{"id":629063,"date":"2026-10-13T06:36:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T06:36:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/629063\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T06:36:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T06:36:10","slug":"women-more-likely-to-be-told-autoimmune-conditions-are-psychological-womens-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/629063\/","title":{"rendered":"Women \u2018more likely to be told autoimmune conditions are psychological\u2019 | Women’s health"},"content":{"rendered":"

Women with autoimmune conditions are up to 74% more likely than men to be told their symptoms are psychological or psychosomatic, and face much longer waits for a diagnosis and treatment, a study suggests.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of millions of people \u2013 about one in 10 globally \u2013 are affected by autoimmune conditions, which can cause a range of health issues including fatigue, muscle pain and rashes.<\/p>\n

But research by the University of Cambridge and University of East Anglia suggests a stark gender divide when it comes to how signs of the conditions are handled by doctors.<\/p>\n

Women are more likely to have their conditions wrongly attributed to psychiatric causes, more likely to have symptoms misdiagnosed as psychosomatic, and more likely to experience delays in getting a diagnosis, according to the study.<\/p>\n

The lead author, Melanie Sloan, said: \u201cThe damage caused to women by these types of misdiagnosis can be very long lasting in terms of trusting doctors and their own self-esteem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sloan, a researcher in the department of public health and primary care at Cambridge and UEA, said some women were forced to wait years before finally getting a diagnosis, causing long delays to treatment for their condition.<\/p>\n

The study, published in the Lancet eClinicalMedicine<\/a> journal, included more than 6,600 people with autoimmune conditions. Most were female and from the UK.<\/p>\n

Patients listed their main condition, with almost a quarter of the women having autoimmune thyroid disease, which can cause the gland to become underactive \u2013 known as Hashimoto\u2019s disease \u2013 or overactive, known as Graves\u2019 disease. Hashimoto\u2019s disease can cause weight gain, hair loss, fatigue and joint pain, while the symptoms of Graves\u2019 disease include bulging eyes, palpitations and weight loss.<\/p>\n

One in seven women in the study had systemic lupus, which can cause tiredness, rashes and muscle pain.<\/p>\n

Among male patients, rheumatoid arthritis, vasculitis and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), also known as \u201csticky blood\u201d syndrome, were the most common conditions.<\/p>\n

Women were almost 46% more likely to report having received a psychiatric misdiagnosis, and nearly 74% more likely to have a psychosomatic misdiagnosis. Photograph: MBI\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Researchers found 43% of women reported being told their condition was down to a psychiatric cause compared with a third of men (33%).<\/p>\n

A third (34%) of women also reported having symptoms misdiagnosed as psychosomatic \u2013 meaning they were triggered or worsened by stress or anxiety \u2013 compared with 22% of men.<\/p>\n

Overall, after accounting for factors including age, disease group, continent and household finances, researchers said women were 46% more likely to report having received a psychiatric misdiagnosis, and 74% more likely to report a psychosomatic misdiagnosis than men.<\/p>\n

Researchers also found women reported much longer periods between the onset of symptoms and receiving a diagnosis, as well as more healthcare consultations. Among men, the most frequently reported time to diagnosis was less than three months. Among women, it was one to two years.<\/p>\n

Autoimmune conditions, which happen when the immune system attacks the body by mistake, can be complex to diagnose as they often present with symptoms common in the wider population.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter |Every day<\/p>\n

Sign up to Headlines UK<\/p>\n

Get the day\u2019s headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The study team said \u201cbroader diagnostic challenges affect both sexes\u201d but \u201cfemales may face additional disadvantages\u201d.<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cHistorical biases in medicine may persist, including positioning females as less credible and emotional reporters of symptoms than males.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sloan said the findings \u201chighlight that psychological or mental health explanations can be given too soon\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cThis is true for both sexes, but our study suggests that females may be particularly vulnerable to these types of misdiagnoses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is really important that symptoms are not automatically assumed to be psychological and for doctors to just say, \u2018I believe you,\u2019 to patients with symptoms that the doctors cannot see.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shaista Tayabali, a patient affected by an autoimmune condition who was part of the research team and a co-author of the study, said: \u201cThe differences between the sexes in misdiagnoses for people with autoimmune diseases is stark.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that females reported higher rates of psychiatric and psychosomatic misdiagnoses than males \u2026 suggests that historical gender biases remain a challenging aspect of the diagnostic journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough labels such as hysteria are outdated, and fortunately rarely used nowadays, as women we still often have a harder time having our symptoms believed and therefore addressed accurately.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Women with autoimmune conditions are up to 74% more likely than men to be told their symptoms are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[134,527,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-629063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}