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A Gallup and Pivotal report found that 51% of women surveyed said a health care provider had minimized, misdiagnosed or ignored them, compared with 39% of men. Women also more often reported having to advocate for their health and delaying care because of family responsibilities. The supplied report does not include its survey dates, sample size or full methodology.
A Gallup and Pivotal report says 51% of women surveyed had been minimized, misdiagnosed or ignored by a health care provider, compared with 39% of men. The findings point to differences in reported treatment and access to care, though the supplied report summary does not state when the survey was conducted or how many people took part.
The report also found that 42% of women said they had to advocate for their health in the past five years, compared with 26% of men. Separately, 42% of women said their health had prevented them from doing everything they wanted in life during that period, compared with 35% of men. These are survey responses and describe participants’ reported experiences; they do not establish why the differences occurred.
Family responsibilities were associated with delayed care in the findings described to Motherly. Women with children were more likely than women without children to say they had skipped or delayed care because of family responsibilities: 18% versus 12%. Melinda French Gates, whose organizations founded Pivotal, told Motherly that one in six women in the survey said they had delayed their own care to spend time caring for family. The article does not provide the exact question wording or clarify how that figure relates to the comparison by parental status.
Health professionals interviewed by Motherly described possible contributing factors, including gaps in research and clinician training, as well as bias in how symptoms are interpreted. Jennifer Gularson, a physician assistant, said women may have multiple symptoms treated separately or be told that results appear normal. Psychotherapist Kara Kushnir said women of color can face particular effects of bias. These are expert perspectives, not findings that the survey itself proves causation.
Reported Dismissal Can Delay Care
Being dismissed or receiving an incorrect diagnosis can leave a patient without answers and may make it harder to seek follow-up care. The report’s figures suggest that women more often than men described those experiences and the need to press for care. They also show how caregiving duties can compete with appointments: among respondents, women with children more often reported skipping or delaying care for family responsibilities than women without children.
The Motherly article highlights postpartum care as one setting where symptoms may be attributed to the demands of new parenthood. Gularson told the publication that anxiety, exhaustion and feeling unlike oneself can be brushed aside as ordinary effects of having a baby. The article also cites a figure that more than 67% of pregnancy-related deaths occur after birth, with most occurring between one week and one year postpartum. The supplied material does not identify the source or date for that statistic, so it should be read as background cited by the article, not as a result of the Gallup-Pivotal survey.
Research Gaps Shape Clinical Care
The experts quoted by Motherly connect current care concerns to a longer history of women being underrepresented in medical research. Gularson said that limited research and training affect the evidence available to clinicians and how they are prepared to recognize symptoms. She pointed to perimenopause and menopause as areas where clinicians may receive little training and treatment guidance has changed over time.
That history is relevant context, but it does not by itself explain the survey’s reported gender gap. The summary provided for this article gives headline percentages and expert commentary, but does not include the full report, survey dates, sample size, respondent demographics or question wording. Those details are needed to assess the findings’ scope and how well they represent the wider population.
““By the time many women come to me, they’ve already seen two or three clinicians looking for answers.””
— Jennifer Gularson, physician assistant, speaking to Motherly
Survey Methods Are Not Provided
The supplied material does not state the survey dates, sample size, methodology or precise wording behind the reported percentages. It is also unclear how respondents were recruited and whether the results were weighted to reflect the population. Without those details, readers cannot determine the findings’ margins of error or how broadly they apply.
The percentages show what respondents reported, but they do not establish that gender alone caused differences in treatment, or identify which clinical settings and conditions were involved. The report summary also does not break down the findings by race, income, insurance status, disability or other factors that could shape access and care.
Full Report Could Add Detail
The next step for readers seeking to evaluate the findings is the full Gallup-Pivotal report and its methodology. The Motherly article cites the report but the supplied source material does not say whether Gallup or Pivotal has announced additional data, recommendations or follow-up research.
For now, the reported figures establish a difference in survey responses and frame questions about provider communication, research and access to appointments. Whether further analysis will explain the causes, or show how experiences vary among groups of women, remains unknown from the information provided.
Key Questions
What did the Gallup-Pivotal report find?
51% of women surveyed said a provider had minimized, misdiagnosed or ignored them, compared with 39% of men, according to the figures reported by Motherly.
How many women said they had to advocate for their health?
42% of women said they had advocated for their health in the previous five years, compared with 26% of men, as described in the report summary.
Did the report explain why women reported these experiences more often?
The reported percentages do not establish a cause. Experts interviewed by Motherly pointed to possible influences such as research gaps, clinician training and bias, but those explanations are commentary rather than proven causes in the survey findings.
What did the report say about mothers’ access to care?
Women with children were more likely than women without children to report skipping or delaying care because of family responsibilities: 18% compared with 12%, according to the article.
Are the survey methods available in the supplied report summary?
No. The supplied material does not give the survey dates, sample size, methodology or question wording, which limits how fully the findings can be assessed.
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