Doing Harm: The Truth About How Bad Medicine and Lazy Science Leave Women Dismissed, Misdiagnosed, and Sick

Doing Harm is a groundbreaking book that exposes the deep-seated sexism in medicine, revealing how women's experiences of feeling dismissed by the medical system are rooted in systemic problems.

Through a combination of scientific and sociological research, interviews with doctors and researchers, and personal stories from women across the country, Maya Dusenbery provides a comprehensive and accessible look at how sexism in medicine harms women today.

The book explores the ways in which women have been discharged from the emergency room mid-heart attack with anti-anxiety meds, labeled "chronic complainers" for years before being properly diagnosed, and told they are overreacting to "normal" menstrual cramps.

Doing Harm shows how women suffer because the medical community knows relatively less about their diseases and bodies and too often doesn't trust their reports of their symptoms.

The book offers a clear-eyed exploration of the long history of viewing women as especially prone to "hysteria" and how this stereotype continues to reverberate today, leaving women battling against a stigma that their ailments are likely to be "all in their heads." Doing Harm is an eye-opening read for patients and healthcare providers alike, offering a much-needed critique of the medical system and its impact on women's health.