SIDELINED

A debut health book explores how and why women often receive inadequate medical care.

In this work, Salenger examines the individual and structural problems that often lead women to get insufficient health care, incorrect diagnoses, or unnecessary prescriptions. In separate chapters, the author identifies six broad reasons for improper treatment and looks at each in detail, both summarizing existing research and sharing stories from her own interviews with female patients. The book includes behavioral aspects (women tend to make their own care a low priority), structural problems (female patients’ symptoms are often dismissed or misunderstood), and economic forces (women are the primary targets of prescription drug advertising). Each chapter concludes with specific strategies that may help women advocate for themselves, express themselves in language familiar to medical professionals, and receive appropriate treatment. The work also addresses the unique challenges of women’s health (most patients with autoimmune diseases, which are difficult to diagnose, are women) and the subjective nature of medicine itself (doctors often draw different conclusions from the same data). Salenger has done an excellent job of compiling information on women’s health and how medicine is practiced. Each problem (for instance, diagnoses that differ based on a patient’s gender) is presented with citations that make it clear it is a systemic issue that goes beyond individual doctor-patient interactions—a genuine and widespread difficulty rather than a matter of miscommunication or hypochondria. The book is well written and easy for nonspecialists to follow, and Salenger’s tips for readers are useful suggestions that can realistically be implemented on an individual level. The volume’s one major shortcoming is its omission of trans women and nonbinary patients, as all the references appear to involve cisgender women. That aside, the work provides an excellent discussion of a widespread problem that has both individual and structural causes and remedies. The book tells a story that can be infuriating at times, but presents it in a nonpolemical way, demonstrating the scope of the issue while making it clear that a solution is possible.

A well-written and empowering work about the challenges facing female patients.