Sidelined: How Women Can Navigate a Broken Healthcare System

by Susan Salenger

Overview

DON'T MAKE ANOTHER HEALTHCARE DECISION WITHOUT READING THIS BOOK.

Learn how to navigate a broken healthcare system.


"I told my doctors about my pain for years, but they told me it was all in my head..."

"My doctor said I needed a hysterectomy to relieve my symptoms that I was sure were just normal menopause. Unfortunately, I agreed to the surgery anyway. Why did I agree to that?”

"If men had cramps, they'd have cured this by now..."

These and countless other comments from women who've suffered at the hands of the healthcare industry are frighteningly common, but they don't have to be.

Sidelined describes how our healthcare system has marginalized women and made it seemingly impossible for them to take control over their own healthcare. But what's behind this nationwide medical crisis?

In Sidelined, writer and researcher Susan Salenger explains why women are misdiagnosed more often than men, and why their symptoms often go unrecognized or are even disputed.

This book teaches women how to ask the right questions to get the care they deserve. It equips readers with the knowledge, language, and tools they need to overcome the gender bias in the medical industry and get the best healthcare possible.

Praise for Sidelined

“A well-written and empowering work about the challenges facing female patients.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“Good guidance for turbulent times.”
—Library Journal

2022 Living Now Book Awards Silver Medalist

2022 Best Books of 2022 Forward Reviews

2022 Indiebookawards Gold Medalist

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647424015
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	04/12/2022
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Susan Salenger is the author and researcher behind Sidelined: How Women Manage & Mismanage Their Health. Sidelined examines the many ways in which some women manage and sometimes mismanage their healthcare.     

Susan explores how women, typically the medical gatekeepers for their families, tend to be extremely conscientious about taking care of themselves, yet at the same time inadvertently undermine their own care.  Born and raised in Los Angeles, Susan attended UCLA to study English. After graduation, she worked alongside her husband Fred for 25 years at their production company, Salenger Films, which produced corporate training and development films distributed worldwide.    

Today, at age 79, Susan lives in Northern California to be near her incredible family which includes her two daughters, four grandchildren, a cat named Max and a dog named JD (Salenger). When she is not speaking about her book or spending time with family and friends, you will find Susan power lifting to stay in shape.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Why Did I Agree To That? ix

Why This Book Hatters

Chapter 1 "After You" 1

Putting Others' Needs Before Our Own

Chapter 2 Nice Girls Finish Last 17

Our Reluctance to Question Our Doctor's Advice

Chapter 3 Turning Inward 39

Blaming Ourselves for Getting Sick

Chapter 4 Medical Crosstalk 57

"What We Have is a Failure to Communicate"

Chapter 5 My Body, My Self 77

The Role of Emotions in Recovery

Chapter 6 Pills for Every Ill 93

Captives of the Pharmaceutical Industry

Chapter 7 An Unfortunate History 115

"A House Full of Daughters is Like a Cellar Full of Sour Beer"

Epilogue: Where Are They Now? 135

Moving On

Acknowledgments 143

Resource Directory 145

Endnotes 157

Bibliography 169

About the Author 201

Editorial Reviews

2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner in Health/Wellness (Non-Fiction)
2023 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Women’s Issues (Non-Fiction)
2022 Foreword INDIES Book Awards Bronze Winner in Health (Adult Nonfiction)
2022 Living Now Book Awards Silver Medalist in Sexuality/Femininity

“A well-written and empowering work about the challenges facing female patients.” 
—Kirkus Reviews

“Good guidance for turbulent times.”

—Library Journal

“Simply wonderful! An indispensable resource for women who have ever felt daunted by their interactions with caregivers.”
—Carole Browner, PhD, MPH, Distinguished research professor at UCLA’s Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior and the Departments of Anthropology and Gender Studies

“Why do so many women have difficulty feeling heard and understood when they visit their doctor? Why are they misdiagnosed more frequently and later than men—even when their symptoms are exactly the same? And why do they suffer more side effects than men from the medications they're prescribed Sidelined helps to answer those questions. Backed by extensive research, part memoir, part personal stories, this excellent and informative book offers a voice to those women who have been told (and believed) that their symptoms are ‘all in their head.’ It provides a useful road map on how to get the most effective healthcare and will be a valuable resource for all women interested in improving the quality of their healthcare and making more fully informed decisions.”
—Robbie Davis-Floyd PhD, author of Birth as an American Rite of Passage and Ways of Knowing about Birth: Mothers, Midwives, Medicine, and Birth Activism

“Enjoyable to read and meticulously researched, Sidelined offers profound insights into the unique challenges women face as they handle their healthcare. Salenger includes personal narratives and mines the rich fields of psychology, sociology, anthropology, medical history, and current medical research to think deeply about what women need to know to take the most effective care of themselves. This is definitely a book every woman (and every doctor) should read!”

—Jill Warburton, PsyD, Berkeley, CA

“I absolutely loved reading Susan Salenger’s Sidelined. I found it extremely fascinating as well as informative, giving insights into the imbalance of medical treatment when it comes to gender and age. This is not only a book for women but men as well opening up the understanding of the female psyche in conjunction with understanding ourselves and our relationship with medical care.  It’s a great read it is filled with fascinating research, history, and an incredible resource directory. I was so embraced in by it I read it in one sitting. I highly recommend this book and its author.”
—Nancy Lombardo, host of What’s the BuzzNY Blog Talk Radio 




“Sidelined is a book I immediately asked my wife to read because it is so beautifully written and well-researched. The essence of this book is succinctly captured in the sub-title — how women manage and mismanage their health. Readers will understand why women easily make the wrong choices when it comes to healthcare decisions and the social context in which such choices are made. They will understand that playing nice at times or putting others first may often do them a disservice. Sidelined teaches women a unique skill — the ability to take care of themselves properly so they can stay strong by their families. Most importantly, Salenger provides compelling insights and writes in a voice that is compassionate, and authoritative, and in prose that is simply gorgeous. Sidelined is the best gift anyone can give a woman.” 

—Romuald Dzemo, Book Commentary  




“Sidelined  is a thought-provoking and informative guide for women. The book describes how women manage the health of their families while simultaneously mismanage their personal health. The book also goes into what women can do to take charge of their health and medical issues. Sidelined  is an important book for women everywhere. It could also be a wake-up call or the motivation and inspiration that some women need to make sure they are heard at their next doctor's appointment. Women are often more concerned over the health of their children, going to as many doctors as needed and asking tons of questions until they get answers, but often they don't take that same care with their own health. This book might be just what the doctor ordered to take charge of our health once and for all.” 

 — Readers’ Favorite

From the Publisher

2022-02-23
A debut health book explores how and why women often receive inadequate medical care.

In this work, Salenger examines the individual and structural problems that often lead women to get insufficient health care, incorrect diagnoses, or unnecessary prescriptions. In separate chapters, the author identifies six broad reasons for improper treatment and looks at each in detail, both summarizing existing research and sharing stories from her own interviews with female patients. The book includes behavioral aspects (women tend to make their own care a low priority), structural problems (female patients’ symptoms are often dismissed or misunderstood), and economic forces (women are the primary targets of prescription drug advertising). Each chapter concludes with specific strategies that may help women advocate for themselves, express themselves in language familiar to medical professionals, and receive appropriate treatment. The work also addresses the unique challenges of women’s health (most patients with autoimmune diseases, which are difficult to diagnose, are women) and the subjective nature of medicine itself (doctors often draw different conclusions from the same data). Salenger has done an excellent job of compiling information on women’s health and how medicine is practiced. Each problem (for instance, diagnoses that differ based on a patient’s gender) is presented with citations that make it clear it is a systemic issue that goes beyond individual doctor-patient interactions—a genuine and widespread difficulty rather than a matter of miscommunication or hypochondria. The book is well written and easy for nonspecialists to follow, and Salenger’s tips for readers are useful suggestions that can realistically be implemented on an individual level. The volume’s one major shortcoming is its omission of trans women and nonbinary patients, as all the references appear to involve cisgender women. That aside, the work provides an excellent discussion of a widespread problem that has both individual and structural causes and remedies. The book tells a story that can be infuriating at times, but presents it in a nonpolemical way, demonstrating the scope of the issue while making it clear that a solution is possible.

A well-written and empowering work about the challenges facing female patients.

Kirkus Reviews