Dr Melanie Sloan, a researcher at the University of Cambridge and Norwich Medical School at the University of East Anglia (UEA), said patients with autoimmune diseases can have symptoms that are hard to account for medically. “Patients with autoimmune diseases can present with symptoms that can be difficult to explain medically, and sometimes it can take months or years before a diagnosis becomes clear”.
Those conditions arise when the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues. They can bring broad symptoms, including fatigue and pain, which can complicate efforts to identify the illness.
A study led jointly by Cambridge and UEA surveyed more than 6,600 people living with autoimmune conditions. The vast majority of respondents were female and based in the UK.
Women who presented with symptoms including fatigue, muscle pain and rashes were significantly more likely to have their illness attributed to psychological causes.
Before receiving a correct diagnosis, 43% of women said their symptoms had been attributed to psychiatric causes, compared with 33% of men. Women were nearly 50% more likely than men to report having received a psychiatric misdiagnosis.
The gap was also evident in psychosomatic diagnoses. Some 34% of women reported receiving one, against 22% of men. After accounting for age, disease group, continent and household financial situation, women were almost 75% more likely than men to report a psychosomatic misdiagnosis.
Female participants also reported longer waits for a formal diagnosis and more medical consultations. The most commonly reported time to diagnosis for women was one to two years; for men, it was up to three months.
“Our findings highlight that psychological or mental health explanations can be given too soon”, Sloan said.
The researchers said women “may face additional disadvantages” and pointed to the possibility that “historical biases in medicine may persist”.
The study was published in the journal eClinicalMedicine.
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