Women suffering from autoimmune conditions are significantly more likely than men to be told their physical symptoms are psychological, while facing much longer delays before receiving proper care, according to a major new study. The research, published in the journal Lancet eClinicalMedicine, surveyed more than 6,600 patients and revealed a persistent gender gap in how doctors interpret and treat chronic illness.
Such autoimmune diseases—disorders where the body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue—affect roughly one in ten people worldwide, causing chronic symptoms such as severe fatigue, joint pain, and rashes. Because these conditions often present with common symptoms that do not always appear on standard visual examinations, diagnosing them is notoriously complex. However, researchers from the University of Cambridge and the University of East Anglia found that female patients encounter distinct hurdles. Even after adjusting for age, household finances, and disease groups, women were 46% more likely than men to report receiving a psychiatric misdiagnosis and 74% more likely to be told their symptoms were psychosomatic.
These diagnostic errors directly contributed to prolonged waits for essential treatment. While male patients most commonly received a diagnosis within three months of noticing symptoms, the most typical wait time for women stretched to between one and two years, requiring far more medical consultations. Among female participants, common conditions included autoimmune thyroid diseases such as Hashimoto's and Graves' disease, as well as systemic lupus.
Researchers warned that repeatedly dismissing physical symptoms as stress or emotional distress can severely damage patients' self-esteem and undermine their trust in healthcare providers. Lead author Melanie Sloan noted that mental health explanations are frequently offered prematurely, emphasizing that doctors must take invisible symptoms seriously and avoid assuming that unexplained physical pain is psychological.