Why is women's health not taken seriously enough?

"Are you sure you're not just stressed?"

Being dismissed by medical professionals is something we shouldn't be used to but it's a reality for most women.

We have to fight our corner to be acknowledged, we have to convince some people the symptoms are real and it's incredibly draining.

We've had these conversations with our aunts, our mams, and our friends at work.

Most Irish women know this reality all too well, but a study has now confirmed women are having their pain dismissed at every stage of their lives.

The research analysed 5,000 adults with 81% of female participants aged between 18 and 24 admitting their pain is dismissed and ignored.

One in four women aged 45 and over said it took more than a year for them to be diagnosed.

They were left to suffer in pain and cope with their symptoms alone until someone finally listened to them.

A further 19 percent of all women said their pain was dismissed by healthcare professionals for over five years.

We need healthcare professionals to listen to women and treat them with the same respect as men.

Why should our issues and health concerns be dismissed because of our gender? Dismissing a woman's symptoms and leaving them to fend for themselves will only cause more harm as time goes by.

Cynthia Nixon perfectly said: "Women's health needs to be front and center – it often isn't, but it needs to be."

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