“I was diagnosed with PTSD from my pain not being believed. Even when a healthcare expert confirmed my condition, I struggled to trust them” — Marcia, woman with endometriosis.
When women approach your health brand, some carry invisible scars from medical encounters that went badly wrong. Not as a metaphor. As a clinical reality. The woman who feels something is not right but is dismissed by a healthcare professional, left second-guessing herself. Is this all in my head?
Medical gaslighting is a phrase increasingly used and searched for — Google Trends data shows a sustained rise over the past five years, with “women’s health medical gaslighting” emerging as a growing subtopic. Harvard Medical School defines it as when healthcare professionals “invalidate or ignore a patient’s concerns.” Being dismissed once or twice is frustrating. Experienced over years, it can cause medical trauma — psychological distress rooted in healthcare encounters that failed the patient.
Women who have experienced being dismissed, disbelieved, or given delayed diagnoses may evaluate your solution through a lens of past disappointment and distrust. Think women with chronic conditions like endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome, or chronic pain, where the journey to diagnosis can involve years of having symptoms minimised or questioned.Battling to be believed
Marcia began experiencing heavy, painful periods at age 11. Despite years of being told to get on with it, she realised by age 40 that her experience was not normal. After persistent self-advocacy, she was diagnosed with endometriosis and adenomyosis, leading to a hysterectomy with removal of her ovaries.But this did not resolve her pain.
“It felt like my insides were stuck together and being pulled down. The pain was sharp and stabbing, and got worse on sitting. I’d gone from having a few bad period pains to the most excruciating pain I’ve ever been in.”
Her gynaecologist dismissed her continued symptoms, saying they could not be related to endometriosis since her ovaries had been removed. Five years later, a specialist using ultrasound to detect endometriosis confirmed deep infiltrating endometriosis in her vaginal vault. “
He said, ‘You must be in excruciating pain with that.’ And I was like, yes, that’s what I’ve been telling everyone.”She underwent corrective surgery, but recovery was lengthy and complicated by mental health challenges including PTSD. “I didn’t trust medics about anything and I didn’t like being in a room with a medic because I just felt very anxious and felt unsettled and unnerved by it all.”When women like Marcia encounter generic, overpromising health messaging, their defences rise. They have heard it all before.
Trauma-informed communication in practice
Understanding this is the first step. Translating it into how you communicate is the work.
1. Reframe your language from fixing to supporting
Women who have experienced medical trauma often report feeling broken or blamed for their conditions. Marketing language that focuses on fixing women or solving their problems unintentionally echoes the dismissive encounters they have already lived through. Review your website copy and replace problem-focused language with supportive framing. The shift from “We fix your hormonal issues” to “We support you through hormonal changes” is small in word count and significant in effect. Consider how phrases like “We believe you” and “Your experience matters” can be incorporated meaningfully — not as slogans, but as a genuine signal of where you stand.
2. Show the real journey, not just the destination
Medical trauma often involves a prolonged, uncertain path to diagnosis or treatment. When brands show only resolved, happy outcomes they erase the difficult reality many women are still living. Include testimonials that acknowledge the challenges along the way. Create content that addresses uncertainty and setbacks, not just success. Avoid before-and-after narratives that compress complex health journeys into a tidy arc.
3. Build safety signals into your digital experience
Women with medical trauma are constantly scanning health environments for signals of safety or danger. Your digital presence can either trigger past experience or demonstrate that you understand.Add clear explanations before asking for personal information. Provide transparent guidance on what happens next at each stage. Include exit options and visible consent mechanisms throughout user pathways. And test your digital experience with women who have lived through medical gaslighting — not just with users who have not.
Start with FAQs
A useful first audit: read your FAQ section as a woman who a healthcare provider has previously dismissed. Are you answering the questions women are actually asking, or the ones you wish they were asking? Adding a single FAQ that acknowledges common concerns about trust, privacy, or the validity of symptoms costs nothing and signals a great deal.
The underlying question to ask is – how would your brand communications change if you assumed that every woman interacting with you had previously been dismissed by a healthcare provider? That assumption is not far from the truth. And the brands that build from it will communicate — and be trusted — differently from those that do not.