Influencer Expresses Anger Over American Healthcare's Disregard For Women's Health
"It's a woman thing," influencer Darla Eliza explains. "It is a woman thing because so many women feel the same way I do. They know that there's something wrong, and guess what? They don't care unless you're in the ground."
How many times have you been dismissed by a doctor? At Evie, we’ve heard countless stories from women about how they were mistreated by the medical industry. When reporting their symptoms to doctors, their suffering is either minimized, told that it’s in their heads, or given a prescription to use as a band-aid. The root issue is never solved, and a cure seems nonexistent.
Influencer Darla Eliza reveals her frustrations with the American healthcare system as a woman, saying that she has been neglected and dismissed by doctors despite experiencing health issues for the past three years. “I am so angry, and I'm so done with the American medical system,” says Eliza. “I've not been okay for the past three years. I have not been able to do what people my age can do. I don't have the ability to live a healthy life. There is something wrong with me, and I don't know what it is.”
“Every time I go to a primary doctor, they write me off, and they dismiss me, and they tell me I have anxiety, and they push me aside, and they put me on benzos. It was a time where I was on so many prescriptions I couldn't think,” she adds. “And so I got off of them, and I still don't feel good."
Is it possible that anxiety is the new hysteria? Why is it that so many doctors go to “anxiety” as the diagnosis in so many cases?
Eliza continues, “I've never woken up and felt good, and it's exhausting, and no doctor gives a sh*t. So I went to a primary who did care a little, and they sent me a referral to go to cardio. I couldn't get into cardio for two months, so I don't even have that appointment yet, but I got an MRI because I was in a car accident two years ago, and I hit my head on the windshield, and they never did any testing at that hospital afterward. I just sat there in the hallway with a neck brace on for 18 hours.”
“And so I got my MRI done, and I called to try to make an appointment with a neurologist, and the neurologist told me that I have to go to the cardiologist first and make sure that's okay, and then if there's nothing wrong with my heart, then they'll give a sh*t. I can't live like this anymore. I need someone. I need a doctor to care about me,” she said.
Eliza says she can't continue living like this. She no longer wants to wake up suffering. The TikToker is doing everything she possibly can to feel better: eating healthy, journaling, attending counseling and therapy sessions, and staying active.
"It's a woman thing," Eliza explains. "It is a woman thing because so many women feel the same way I do. They know that there's something wrong and guess what? They don't care unless you're in the ground."
The young woman is not alone in this. Millions of women have experienced malpractice and negligence by healthcare professionals. Eliza's comment section is chockful of people sharing their trauma inflicted by the medical industry.
According to Alexandra D. Lahav, an Ellen Ash Peters Professor at the University of School of Law, there is data bias in medicine. "In medical research, drug regulation, and product design, the male body is too often considered as the default – which can have dangerous, even fatal, consequences for women," she wrote in an article titled "Medicine Is Made for Men."
On average, women have to wait longer than men to be diagnosed with health issues. The delay can sometimes be as long as 10 years. Women are more likely to have fatal outcomes – including heart attacks, poor reactions to drugs, or having their pain dismissed by doctors. Many people are unaware that women were not mandated to be included in clinical research until June 10, 1993. Surprisingly, that was only 30 years ago, so science still has a long way to go in addressing this gap.
For now, our cries continue to be ignored by the healthcare system, and many are seeking holistic practices, natural medicine, and healthy living until we find a cure. "That's what sucks so bad is there's no helping," Eliza says. "You're stuck. You're not even stuck between a rock and a hard place."
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