Mom Had To Fight For Her 7-Year-Old Daughter To Receive The Right Medical Treatment After Her Symptoms Were Dismissed
Her experience is unfortunately common for women of color.
didesign021 / Shutterstock Dealing with health challenges is a part of life for many. However, you don’t often hear of healthy children suddenly displaying unexplained symptoms.
When this happened to one little girl, she was lucky to have a strong mother on her side who wouldn’t take no for an answer.
The woman fought for her daughter’s symptoms to be taken seriously.
TikTok creator @nursebblay shared the story of her daughter’s difficult medical journey on her account. Blay, who is a wellness and rejuvenation nurse, found herself in the middle of the medical difficulties she often sees other patients deal with.
“If you’re the parent of a Black or Latina child, this message is for you,” she started her video. “My daughter, who was 7 years old at the time, started having symptoms of what seemed like early puberty to me — increased perspiration, hair growth, and just a little change in attitude. So, my husband and I decided we’re gonna take her into the pediatrician and have her checked out.”
It seemed like there was an easy answer to the problem. However, what the doctor said did not sit well with Blay.
“The pediatrician confirmed that, yes, this looks like early puberty, and if your daughter was Caucasian, we would order further testing and evaluations,” she explained. “But, because my daughter is Black, and Black and Latina girls go through puberty early, he felt nothing else was necessary.”
Blay and her husband were insistent that their daughter receive the medical care she needed. “We’re like, ‘No, we want to see a pediatric endocrinologist to make sure everything is OK,’” she recounted. “So the doctor got a little annoyed and said he would reach out and send me an email and let me know what [the endocrinologist] said."
Initially, the pediatric endocrinologist agreed with the little girl’s pediatrician that no further testing was necessary because of her ethnicity. This was unacceptable to Blay.
“I wrote back immediately stating that I wanted my daughter to be seen, and this was not OK, and I ended the email with these words: ‘I want my daughter to be treated based on her symptoms and not the color of her skin,’” Blay shared.
That got the doctors’ attention. “Shortly after, I would say the next day, I got an email from the doctor … So, we finally got an appointment to see a pediatric endocrinologist, and lab tests were ordered,” she continued.
When Blay and her family finally saw the endocrinologist, they couldn’t believe the information they received.
“When we got the results back, we were in shock because they were abnormal,” she said. “When we spoke to the pediatric endocrinologist, she informed us that she wants to be extra cautious, and she’s gonna order more lab tests and an MRI to check her adrenal glands.”
Blay’s daughter’s experience exemplifies that of many Black women.
Women notoriously have a harder time receiving the medical treatment they need, although evidence shows that they do seek it.
The Journal of Women’s Health stated, “Over 95.2% of men and 96.0% of women reported seeing a physician in the previous two years, indicating that men and women enter the medical system at a similar frequency. Once they are in the system, however, there is evidence that women received fewer physician services than men with similar health needs.”
While these statistics are concerning, the situation is even worse for Black women. The same journal found, “Black women in the United States have experienced substantial improvements in health during the last century, yet health disparities persist. These health disparities are in large part a reflection of the inequalities experienced by Black women on a host of social and economic measures.”
The medical system is clearly biased against women, especially women of color. This can be dangerous and, in some cases, deadly. Healthcare must strive to do better and stop failing these women, as not everyone has a mother who is informed and willing to fight the system.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news, and human interest topics.