When Your Doctor Doesn’t Believe Your Pain: Sexism in Healthcare | Ep 202

What do you do when your doctor doesn’t listen? When your provider doesn’t believe you?

A 2019 interview with Selma Blair on Good Morning America brought to light a scary fact: women are not being heard by their medical providers. Chronic conditions are going undiagnosed for YEARS, despite the fact that women are reporting real physical problems. When you layer in intersectionality, the issue gets even worse. This lack of care can have irreversible consequences, and despite increased awareness, the problem still persists today.

In this episode, Erin interviews Dr. Cristin Zaimes of Oceanside Physical Therapy to discuss how sexism in healthcare creates shame and distrust in our own bodies. While this episode originally aired in March 2019, Erin and Cristin highlight why this conversation is just as relevant and important today. Tune in as they discuss what we can do to change this—including ways to tap into our innate power to heal.

Dr. Cristin Zaimes holds a Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Simmons College and has specialized in the field of orthopedics and pelvic floor dysfunction for over 15 years. She opened Oceanside in 2011, when her frustrations with the healthcare and medical system became overwhelming to her as a practitioner and she broke away to create an environment that supported healing and thrived on providing the best clinical care.

She has extensive advanced training in pelvic floor, bladder, bowel and sexual dysfunction for all people. She believes in allowing all those against whom the traditional medical system has biases, to have access to care that supports, connects and empowers. Dr. Zaimes spends much of her time advocating for patients through community connections, workshops and speaking engagements. Her passions include advocating for proper menstrual health and the awareness of abnormalities in period and ovulatory health, supporting new mothers and parents and fighting cultural norms that impede the healing process after delivery, and providing knowledge, guidance and support to women transitioning toward and after menopause.

In this episode:

-Cristin’s real passion points & the relevancy of this conversation [5:51]

-Sexism in healthcare [7:43]

-Scary statistics that highlight medical sexism [9:37]

-Why women aren’t being listened to [11:09]

-Why does chronic pain go on so long? [16:26]

-Neural networks [22:01]

-Hypervigilance in the body [25:54]

-Re-establishing resiliency in your body [36:22]

-Stepping away from generalized health recommendations [39:04]

-Building out a health care team [48:42]

-Your power to heal [58:32]

-How to find trust in healthcare again [1:03:23]

FOR OUR FULL LIST OF LINKS + RESOURCES, HEAD TO: https://www.thefunktionalnutritionist.com/podcast/202-when-your-doctor-doesnt-believe-your-pain-sexism-healthcare