It's Not Hysteria: Everything You Need to Know About Your Reproductive Health (But Were Never Told)

by Karen Tang

Several recent studies have demonstrated that unconscious biases still exist in the treatment of Black patients, particularly Black women. Black patients are consistently undertreated for pain; they receive less pain medication than white patients do for objectively painful conditions such as broken bones and appendicitis. Black patients are less likely to be offered minimally invasive surgery for the treatment of fibroids and they experience higher rates of complications from surgery. A 2016 study showed that half of the medical students and residents polled believed that Black people had less sensitive nerve endings, thicker skin, and lower perception of pain than white people, which has no basis in scientific fact.