One woman dies every 80 seconds from cardiovascular disease. Not because these deaths are inevitable, but because women's symptoms are often dismissed, misunderstood, or diagnosed years later than they would be in men.

This reflects a much larger problem that affects every woman who has ever felt unheard in a doctor's office, every woman whose pain was attributed to stress without further investigation, and every woman who has been told her symptoms are "normal" when they decidedly don't feel normal to her.

Here's something that might surprise you: from the air conditioning in your office to crash test dummies that test car safety, the world is designed around male bodies as the default. In medical research, this has dangerous consequences. Women are twice as likely to experience depression, insomnia, and PTSD. They're four times more likely to develop autoimmune conditions. Across 770 different diseases, women receive their diagnosis an average of four years later than men.

The challenges become particularly acute for women over 35. Brain aging begins at 40 for women specifically—stress reduces total brain volume in women during their forties in ways that simply don't occur in men at the same age. Perimenopause represents the greatest risk period for suicide attempts in women, yet 73-75% of women don't receive the perimenopause treatment they need.

In my work providing ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, I see how these systemic healthcare gaps affect women's mental health. Many arrive having spent years with inadequately treated depression or anxiety, often because the hormonal and physiological factors contributing to their symptoms were never properly addressed.

Women seeking mental health treatment frequently carry the additional burden of having navigated a healthcare system that hasn't always taken their concerns seriously. They may have been told their symptoms were "just stress" or "just hormones" without receiving the comprehensive evaluation they deserved.

Understanding these disparities isn't about becoming discouraged with the healthcare system—it's about empowering yourself to advocate for the care you deserve. Trust your instincts about your own body and wellbeing. If something doesn't feel right, keep asking questions until you find providers who take your concerns seriously.

Your symptoms matter. Your experience matters. And finding the right care shouldn't require you to minimize your own expertise about what's happening in your body.