The research, which included more than 6,600 people with autoimmune conditions, most of whom were female and from the UK, suggests a stark gender divide in how doctors handle signs of these conditions. Women are more likely to have their conditions wrongly attributed to psychiatric causes, more likely to have symptoms misdiagnosed as psychosomatic, and more likely to experience delays in getting a diagnosis.
Lead author Melanie Sloan, a researcher in the department of public health and primary care at Cambridge and UEA, said the damage caused to women by these types of misdiagnosis can be very long lasting in terms of trusting doctors and their own self-esteem. She added that some women were forced to wait years before finally getting a diagnosis, causing long delays to treatment.
Among the conditions reported, almost a quarter of the women had autoimmune thyroid disease, which includes Hashimoto's disease and Graves' disease. One in seven women in the study had systemic lupus, which can cause tiredness, rashes and muscle pain. Among male patients, rheumatoid arthritis, vasculitis and antiphospholipid syndrome were the most common conditions.