Sex and gender differences in primary care help-seeking for common somatic symptoms: a longitudinal study 2023 Ballering, Rosmalen et al

Objective
Women are reported to consult general practitioners (GPs) more frequently than men. However, previous studies on sex differences in help-seeking behavior for somatic symptoms do not distinguish between sex and gender, do not account for sex differences in presented symptoms, and are frequently conducted in clinical settings, automatically excluding non-help seekers. Therefore, we aim to assess the independent associations of sex and gender with primary care help-seeking for somatic symptoms in the general population.

Design and setting
Records from the longitudinal population-based Lifelines Cohort Study were linked to routine electronic health records from GPs.

Subjects
Participants reporting new-onset common somatic symptoms.

Main outcome measures
Associations between sex and gender, operationalized via a novel gender-index, with primary care help-seeking for somatic symptoms and differences in the strength of the association between gender and help-seeking for somatic symptoms between women and men.

Results
Of 20,187 individuals with linked data, 8325 participants (67.5% female; mean age = 44.5 years [SD = 12.9]) reported at least one new-onset somatic symptom. Hereof, 255 (3.1%) consulted the GP within 6 weeks of symptom onset. Female sex was positively associated with consulting the GP (OR = 1.78; 95%CI = 1.13–2.80), whereas feminine gender was not (OR = 0.67; 95%CI = 0.39–1.16). The latter association did not differ in strength between men and women. More paid working days are negatively associated with help-seeking (OR = 0.95; 95%CI = 0.91–0.98).

Conclusions
The results suggest that female sex rather than feminine gender is associated with primary care help-seeking behavior for somatic symptoms. Nevertheless, clinicians should be aware that gender-related variables, such as mean paid working days, may be associated with help-seeking behavior.

Open access, https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02813432.2023.2191653

 

Once I dated a guy who, when being offered vegetarian options at a restaurant etc, tended to say: I am a man, I eat meat. And there was this other time when I was drinking a glass of beer and the guy I was talking to looked at me with horror, said that women should never drink beer, took my glass away and bought me a cocktail instead. Maybe it is that kind of logic. If you eat salad and like gin and tonic, you better go and start identifying as female.

 

Makes me think of the 'meat and potatoes guy' theory.

 

Is it possible that you had accidentally time travelled to the 1970s?

 

Does that mean that a man with ME, a predominantly female condition, should identify as female?

 

Possibly! Maybe I should do it again, find young Simon Wessely and warn him that this whole CFS thing he will have an interest in in the future, will really not turn out the way he will expect it to and it is really not worth bothering with it.

 

I've never heard of that. I grew up being fed meat and potatoes quite often, although there was never enough meat and there was far too much potato for my liking.

 

@Arnie Pye

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=meat and potatoes man

 

Wow, sounds like a recipe for an abusive relationship and a life of doing all the housework, all the cooking, all the child rearing, as well as having a full time job.

 

I then wondered whether foods in French and German share the same gender, but, of course, you’d also have to factor in the foods in German which are neuter too.
Then also add in all the other languages that use masculine/feminine

Oh dear, failed at first my first, easiest, example - “the apple”

Der Apfel (m)

La pomme (f)

 

I’ve often thought exactly the same @NelliePledge when I’ve seen those adverts.

Not cancer worries, but heart - I’ve had increasing concerns over a racing heart beat on exertion (or even sitting quietly on the sofa with my legs up). Following 2 years with a Fitbit to “prove” the phenomenon, I eventually persuaded myself to ask my GP for a second referral for PoTS investigations again last year - after being gaslit by a Consultant in 2017 (I knew he had now retired to private work).

 

Interestingly the person doing the eating seems to be masculine in both French and German

• le mangeur
  
• le consommateur
  
• der Verbraucher
  
• der Verbraucher

Does gender change according to action, are we all gender fluid as we flow through the day?

 

These nouns in German can be turned into feminine (eg der Verkäufer, die Verkäuferin, etc) and I checked and die Verbraucherin seems to exist too.

Things are not always so clear though, das Mädchen (the girl) is neuter for example.

 

Then I guess in German as in English the actor is treated as male, unless otherwise specified: a generic person is ‘he’ whereas a specific individual is ‘he’ or ‘she’ as appropriate. That’s a shame as as I quite liked the idea of everyone shifting continuously between genders.

 

A few years ago I had a copious GI bleed. It went on for several years. Initially I was worried that I might have cancer. But due to the total incompetence and disbelief I met with I thought I might bleed to death or die of heart failure before diagnosis because the bleeding was getting worse and worse. It took three hospitals three and a half years to find the source of that bleed (a 4cm polyp with very fragile blood vessels). There was no urgency from anyone. I bought my GP records after that and discovered that a doctor at the first hospital I had been seen by had minimised what I said to "Patient has bleeding piles".