Women's Health Care in New Mexico

Erin Marshall Law is committed to supporting quality women's health care based on evidence derived from medical research involving women and developed for the benefit of women. Contact us today to discuss or consult on your potential case at 505-218-9949 or [email protected]. Visit erinmarshalllaw.com.

How Inadequate Training On Specific Women’s Health Issues And Poor Communication Lead To Medical Mistakes

Medical mistakes happen across all patient categories and in every medical specialization. However, a few factors have combined to make women’s healthcare – including but not limited to reproductive issues and maternity care – an especially common site for problems related to provider-patient communication. Gaps in medical knowledge arising out of the ways clinical trial participants have historically been selected have resulted in a “standard” understanding of human anatomy and physiology that often leaves out of account potentially important endocrinological and immunological differences between male and female bodies.?

Additionally, a combination of social norms and assumptions internalized during medical training can lead women to be less assertive in explaining their symptoms and seeking care than their male counterparts, and medical practitioners to be less attentive in listening and less proactive in ordering diagnostic procedures and pursuing aggressive treatments – even for conditions that affect both genders at broadly similar rates.?

All of these issues can contribute to increased risks of delayed or missed diagnoses and inappropriate or inadequate treatment – medical mistakes which in turn carry negative implications for immediate and long-term patient outcomes, and substantially impact women’s health, especially in areas directly related to maternity, childbirth, and reproductive care. Fortunately, there is a growing awareness that women have options for seeking support and representation as they navigate the often challenging process of accessing medical care. To learn more, schedule a consultation with a maternity and birth injury attorney from Erin Marshall Law. In New Mexico, call (505) 278-6309 today.

What Are Medical Mistakes??

“Medical mistakes” is an umbrella term that encompasses a variety of errors that may occur during patient intake, assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. These mistakes can range in severity from minor gaffes, quickly corrected, to life-altering or even life-ending events. According to a training resource made available through the National Library of Medicine, some of the most common medical mistakes include:?

• Surgical mistakes?
• Erroneous or missed diagnoses
• Wrong drug dosage or formulation?
• Hospital-acquired infections
• Communication failures?

While medical mistakes can impact patients in any category, with any condition, a number of factors can contribute to increasing the likelihood of such mistakes when healthcare providers are treating female patients. Maternity and postpartum care can be especially thorny areas within the overall field of medical practice; as recently as July 2024, the White House released a two-year update on its ongoing effort to address what the administration has called the “maternal health crisis.”?

What Makes Women’s Healthcare Different??

A number of factors can lead medical professionals to respond differently to patients based on their gender, whether consciously or unconsciously. The effects are not always immediately harmful, but they do contribute to an overall climate in which the experience of seeking medical care tends to be different for women than for men.?

Importantly, gendered differences in medical training and healthcare providers’ perceptions do not have to be rooted in deliberate misogyny to have cumulative effects that influence patient outcomes – and not all gender-based differences in approach are inherently wrong or misguided. However, gaps in training during medical school and early clinical practice can easily combine with social norms and perceptions – including, but not limited to, gendered expectations regarding medical “toughness,” expected pain levels, and patient complaints – to create the conditions for poor communication between patients and healthcare providers. All too often, these factors result in missed diagnoses and lengthy delays in treatment, with commensurate impacts on women’s overall health. Understanding some of the factors at work is crucial to developing a multifaceted, patient-centered approach to addressing them.?

Historical Roots of Contemporary Outcomes?

?Women were routinely excluded from participation in clinical trials until 1993, according to the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC). The reasons for these systematic exclusions were at least partly “good,” in the sense that they were structured to a large extent by attempts, within the medical research field and its corresponding regulatory frameworks, to apply the classic guiding ethos of the medical profession: First, do no harm. A major impetus for clinical trials involving pharmaceutical interventions, in particular, is to observe how patients respond to treatment. These trials are typically set up not only to determine whether the drug has its intended therapeutic effects (usually defined as the “primary endpoint” in the research protocols), but also to monitor for and identify any unintended side effects.?

Monitoring for adverse effects in otherwise healthy adults who have granted their informed consent can be a time-consuming, labor-intensive task that still occasionally misses capturing data whose importance is only recognized in hindsight. Monitoring for adverse effects in a developing fetus can be orders of magnitude more difficult, and the potential for long-term, irreversible consequences in the form of miscarriages, birth defects, and a host of other disruptions to fetal development have long worked to discourage researchers from enrolling female participants in clinical trials, especially if the research volunteers are of childbearing age.

Missing Data and Inadequate Training

Unfortunately, however, the lack of clinical data on bodies with two X chromosomes – bodies capable, at least in most instances, of carrying a child and giving birth; bodies that produce breast milk and shed uterine linings – has left medical researchers, and as a consequence generations of medical students and therefore medical practitioners, all too often in murky territory regarding not only how these bodies will respond to “standard” treatments, but even whether and when such treatments are needed. A 2023 study available in preprint via the National Library of Medicine found that – across an impressive 112 diseases, both chronic and acute – the average length of time between onset of symptoms and diagnosis of disease was longer for women than for men, even when controlling for factors such as health insurance. Notably, the delay held even for diseases whose clinical presentation does typically vary by gender. Even for heart disease – the leading cause of death for both men and women, nationwide – the National Heart, Blood, and Lung Institute points out that women may experience “delays” in treatment for heart disease because healthcare providers are less likely to order diagnostic procedures when the patient presenting with symptoms of cardiovascular illness is female instead of male.?

The composite picture painted by these cumulative facts suggests that biological differences, by themselves, may not be fully adequate to explain why late and missed diagnoses are uncomfortably common in women’s medical care – with frequently devastating implications for patients’ treatment and eventual outcomes. An experienced attorney with Erin Marshall Law may be able to help you understand how some of these factors may relate to your individual medical case.?

Biological Factors?

The biological differences between female patients and the historically male participants in clinical research on which much medical training is based may not fully explain poor doctor-patient communication in women’s healthcare, or the statistically significant disparity in time to diagnosis between male and female patients presenting with similar symptoms, but this does not mean that biological factors are irrelevant.?

On the contrary, the overwhelming emphasis on reproductive issues in public health messaging aimed at women and their healthcare providers can serve to disguise a wider array of sex-specific characteristics that may impact both susceptibility to specific diseases and indications for patient care. These differences include not simply sexually dimorphic anatomical structures (e.g., ovaries vs. testes, the presence vs. absence of a uterus), or even differences in the endocrine system and hormone production (including not just the balance between testosterone and estrogen but important hormones related to pregnancy and lactation), but also key immunological differences that lead to further divergences in susceptibility to infections vs. relative risks of developing autoimmune and inflammatory conditions.?

Inadequate Training and Poor Communication?

One of the most frustrating aspects of navigating medical care as a woman, or of working with women who are living with the consequences of avoidable medical mistakes, can in many cases be the grim reminder that inadequate knowledge of female bodies, and inadequate training in diagnosing and treating female patients, can work hand-in-hand with a socially-normative tendency to dismiss women’s own reports of their symptoms as they attempt to access care.?

The student-led Global Research and Consulting initiative from the University of California at Berkeley notes that fewer than 30% of medical schools provide instruction in addressing gender-specific health needs. The clear implication is that individuals entering the medical profession frequently leave their formal training to begin clinical practice underprepared with respect to any sex-specific variations in symptomatology, disease progression, or treatment indications.?

The same report also indicates that healthcare professionals are apt to write off reports of pain made by female patients as a normal condition of women’s bodies, rather than looking for underlying causes. While this failure to investigate may look like an error in diagnosis, it is also a failure in communication: Too often, doctors and other medical professionals fail women not only providing inadequate information to these patients, but by neglecting to take seriously the information the patients themselves are providing.?

Legal Advice and Advocacy?

Women’s health care in the United States continues to suffer from a complicated set of compounding factors. Inadequate training in gender-specific symptoms and treatment indications for common health conditions leaves medical professionals underprepared for treating patients who do not inhabit the male bodies historically recruited for clinical trials and often presented as normative during formal education for careers in health care, while chronically hampered doctor-patient communication makes it difficult for many patients to advocate effectively for their own interests. The cumulative result of these dismal factors shows in the high incidence of medical mistakes in women’s healthcare across all conditions – but nowhere are the stakes more clearly demonstrated than in the high incidence of maternity injuries throughout the United States. If you are struggling with the consequences of some of these medical mistakes – or if you are still attempting to navigate the frustrations of the healthcare system in order to resolve them – you do not have to fight an uphill battle alone.

Rising Maternal Mortality Rates in the U.S.: Understanding the Causes and Solutions

Maternal mortality rates in the United States have been on the rise for several decades, despite advances in medical care and numerous policies aimed at reducing pregnancy-related deaths. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified three cardiovascular conditions and related health indicators as the primary contributors to preventable maternal death in the U.S. Furthermore, the CDC has asserts at least 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. So, why, in the face of this knowledge and proposed policies, do maternal mortality rates continue to climb in the U.S.?

Understanding the Factors Contributing to Rising Maternal Mortality Rates.

1. Cardiovascular Conditions:?The CDC has pinpointed cardiovascular conditions, specifically heart disease, stroke, and hypertensive disorders, as the leading causes of preventable maternal deaths. These conditions can be exacerbated during pregnancy due to the physiological changes a woman’s body goes through. Risk factors such as obesity, high blood pressure, and diabetes can contribute to these conditions, making it vital to address these risk factors before and during pregnancy.
2. Health Disparities:?Disparities in maternal health care access and quality, particularly among communities of color, are a significant factor in the increasing maternal mortality rates. Women of color, especially Black and American Indian/Native American women, are disproportionately affected. Structural racism, socioeconomic factors, and implicit bias within the healthcare system contribute to these disparities. Reducing maternal mortality rates requires addressing these systemic issues head-on.
3. Delayed Access to Care:?Another key factor is the delayed access to prenatal and postpartum care (collectively, perinatal care). Many women, especially those in rural or underserved areas, face challenges in accessing timely and adequate healthcare. Barriers such as transportation, financial constraints, and lack of healthcare facilities or providers can result in delayed diagnoses and treatment of pregnancy-related complications.
4. Lack of Comprehensive Postpartum Care:?Postpartum care is often overlooked, even though it is a critical period in a woman’s health journey. Many maternal deaths occur in the postpartum period. New Mexico has prioritized postpartum care by extending coverage to one-year after birth. The state also needs to monitor and address potential improvements to health care for postpartum issues that can arise after childbirth.

Proposed Solutions and Policy Changes

While maternal mortality rates continue to rise, there have been numerous proposed solutions and policy changes to address this crisis:

1. Improved Access to Prenatal and Postpartum Care:?Policies and programs that aim to increase access to perinatal care, particularly for underserved populations, are essential. Initiatives such as Medicaid coverage for community health workers and increased funding for community health centers can help bridge the healthcare access gap.
2. Addressing Health Disparities:?Efforts to address health disparities must include policies promoting cultural and racial understanding and codified reforms within the healthcare system. Cultural sensitivity training for healthcare providers and efforts to reduce implicit bias can lead to more equitable care.
3. Comprehensive Postpartum Care:?Recognizing the importance of the postpartum period, it is vital to ensure that comprehensive care continues beyond childbirth. This includes mental health support, substance use treatment, monitoring for complications, and connecting new mothers to necessary resources.
4. Public Awareness and Education:?Raising public awareness about maternal mortality and the associated risk factors is crucial. Education campaigns can help women and their families understand the importance of early and consistent healthcare during pregnancy. Public awareness also pressures health care systems to adhere to optimal standards of care for mothers and infants.

Contact us for evaluation when you think you or a family member was injured during their birthing journey.

Maternal mortality rates in the United States continue to rise despite knowing the causes and having proposed policies to address the issues. The solutions lie in comprehensive efforts to reduce cardiovascular risk factors, address health disparities, improve access to care, prioritize comprehensive postpartum care, and promote following medical standards of care. By working together, we can make substantial progress in reducing maternal mortality rates and ensuring the well-being of mothers and their babies. While it is essential for society as a whole to prioritize this issue, you deserve?health care now that?safeguards your life and that of your baby.

It is important to consult with a legal professional to discuss the details of your specific situation and understand your legal options. Please contact us and let us know what your claim involves so we can see if Erin Marshall Law, LLC can assist you and your family to health and move forward from these injuries.

Contact Erin Marshall Law today! We welcome potential case evaluations and co-counsel or consulting arrangements. 505-218-9949 or [email protected]