Is Venus Worth Less Than Mars in Medicine? (#96)

Dr. Berkson's Best Health Radio Podcast

How might women get a bad rap in medicine and what you might do about it?

Dr. Berkson and Sellma Vllasi, FNP-C, practiced in the same family medicine clinic for 6 years and still share many patients. Vllasi is an integrative and functional medicine nurse practitioner, team leader of the Wiseman Family Practice (in charge of provider education) and previously was a labor and delivery nurse for eight years.

Today’s show explores:

1. Gender bias and differences in medicine (from diagnosis to treatment and insurance reimbursement)
2. Gender differences in provider’s perceptions
3. Women are often taken less seriously
4. Women are often recommended aggressive prophylactic procedures (such as hysterectomy and bilateral mastectomy) but this is not the case for males even though males have a high incidence of prostate cancer, plus the rate of breast cancer in males is rapidly increasing) and men can get BRCA genetic glitches, too.
5. When data came out in 2012 that testosterone therapy during prostate cancer treatment is protective, urologists jumped on giving T therapy to males. This has not been the case with females.

Female breast cancer patients often have not heard or been given the option of taking T therapy with tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitors to improve their quality of life and safety profiles.

6. Women must create an advocacy team with agile thinkers.
7. Women must learn how to become more self-aware and trust themselves more. In this show you hear a few steps toward achieving this.