Dismissed, misdiagnosed: women report a broken path to care

Clinical takeaway: Women often arrive carrying negative care experiences; taking symptoms seriously and naming next steps address the failures they cite most. 

A woman who brings a new symptom to her physician is asking for two things: to be believed, and to leave with a plan. For many, the visit delivers neither. Women describe clinicians who minimize their concerns, appointments that end without answers, and advice from one provider that contradicts another's. 

Most measures of women's healthcare ask whether care is available: who is insured, who can afford a visit, who lives near a clinic. Far less is measured once a woman is in the room, where being heard and getting a timely answer decide whether care works. A new Gallup survey conducted with Pivotal, a group founded by philanthropist Melinda French Gates, asks that second question. It finds the trouble concentrated inside the encounter itself, tied to limits women describe across work, family, and community life. 

Half of women (51%) reported at least one problem with their care over the past five years, against 39% of men, in the July online survey of 3,845 women and 1,296 men. A provider minimized or dismissed their symptoms, 34% said; 33% were misdiagnosed or unable to get a diagnosis, 31% could not get the answers they needed, and 25% received conflicting recommendations. Women were also far more likely to report having to speak up or advocate for their own health, 42% versus 26% of men. Cost added its own barrier, the most common one women named: 32% skipped or delayed needed care in the past year, versus 25% of men. 

The wait for answers also ran much too long. Among women diagnosed with their most recent condition, 47% waited three months or longer, and 22% waited a year or more. Men reported shorter waits, and Gallup's analysis finds the gap persists even between men and women diagnosed with the same types of conditions, pointing to a difference in how the two experience the system rather than in what they bring to it. Among women who experienced a health condition, 30% said they had to push to be taken seriously or to receive treatment. The information often failed to arrive as well: among women who sought contraception, 56% said they had to do much of their own research to make informed decisions, and 41% said providers do not always share all available options. 

Women who said a provider dismissed their symptoms were far more likely to say health kept them from doing everything they wanted, 59% versus 36% of women never dismissed. Among women in the workforce, 42% said health had limited their careers, and roughly a third said health made caring for themselves harder, with caring for family and staying involved in the community close behind. 

"Women have been saying for years that the healthcare system is not meeting their needs, but systems don't change without meaningful data. With this survey we can put numbers behind women's experiences and show the real cost of that neglect across their lives, families, workplaces and communities," said French Gates. "When women cannot get the care, information and support they need, it limits their opportunity and their ability to live up to their full potential. Women deserve better, and this data is an urgent call to action across sectors to help deliver it." 

The burden fell unevenly: one in four women rated their physical health as fair or poor, rising to 35% of Black women and 28% of Hispanic women versus 22% of White women. Work and career impacts also broke along race and income lines: 49% of Black women and 45% of Hispanic women reported one, versus 40% of White women. Income cut deeper still: 54% of women in households earning under $50,000 reported a work or career impact, versus 33% at $100,000 or more. 

The pattern concentrated at midlife. Roughly three-quarters of women aged 45 to 54 reported current or past symptoms of perimenopause or menopause, and about one-quarter seeking treatment for those symptoms had to push to be taken seriously or see multiple providers before anyone addressed them. Just over half of women with symptoms had received a diagnosis, and 37% first learned about menopause only when their own symptoms began. 

Gallup's conclusion is blunt: the problem isn't only whether women can get care, but what happens once they do. Symptoms taken seriously, clear next steps, and a timely diagnosis don't require new coverage or new clinics. They require the visit itself to work. 

Source: Marken S, et al. (2026 Sep 18) Gallup. Women's Healthcare Barriers Extend Into Work and Family Life