh implants, there are too many examples of women’s health not being taken seriously and therefore, being neglected.

So when writer and artist Aubrey Hirsch was finally diagnosed Grave’s disease, after five years of debilitating symptoms, she decided to take a stand using her art.

The 34-year-old had suffered with symptoms such as extreme weight loss, nausea, fatigue and irregular periods, and had even spent four days in hospital due to a heart problem, but it hadn’t stopped her being repeatedly misdiagnosed by different doctors.

Aubrey Hirsch

Aubrey Hirsch

First Hirsch was thought to be stressed, then she was suspected of having anxiety or eating disorder, but it wasn’t until she visited a sleep therapist who referred her to an endocrinologist, that she was finally diagnosed with Grave’s disease.

Grave’s disease is an autoimmune condition, where the immune system mistakenly attacks the thyroid, making it overactive. While the cause of Graves’ disease is unknown, it mostly affects young or middle-aged women and is hereditary.

This half a decade of debilitating symptoms may seem like ‘bad luck’, but research has shown that women’s health is issues aren’t taken as seriously as men’s.

“Reading about the very real gender bias in medical diagnosis helped me process what had happened to me,” she told HuffPost UK. “I really did think of myself as a ‘problem patient’, when really I was a patient with a problem.”

Aubrey Hirsch

Hirsch, who is a writer and artist, created a comic, which was originally shared on The Nib, to raise awareness around the treatment of women.

“I thought drawing it as a comic would allow me to inject a little humour and levity into an otherwise heavy topic,” she explained.

Since many women have reached out to Hirsch to share their own stories of misdiagnosis, mostly on this Twitter thread. Hirsch said the response has been “both affirming and heartbreaking”.

“It’s awful to hear about so many instances of women’s pain being ignored, but I think it’s also creating space where women are finally being heard.

“So many people are chiming in to say, ‘me too’, ‘me too’, and it helps you realise that YOU aren’t the problem. The system is the problem.”

Aubrey Hirsch

11 Famous Women Get Real About The Menopause

Zoe Ball, 49(01 of11)

"I am hot and hairy. It’s like my last hurrah. Is it going to get better? Do I do HRT or do I have the funny tea supplement?”

When an audience member suggested she should have more sex to combat the symptoms, she replied: “OK, that’s a good tip. HRT and more sex. I’ll take that." (credit:Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Gillian Anderson, 48(02 of11)

"It was at the point that I felt like my life was falling apart around me that I started to ask what could be going on internally, and friends suggested it might be hormonal…I was used to being able to balance a lot of things, and all of a sudden I felt like I could handle nothing. I felt completely overwhelmed.

"Peri-menopause and menopause should be treated as the rites of passage that they are. If not celebrated, then at least accepted and acknowledged and honored." (credit:Matthew Eisman via Getty Images)

Angelina Jolie, 41(03 of11)

"I will not be able to have any more children, and I expect some physical changes. But I feel at ease with whatever will come, not because I am strong but because this is a part of life. It is nothing to be feared." (credit:Umit Bektas / Reuters)

Jennifer Saunders, 58(04 of11)

"It is fairly brutal and you go through all the accompanying side effects: hot flushes, weight gain, a sense of mourning for lost youth, sexiness and somehow the point in anything. I became depressed, which I ended up getting help with.” (credit:Mike Marsland via Getty Images)

Tracey Emin, 53(05 of11)

"It is a nightmare, an absolute nightmare. It's horrible. And I don't look like that kind of person, you don't put menopause on top of my head, it doesn't associate with me." (credit:ANTHONY WALLACE via Getty Images)

Julie Walters, 67(06 of11)

"I still get hot flushes. That’s fifteen bloody years. Still, it’s nothing like I did then. Ripping off your nightie and Grant [her husband] thinking it’s something else! No – don’t get any ideas!” (credit:Barcroft Media via Getty Images)

Kim Cattrall, 60(07 of11)

"Literally one moment you’re fine, and then another, you feel like you’re in a vat of boiling water, and you feel like the rug has been pulled out from underneath you.

What I would say, which I’ve said to myself and to girlfriends who’ve also experienced hot flashes, in particular, is that change is part of being human. We evolve and should not fear that change. You're not alone. I feel that part of living this long is experiencing this, so I’m trying to turn it into a very positive thing for myself, which it has been, in the sense of acceptance and tolerance and education about this time of life." (credit:Roberto Ricciuti via Getty Images)

Amanda Redman, 59(08 of11)

"How hideous for women of our mothers' generation, because - while me and my girlfriends will talk about everything under the sun, including the menopause - it was something they didn't discuss. They must have felt so lonely and embarrassed all the time.

"For me, it's tailing off now. But I can still suddenly go that awful colour when I'm talking to somebody and sweat beads will break out on my upper lip. You're acutely aware of it, even if they're not." (credit:David M. Benett via Getty Images)

Carol Vorderman, 56(09 of11)

On ITV’s ‘Lorraine’, Vorderman described how her life had been normal until the menopause started.

“Then this depression hit me - and I don’t use the word depression lightly. This was a blackness where I would wake up - nothing else in my life was going wrong, I’m a very lucky woman, no money worries or nothing like that - and I would wake up and think ‘I don’t see the point in carrying on. I just don’t see the point in life,” she said.

Ulrika Jonsson, 50(10 of11)

Ulrika Jonsson has revealed she suffered “unimaginable anxiety” and memory loss while going through the menopause, which left her fearing she had Alzheimer’s disease.

“I actually took a friend of mine aside and said to her, and she’s a few years older than me, and I said ‘I’m really worried that I might be getting early onset Alzheimer’s,’ and she said, ‘honestly, it’s just the menopause.’”

Lorraine Kelly, 57(11 of11)

Lorraine Kelly admitted that the menopause caused her to "no longer feel joy in life" when it started.

“I remember last year, Steve and I had gone away to Spain for the weekend, it was the most beautiful day, everything was fantastic. Rosie [Lorraine’s daughter] was sailing through her exams at university, life was really good, love my job, all of that… and there was no joy in my life,” she said.

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