The sexism in medicine must end

HEALTH Dr Marieke Bigg’s new book on the gender health gap is inspired by her own experiences of medical inequality, she explains to Claire Cohen

- Claire Cohen

I EXPERIENCED a moment of extreme emptiness,” recalls Dr Marieke Bigg of her moment of realisation at the gynaecologist. “It came from the gaping void in my vocabulary. It came from my sense of utter disconnection from the process unfolding at the other end of the inspection table. It came from not knowing what was wrong with me. From not even knowing what my doctor was looking for.”

Her diagnosis? Medically speaking, pretty inadequate (“Might be endometriosis, he suggested, and casually offered me keyhole surgery”). But Bigg, a 30 year-old sociologist, has used her experience — one that will unfortunately be familiar to many women — to write a ground-breaking new book, This Won’t Hurt, about the medical sexism and gaslighting that women experience every single day.

“Part of my interest was academic, but then it was also personal,” she says. “I had a few quite jarring experiences trying to get the gynaecological care I need and that got me reflecting on my experience of medicine more generally and of my body out in the world.

“Women feel unheard, misunderstood and dismissed in situations where they go and see a medical professional. It’s a sense that your experience is not being taken seriously, is not being heard  and isn’t being investigated.” 

It was even more personal, given that Bigg is the daughter of two medics — a Dutch GP mother and an English anaesthetic nurse father. She was raised between Salisbury and the Netherlands, and now lives in Hackney with flatmates.