Taking control of your health includes understanding the historical inequities that create barriers to quality healthcare and how biases adversely affect you today. It also means understanding the need for culturally competent services and providers, in other words, physicians and facilities that focus on inclusivity and the unique needs of women and women of color.
Both a lack of research and the dismissal of our voices when we seek healthcare promote, exacerbate, and proliferate inequities and marginalize us further. These inequities flow into multiple areas of our healthcare efforts and maintenance, including mental and sexual health.
The historical lack of autonomy, advocacy, and access women have had in their healthcare, and the adverse effects, are the catalyst for taking our voices back today! Sounds like a lot to tackle? No worries. Fortunately, you have already gotten started by clicking on this article! We got you as you celebrate Women’s Health and Mental Health Awareness Month.
Inequitable Research: Yesterday and Today
Biological and social differences between men and women affect health risks, prevention, and treatment, yet women have been historically excluded from clinical research and drug trials, especially black women. Social constructs, like racism, cause even greater disparities in research and health outcomes. So, if you are both a woman and a person of color, you may be more adversely affected by these inequities.
Yesterday
The exclusion of women from medical research has had devastating effects historically. For example, a 1977 Food and Drug Administration policy “recommended excluding” several categories of women, including those of childbearing age, from drug trials. Thousands of babies were born with extreme limb deformities when pregnant women took a drug that was used in Canada and Europe, but not approved in United States. Although there were some policy changes after this, they were inconsistent. It wasn’t until 1993 that a law was passed mandating the inclusion of women and people of color in clinical research.
Sadly, that wasn’t that long ago. Even more unfortunate, a National Institutes of Health (NIH) article on the disparities in women’s health, written as recently as November 2025, reports that women remain underrepresented in research and are even intentionally left out.
Today
One consequence of women being excluded from medical studies and drug trials is that physiological differences and differences in the way men and women metabolize drugs and nutrients are not considered. Another adverse effect is that social constructs or demographics, such as socioeconomic status, ethnicity, racism, and sexism, are not considered. These determinants, also known as intersectionality, affect health outcomes, such as access to health information, prevention strategies, treatment, and culturally competent physicians.
Male-female differences even reach into mental health outcomes, with research demonstrating early life trauma (ELT) affects the genders differently.
Here are a few ramifications of inequitable attention to women’s health:
Women have been over-medicated and had excessive side effects because they were given dosages based on studies conducted only on males.
Women are underdiagnosed for cardiovascular disease (CVD), one of the most common causes of death for women, because symptoms differ between men and women.
Women receive delayed diagnosis and substandard treatment for other conditions they are disproportionately affected by, like chronic pain disorders and autoimmune diseases such as lupus.
Inequities and Pain
In general, women’s pain is not taken as seriously as men’s. The November 2025 NIH article reveals that the time it takes to receive treatment after being diagnosed is longer for women than for men, meaning that it takes longer for women to receive pain relief.
This problem is worse for women of color. Another NIH study demonstrated evidence that “physicians focused less on the pain of Black/African and Asian patients compared to White patients.” This was regardless of gender. But the fact that women of color are in two groups where pain dismissal is prevalent puts them at greater risk of pain dismissal and a lack of compassionate, adequate care.
Inequities and Women of Color, Especially African American Women
The intersectionality of social constructs makes inequitable healthcare practices worse for women of color, especially black women.
Black and Latina women are more likely to be diagnosed with STIs than white women. However, black women have more sexual and reproductive health conditions than women of other groups and ethnicities. Black women have more pregnancy-related deaths than other women and higher infant mortality than whites.
Although more women die of cardiovascular disease than men, black women have a higher chance than other races and ethnicities of dying from not only CVD, but also from lupus, high blood pressure, stroke, and multiple types of cancer. As a matter of fact, white women are more likely to get breast cancer, but more black women who do develop breast cancer die from it.
Black women face more barriers to healthcare, including accessibility issues like a lack of local hospitals, affordable and high-quality medical services, and more medical debt.
Considering the disproportionate challenges black women encounter, like the scarcity of affordable resources in black communities that could mitigate illness, such as healthy food and exercise facilities, it is easy to conclude that “racism and other stressors may be much stronger predictors of poor health than individual choices or genetic differences.”
This is why autonomy and advocacy are so important for us as women and those who support us.
Autonomy, Empowerment, Advocacy and Access
It is time to take back our voices and use them not only shamelessly to report how we feel, but also to ensure that we are taken seriously. This may mean several things, from asking more questions and shopping around until we find a physician who makes us feel comfortable, to getting a second opinion. What it certainly means is not allowing our concerns to be minimized, belittled, or dismissed!
For women of color, especially black women, it also means seeking out and getting involved in initiatives that promote equitable changes in our neighborhoods. This may include participating in studies that focus on our needs.
All of us — both women and men — can exercise our advocacy by participating in activities that change policies or getting involved in other practical and sustainable strategies.
Having our voices dismissed in any way, especially when it comes to our health, affects not only our ability to get the help we need but also our self-efficacy and self-esteem. It can create a sense of powerlessness and compromise our overall physical, mental, and sexual health.
Autonomy over our health means the freedom to make informed choices. It encompasses many things, from physical to mental to sexual and reproductive health. It includes access to prevention, information, and culturally competent providers and resources.
Here are some facilities you can check out and see if they work for you:
Find out more about sexual health and resources in our article: Sexual Health Access: Breaking Barriers in Our Communities.
LaShonda Tucker
LaShonda Tucker is a freelance writer, poet, and spoken word artist in Atlanta. When she isn't writing, she enjoys playing her violin. She earned her master's degrees from the University of Georgia and Kennesaw State University, and her bachelor's degree in English from the University of Michigan.
