When Your Symptoms Are Dismissed: Women Facing Medical Misogyny

Michele Mirman | Medical Malpractice | October 7, 2025

I’m Michele Mirman, a medical malpractice attorney who has represented New Yorkers for over 50 years, and I’ve seen all manner of pain. Some stories, though, haunt me. I’ll never forget when a young woman came into my office who had done everything right: she’d been suffering from vaginal lesions, then pelvic pain, spotting and digestive problems for more than a year. Each time she did exactly what any of us would do. She went to her doctor and reported her symptoms. But each time, he told her it was “just stress,” “hormones,” and “lesions from genital herpes.” Finally, after over one year, the doctor, disgusted with his patient’s continual complaints, finally referred her to a dermatologist, who he stated would “laser” the lesions to give her some relief. The dermatologist listened to my client’s history, took one look at her “lesions,” and immediately knew this was advanced cancer. He had her in an oncologist’s office the next day. My client never had herpes. She had vulva cancer that by the time it was diagnosed had metastasized to stage IV. My client survived for less than two years. 

Another woman called me explaining she had complained to her internist about stabbing back pain and terrible indigestion. He told her to “take antacids” and see an orthopedist for her back pain. The orthopedist found nothing unusual with her back. The terrible indigestion and back pain repeated several times over the next six months and each time, her internist told her to “calm down” and “take it easy.” The last time, the pain was so intense, my client ended up in the emergency room and there she was finally properly diagnosed. She had gall stones and required immediate surgery. By that time, however, one-third of her pancreas had been destroyed, she could not digest fat, was pre-diabetic, and in the next year, lost over twenty pounds.

Why These Stories Matter

I share these stories because I hear them again and again. Women, who do the right thing and go to their doctors with serious complaints, only to be ignored, or shushed. Women’s complaints are minimized—even symptoms of real, life-threatening disease. Doctors dismiss women’s complaints as hysteria, stress or hormones, while they treat men’s complaints as true. Recently, Dr. Elizabeth Comen in her 2024 book, “All in Her Head: The Truth and Lies Early Medicine Taught Us About Women’s Bodies” coined a very apt phrase for this:  “medical misogyny,” so ingrained in our health system that medical conditions that affect women differently than men are not properly treated.

As a woman, mother, and founding partner of Mirman, Markovits & Landau, P.C., attorneys who represent those injured by medical negligence, I have represented many women who later found out that the harm they suffered could have been prevented, if only their doctor had listened. With over 40 years of practicing medical malpractice law, I write this to give you some additional thoughts about how to protect your health and your rights if your symptoms are ignored.

When Dismissal Becomes Neglect: Misdiagnosis and Clinical Bias

 Minimizing symptoms or attributing pain to “just mood” or “stress” is not just degrading, it can also be medical malpractice. When a woman reports severe pain or abnormal bleeding, her doctor might say “this is typical for your age,” when he should be ordering diagnostic testing. That dismissal can lead to delayed diagnosis, a worsened condition, and irreversible damage. For example, studies show that because women’s complaints are ignored or minimized, women are 66% more likely than men to be misdiagnosed especially for conditions like heart attack, stroke, autoimmune disease, and reproductive issues. 

What Counts as Negligence and When To Act

Elements of Medical Malpractice

To have a valid medical malpractice claim, you generally must prove:

• Duty of Care – A healthcare provider had a responsibility toward you, as a patient.
• Breach of Standard of Care – The provider departed from accepted medical practices (e.g. ignoring red-flag symptoms, failing to order tests, or misreading results).
• Causation – The breach directly caused you harm.
• Damages – Physical injury, a worsened condition, emotional distress, medical bills, lost work, etc.
  

Statutes, Deadlines & Exceptions in New York

• Under New York Civil Practice Law you typically have 2 years and 6 months (30 months) from the date of the negligent act or last treatment to file a medical malpractice lawsuit.
  
• Exceptions include:
  Continuous Treatment Doctrine – If you receive ongoing treatment from the same provider for the same condition, the clock may not start until treatment ends. 
  Discovery Rule / Lavern’s Law – If the malpractice involves failure to diagnose cancer or a malignant tumor, the statute allows up to 7 years from when you knew or should have reasonably known the harm, though not longer.
  Foreign Object Exception – If a foreign body (e.g. surgical instrument) was left in your body unknowingly, you generally have one year from discovery to file.

Missing these deadlines can mean losing your right to bring a claim.

Practical Steps: How to Protect Yourself, Build Evidence, & Take Action

Document Symptoms & Interactions

• Keep a detailed journal of symptoms: type, onset, duration, intensity, and what worsens them.
  
• Record what you told providers, how they responded, and what tests were ordered (or refused).
  
• Save all medical records: imaging, test results, pathology reports—including those labeled “normal.”
  

Seek Specialist Care & Second Opinions

• If your regular provider dismisses you, insist on referral to a specialist (gynecologist, rheumatologist, oncologist, etc.), and if he won’t refer you, go to a different doctor.
  
• Don’t be afraid to change providers. A provider with more experience or a different approach can make the difference.

I Can Help

If you believe your health care provider has failed you by dismissing symptoms, failing to test, failing to diagnose, delaying diagnosis, providing the wrong treatment or failing to refer you for appropriate care, and you’ve been hurt as a result—don’t wait. Call me, Michele Mirman, 212-227-4000, or visit mirmanlawyers.com. All consultations are free and confidential.  In New York State, you only pay attorney fees and expenses in a medical malpractice case if we recover money in the lawsuit for you.  

Be heard and get justice.