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Paper short abstract

The paper exposes the barriers to diagnosis and treatment of maternal diseases, exposing the epistemic and technological politics behind them and the ways they inform medical practice. It provides recommendations for improving access to health care for these neglected and contested conditions.

Paper long abstract

Women’s health has historically been under-researched. Medical studies have excluded female participants from research into common diseases (cancer, cardiovascular etc.) and have relied on results of trials from male participants to draw conclusions as to female patients regarding their treatment needs, efficacy of drugs, and side effects.

Maternal health comprises a set of female only conditions, which are also under-researched. Conditions such as menopause, endometriosis, fibroids, to name but a few, have been neglected in terms of health research and care services.

The main aim of this paper is to expose some of the barriers to diagnosis and treatment of such maternal health conditions. More specifically, it will analyse these barriers by exposing the epistemic and technological politics behind them and explain how they inform gender discrimination. Further, it will link these to bias in clinical trials and drug development, diagnostic infrastructures (or the absence of them), as well as the dominant clinical practice, which is typically characterised by stigmatisation, dismissal, and obstetric violence (understood as gender-based violence that comprises a range of attitudes and practices female patients come up against in medical settings and in the context of gynaecological examination).

The paper will provide evidence of good practices at EU level and recommendations for raising awareness of these neglected conditions, stressing the urgency to involve female patients in research, as well as the necessity for holistic education and training which will enable practitioners to become more aware of the epidemiology, pathophysiology and psychological aspects of maternal health.