Doctors dismissed my swollen foot. Months later I nearly died from a blood clot – and now I’m disabled. I’m not surprised a third of women are told their symptoms are ‘all in their head’

Medical misogyny is leaving women with serious illnesses undiagnosed for years, experts have warned, after a major study found that one in three women with autoimmune diseases have their symptoms dismissed as psychological.

Researchers at the universities of Cambridge and East Anglia found women were significantly more likely than men to have their symptoms blamed on stress or anxiety, rather than an underlying physical condition.

In some cases, the consequences of a missed diagnosis can be devastating.

One woman, speaking to the Daily Mail, revealed how doctors dismissed her swollen foot as a minor problem, only for her to suffer a life-threatening blood clot months later. She has been left with permanent lung damage.

‘It took something really dramatic to happen before doctors listened to me,’ said Sarah Bassra, 36, from Nottingham.

The findings, published in the journal eClinicalMedicine, are based on the experiences of more than 6,600 patients with autoimmune diseases – conditions in which the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue.

Women were nearly 50 per cent more likely than men to have their symptoms attributed to a psychiatric disorder and 75 per cent more likely to be told they were caused by stress or anxiety.

By contrast, men were slightly more likely to be misdiagnosed with another physical illness.

‘The differences between the sexes in misdiagnoses for people with autoimmune disease is stark,’ said Shaista Tayabali, study co-author and patient partner.

‘The fact that females reported higher rates of psychiatric misdiagnoses than males, yet reported lower misdiagnoses for other physical diseases, suggests that historical gender biases remain a challenging aspect of the diagnosis journey.’

Autoimmune diseases occur when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue instead of fighting off infections.

Common examples include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, multiple sclerosis (MS) and type 1 diabetes.

Diagnosing these conditions can be difficult because early symptoms – including fatigue, pain, low mood and sleep problems – are often vague and can have many possible causes.

Symptoms may also affect different parts of the body, come and go, or be mistaken for hormonal changes in women.

The study found women faced longer delays between their first symptoms and diagnosis, sometimes lasting up to two years, and attended more medical appointments than men.

Dr Melanie Sloan, from the University of Cambridge, said: ‘Our findings highlight that psychological or mental health explanations can be given too soon.

‘This is the truth for both sexes, but our study suggests that females may be particularly vulnerable to these types of misdiagnoses.’

However, Dr Sloan acknowledged that autoimmune diseases can be particularly difficult to diagnose, especially when specific blood tests are needed to confirm the condition.

Professor David D’Cruz, a consultant rheumatologist at Guy’s Hospital in London, said it was important not to assume that psychological symptoms could never be linked to autoimmune disease.

‘People can have both autoimmune and psychiatric conditions, and it is increasingly understood that psychiatric symptoms can be part of an autoimmune disease, especially in diseases like lupus which can directly affect the brain,’ he said.

‘They can also be a very natural response to living with life-changing illnesses.’

He added: ‘The important message is that when symptoms persist, evolve or involve multiple systems, clinicians must be open minded and consider whether there is an underlying autoimmune disease that has not yet been recognised – and to listen to patients.’

For Sarah Bassra, 36, from Nottingham, the consequences of a missed diagnosis have been life-changing.

For years, she says, doctors repeatedly dismissed her symptoms despite a family history of antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), an autoimmune condition that increases the risk of dangerous blood clots.

At 26, her extreme fatigue was blamed on a vitamin D deficiency. Later, joint pain led to physiotherapy and an offer of steroid injections, while bouts of vertigo were attributed to anxiety.

Then, in June 2022, she visited her GP complaining of pain and swelling in her foot, only to be diagnosed with plantar fasciitis – a common cause of heel pain.

‘They told me to get orthopaedic trainers and sent me home without so much as looking at my leg,’ Sarah said.

‘I explained that I had been on a couple of long-haul flights and thought that it could be a blood clot. But my GP looked at me as if I was crazy.’

Two months later, she was rushed to hospital after suffering a pulmonary embolism – a potentially fatal blockage in an artery in the lungs, usually caused by a blood clot travelling from the leg.

‘Even after suffering this horrendous event, they were still reluctant to test for Hughes syndrome, despite my dad having it,’ she said.

Also known as antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), the condition causes the blood to clot too easily, increasing the risk of strokes, heart attacks and pregnancy complications.

When Sarah was eventually diagnosed, she says she was not prescribed blood-thinning medication to prevent further clots.

It was only after she suffered a second pulmonary embolism in March 2023 that she received the treatment.

‘Before any of this, there were signs that something wasn’t quite right,’ she said.

‘I just feel like someone should have looked through my records and pieced it together.’

Sarah has since been told her lungs will never fully recover from the damage caused by the clots.

‘I’m not surprised at all that the researchers have found such a high proportion of women are dismissed,’ she said.

‘I believe if a man had presented with my symptoms, they would have been treated much sooner.

‘And I think it’s really sad that I now have to bring my partner with me to GP appointments to get my health taken seriously.’