Women Are NOT Men

One sentence from the 2026 Women’s Livelong Conference in San Francisco has refused to leave my thoughts for weeks, “Women Are NOT Men.”

At first it seemed so obvious, almost silly, but finally annoying. The more I sat with it, the more I realized why it struck such a deep chord with me. Because for much of my medical history, women have often been treated as though we are simply smaller versions of men.

That has always been disturbing and both short sighted and a lot rude. The older I get, the more I notice how often women instinctively know something feels “off” in their bodies looooong before medicine catches up.

Yet there is no denying that historically many women have been dismissed, misdiagnosed, told it is stress, told it is anxiety, told it is hormones, told to wait and see, told to see a shrink, or have a glass of wine and calm down, or often and most important, treated according to standards originally based largely on male bodies and male symptom patterns.

Even medication dosing has followed a frustrating “one size fits all” mentality. This medication dosing situation has bugged me from a very young age.

Meanwhile women’s bodies are incredibly dynamic and complex. Think hormones, metabolism, body composition, immune responses, pain responses, cardiovascular symptoms, aging patterns, the list goes on. Soooooo, NO, women are not simply men with lipstick and smaller shoes. Yet for years, much medical research largely centered around men because women’s hormonal cycles were considered “too complicated” to study clearly.

I say, “what the heck”? The very thing that makes women biologically unique was/is so very often treated as an inconvenience to research. Yikes! So no wonder many women feel unseen inside the healthcare system. What struck me most at the conference was not anger, oddly enough, it was validation.

I had this feeling of “Ahhh…so maybe women were not imagining this after all.” Maybe women have spent decades quietly sensing that their experiences, symptoms, responses, and realities were not always feeling understood.

I think this matters deeply as we age.

Many women were raised to minimize discomfort, push through exhaustion, never complain, care for everyone else first and above all, avoid being difficult.

BUT

An uncaged woman begins asking questions. Oh yes she does. She becomes curious, she trusts herself more, she ADVOCATES for her health, she learns her body, she seeks information and here is the cherry on the sundae, she stops automatically assuming authority always knows best.

Nope NOT because she becomes anti doctor. NOPE, she becomes pro herself. And to me that feels like a hugely important distinction.

And as for me, I am incredibly grateful for what modern medicine has to offer. (Mostly)

I also think women DESERVE the following:

• Research that includes them
• Symptom standards that reflect them
• Treatment plans that consider them
• Healthcare conversations where they genuinely feel heard.

WOMEN ARE NOT MEN

Perhaps it is about time the world fully recognized that truth not as an inconvenience. RATHER as essential wisdom.

An uncaged woman learns to trust the wisdom of her own body instead of constantly questioning whether her experiences are “real enough” to matter.

WOMEN MATTER

Uncaged,

Suz