Disentangling gender and racial myths from clinical descriptions of female prevalent symptoms

从女性普遍症状的临床描述中解开性别和种族神话

• 批准号: ES/Y007816/1
• 负责人: Sally King
• 金额: $ 16.17万
• 依托单位: King's College London
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FY007816%2F1
• 关键词: Disentangling; gender; racial; myths; clinical

My PhD research found that the myth of the hysterical female unintentionally influences the way in whichdoctors, researchers, and the public discuss, categorise, and treat female-prevalent symptoms.I compared expert (medical and academic) and patient accounts of PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome) with theavailable scientific data regarding cyclical symptoms. The main finding was that persistent gender mythsassociated with 'hysteria' were affecting participant descriptions. In particular, the untrue but surprisinglycommon belief that the healthy female body (first the womb, now the female sex hormones) causes seriousmental health issues was strongly reflected in the way in which PMS was described. Unfortunately, thisassumption wrongly positions 'all women' as biologically prone to irrational beliefs and behaviours (includingthe exaggeration, invention, or imagination of symptoms and other distressing experiences) (King, 2020).This gender myth appears to have contributed to the unscientific separation and prioritisation of typically mildpremenstrual mood changes, and the dismissal and de-prioritisation of far more common and severeexperiences of (cyclical) pain. Black and other racialised ethnicity patient participants appeared to be subject toeven higher levels of disbelief in their symptoms than White cisgender women, demonstrating how gender andrace myths may combine to worsen discriminatory beliefs and practices.Another major finding was that educational resources (from high school biology to specialist gynaecologytextbooks) reduce the menstrual cycle to just 'hormonal changes'. By omitting key information about thefemale reproductive system, a more likely cause of cyclical symptoms (inflammation) has been overlooked forthe past 100 years. This gap in education unintentionally reproduces the myth of the hormonal/ hystericalfemale and has led to 'bad science'- in that researchers have mistakenly assumed that the timing of symptomsmeans that they must be caused by hormonal changes (rather than the inflammation associated withovulation, thickening of the womb lining, and menstruation).Many clinical PMS studies have tried but failed to prove a causal relationship between the female sexhormones and cyclical symptoms. Tellingly, these consistently negative study findings were positioned by themedical PMS experts as evidence of the 'mysterious' nature of the female reproductive body rather thansuggestive of alternative scientific explanations. In fact, it appears that the pairing of 'women' and 'hormones'in medicine (and wider society) has severely limited the ability of researchers and clinicians to account forfemale-prevalent symptoms and conditions in any other terms.My PhD thesis concluded with a proposal for redefining problematic cyclical symptoms as PMI (PerimenstrualInflammation) to help steer societal and medical discourses away from persistent gender/ race myths andmetaphors towards more accurate explanations. It is hoped that this will help to account for, and attend to, theneeds of individual patients without accidentally stigmatising an entire gender and/ or racialised ethnicpopulation. I already have a contract with Bristol University Press to write a popular science book for academic and publicaudiences. I now need to publish my work in some influential medical and academic journals to gain greaterprofessional credibility. This will be needed if I am to secure further research funding and persuade thepublishers of school and medical textbooks to integrate more comprehensive information about the purposeand function of the healthy menstrual cycle. Ultimately, I hope to help boost patient and medical knowledge ofmenstrual health (and female-prevalent symptoms), improve treatment options and patient outcomes, andexpose the way in which societal myths have prevented this information from being taught before.

我的博士学位研究发现，歇斯底里女性的神话无意中影响了对女性（医学和学术症状）的讨论，分类和治疗女性（医学和学术）和PMS的患者（医学和学术综合症）与剧院的科学数据有关的专家（医学和学术）和患者说法的方式。主要发现是，与“歇斯底里”相关的持久性别神话正在影响参与者的描述。特别是，不真实但令人惊讶的是，人们相信健康的女性身体（首先是子宫，现在是女性性激素）会引起严重的健康问题，以描述PMS的方式得到了强烈反映。不幸的是，这种弥补将“所有女性”定位在生物学上容易出现非理性的信念和行为（包括夸张，发明或想象力和症状的想象力和其他令人痛苦的经历）（King，2020年）。这种性别神话似乎有助于不统一的典型分离和更加普遍性的典型性和不利性，并且是典型的典型性情绪，并促进了典型性的精神状态，并促进了典型的情绪状况。 （周期性）疼痛。 Black and other racialised ethnicity patient participants appeared to be subject toeven higher levels of disbelief in their symptoms than White cisgender women, demonstrating how gender andrace myths may combine to worsen discriminatory beliefs and practices.Another major finding was that educational resources (from high school biology to specialist gynaecologytextbooks) reduce the menstrual cycle to just 'hormonal changes'.通过省略有关Female生殖系统的关键信息，在过去的100年中，更可能造成周期性症状（炎症）的原因。教育中的这一差距无意间再现了荷尔蒙/歇斯底里范围的神话，并导致了“不良科学” - 因为研究人员错误地假设症状的时机必须是由于激素变化引起的，而不是与炎症相关的炎症，而不是与临床相关的炎症，但逐渐逐渐逐渐逐渐研究）。在女性性激素和周期性症状之间。可以说，这些始终如一的负面研究结果是由主题PMS专家定位的，是女性生殖身体的“神秘”本质的证据，而不是对替代科学解释的Thansuggestive。 In fact, it appears that the pairing of 'women' and 'hormones'in medicine (and wider society) has severely limited the ability of researchers and clinicians to account forfemale-prevalent symptoms and conditions in any other terms.My PhD thesis concluded with a proposal for redefining problematic cyclical symptoms as PMI (PerimenstrualInflammation) to help steer societal and medical discourses away from persistent gender/竞争神话和指标，以更准确的解释。希望这将有助于解释单个患者的当时并关注，而不会意外地抹杀整个性别和/或种族化的族裔人口。我已经与布里斯托尔大学出版社（Bristol University Press）签订了合同，为学术和公共照式撰写了一本流行的科学书籍。现在，我需要在一些有影响力的医学和学术期刊上发布我的作品，以获得更大的专业信誉。如果我要确保进一步的研究资金并说服学校和医学教科书的报纸以整合有关健康月经周期的目的功能的更全面的信息，则需要这一点。最终，我希望帮助提高患者和医学知识的月经健康（以及女性预期症状），改善治疗选择和患者的结果，并表达社会神话阻止此信息以前被教导的方式。