It may be 2023, but there's a whole heap of common medical diagnoses you're probably more likely to miss just because you're a woman.

Sounds like an exaggeration, we know – but it's true. It really is.

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And there are a few reasons for this. One is a lack of research into these health issues. Another is the history of gendered notions and stigmas that cloud possible symptoms and diagnosis. Then there's the fact that many women find it embarrassing to talk about not only their sexual health, but their mental health too.

The result? A lost generation of women going through life struggling with undiagnosed conditions.

"It’s true that many diagnoses are often delayed and missed when it comes to mental health, and for women there are definitely certain conditions that fly below the radar both mentally and physically," said medical doctor and psychiatry resident Dr Kieran Kennedy.

"From a more general perspective, diagnoses that impact mental health and the brain are often missed and delayed. There’s a continued stigma that clouds how we think and feel about mental health, and so whether it’s depression, anxiety or autism it’s been so common for myself as a psychiatric doctor to meet women who’ve struggled to reach out for help or who’ve been given the wrong diagnosis when they have."

So, we want to create a discussion.

Here, we take a deeper look into why some common health conditions are tougher to diagnose in women – including what we should look out for.

ADD and ADHD.

Heard of these conditions? Yeah? Do you know how common it is for adult women to be diagnosed with them?

Because for decades, the signs of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and attention deficit disorder (ADD) in girls have been missed.

"With stigma comes silence and misunderstanding, and particularly for women conditions like autism and ADHD have often been misinterpreted as other diagnoses or been thought of as things that don’t affect them," said Dr Kennedy.

Emmeline, a podcast producer atMamamia, was diagnosed with ADD when she was 28 years old.

"It came about when I had just gotten a contract at a big tech company, which involved me learning lots of new procedures and concepts, and I found I was having trouble retaining information and focusing."

"It reminded me of being at school again, where I really struggled to concentrate, even though I was determined to be a 'good student'. I can remember as young as kindergarten getting in trouble for 'daydreaming', aka staring out the window, unable to concentrate. I started reading about ADD and a lot of of the symptoms matched mine, so I spoke to my psychologist and my GP, who referred me to a psychiatrist," Emmeline adds.

Hannah, a pharmaceutical researcher and beauty influencer, was diagnosed with ADHD at 31 years old. "I weep for all the women out there that sought help and were denied the medical care they asked for. Because they’re absolutely out there. I was one of them. The school reports saying, 'Intelligent but needs to apply herself'? Yeah. That was me."

However, Emmeline and Hannah's stories are among many. They certainly aren't uncommon.

Cause here's the thing. The stereotypes of ADD and ADHD very much still exist. Like, what do you picture when you think of someone with ADD or ADHD?

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Chances are, your perception fits in with the 'naughty boy syndrome'. When you think of ADHD, you probably think of that hyper boy from primary school who was couldn't sit still, couldn't focus, liked to have all the attention on him, right?

C'mon, it's true.

But the fact is, ADD and ADHD is not just a boy problem. Not in the slightest. It's far from it.

New evidence suggests that it likely affects males and females equally, but that girls are far less likely to be diagnosed.

Why? Because the symptoms for ADD and ADHD can lookverydifferent in girls. This is partly because their symptoms tend to lean more toward inattentiveness and disorganisation. They also mask it more than boys, in an attempt to appear organised and in control.

We're just going to leave this [extremely relevant] TikTok here:

A study also found that parents, in their own ratings, seemed to play down girls' hyperactive and impulsive symptoms, while playing up those of boys.

"Gendered notions of illness and diagnosis is something that’s followed medicine throughout its history – but when it comes to mental health, this has all too often been blown far beyond what the science really shows," said Dr Kennedy.

"Whether it’s that men don’t struggle with depression or that girls don’t become hyperactive or suffer from ADHD, there are conditions we’ve come to wrongly label in the past as affecting one sex or the other," he said.

"Another factor at play is that medicine and mental health aren’t blankets of the same struggles or symptoms – a mixture of genetics, biology, gender pressure and culture can all impact how men and women present when it comes to certain illnesses."

When it comes to Emmeline's case, her symptoms of ADD were categorised as just a part of her personality, or worse, considered as character flaws.

"In retrospect I did show symptoms of this as a child, but they weren't picked up on. My mum was surprised by my diagnosis, because she didn't see my lack of concentration or daydreaming as a problem that needed to be fixed, just a part of my personality, which I actually appreciate," said Emmeline.

"However no teachers ever brought it up either, and sometimes my lack of understanding or focus seemed to be dismissed as me not caring, which definitely wasn't the case."

But what does all this actually mean for us women and girls?

Well, right now these disorders are currently being diagnosed in women in higher-than-ever rates.

"It’s now thought that a significant part as to the difference in diagnosis rates (which have traditionally shown these to be conditions that primarily affect boys and men) come down to the fact that these conditions don’t present exactly the same in men and women, alongside stereotypes having sidetracked medicine from picking these up in girls early on," said Dr Kennedy.

According to a study inThe Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder went up a whopping 55 per cent for girls between 2003 and 2011.

In those same eight years, 40 per cent more boys were diagnosed. Among women ages 26 to 34, ADHD prescriptions shot up 85 per cent between 2008 and 2012 alone.

How insane is that?

The bigger issue though, is that many of these girls grow up not knowing they're suffering from ADHD, leading to questions about why they don't think and act like their peers, which can take a toll on their mental health – often triggering self-esteem issues.

It seems that being diagnosed with ADD or ADHD as an adult woman is both a blessing and a curse – while it's a great relief, many women wonder if their life would be different had they been diagnosed earlier. Because when you think about it, many of these women have spent years trying to manage (or hide) this condition on their own.

For example, Emmeline said she found it validating to know she hadn't really been falling behind her peers, but that she was dealing with an actual condition.

"The diagnosis was a relief. I'd always assumed I was not very smart, which is why I didn't do well in my HSC, struggled to read a book as an adult, etc," she said.

"It took a while to get on the right medication, and I've only started taking them recently, so I'm not sure of the effect they're going to have for me yet. But so far they've help ease the braindead slump I get at about 2pm every day. I'm just going to take my doctor's advice with them very carefully and monitor how I feel," she added.

Similarly to Emmeline, Hannah said her diagnosis finally revealed some answers to so many aspects of her behaviour.

"I sought help because I felt like I was constantly drowning in tasks and emails. Many, many behaviours I’d previously explained away (or hidden) were revealed to be coping mechanisms or symptoms. So many," she said.

So, where does this all leave us? Well, Dr Kennedy said that understanding that the problem exists in the first place is a good start. He said that creating greater awareness around the symptoms of ADD and ADHD in women is a step forward to ensuring these conditions do not go undiagnosed and overlooked.

"All of the above comes together as a bit of a perfect storm for girls and young women suffering these conditions – a mixture of biology, different symptom profiles, stereotypes and culture means that many young women receive a diagnosis much later than their male counterparts.

"Thankfully, new research, greater awareness and a push to correct unequal outcomes when it comes to gender means this trend is changing!"

Autism.

Autism spectrum disorder (or ASD) is a range of mental conditions that affect how people communicate, socialise and interact with the world.

To give you an idea of just how common it is, according to the World Health Organization, it's estimated that 1 in 160 children worldwide has an ASD. And much like ADD and ADHD, there is a huge disparity in diagnoses by gender.

A big factor at play is the fact that a lot of research that has gone into autism is actually male-based, with female participants often excluded. This means a lot about what we know of autism, is in fact about autism in males.

According to Autism Awareness Australia, the diagnostic criteria for ASD is based largely in how autism presents in males, meaning girls can often 'slip under the radar' or get misdiagnosed.

"Conditions like autism often present differently in girls and younger women compared to males, and in different numbers – it’s important to point out that medically this is due to a difference in genetics and biology that makes males more susceptible (i.e. for every four boys diagnosed with autism, there is one girl)."

Like ADD and ADHD, the symptoms associated with autism in girls and women also differ between those shown in boys and men.

"A mixture of factors also appear to show that conditions like autism and ADHD present differently in young men vs young women, however boys and young men are more likely to present with factors that are more observable (such as agitation or aggression), which has traditionally led to more referrals and thus chances for diagnosis."

To top it off, women tend to have a different style of talking about medical symptoms than men do, said Dr Kennedy.

"Women with Autism, ADHD and other neurodevelopmental conditions have been found to more often than not suffer with symptoms that might easily 'fly below the radar' – more subtle changes in cognition, attention, emotions and behaviour mean girls and young women are less likely to present to specialists for referral or come to the attention of a doctor in the first place. In the past many, too, have been misdiagnosed."

One person who flew below the radar as a child is Dee. She's a mother of two, and she was diagnosed with the autism disorder when she was 38.

"This came about as a result of having two children already diagnosed with autism and realising that a) we had a lot of sensory stuff in common and b) that autism is highly hereditary," said Dee.

Like many young girls dealing with autism, Dee said she grew up masking or hiding her autism symptoms by taking cues from her peers and people around her.

"I, like a lot of women and girls on the spectrum, 'masked' a lot of my behaviours. This is when we take note of how neurotypical people react to situations and put a mask of social acceptance on top of what our true thoughts or desires are," said Dee.

"This can mean that we come across quite 'neurotypical', but it’s exhausting and draining to mask. Once I was out of the situation that I had to mask in, such as school, I would need a lot of downtime, or become extremely upset and react in an angry or upset way towards my family. It was very difficult for me during adolescence to develop a true sense of who I was, as I felt that whatever it was, wasn’t normal and wasn’t right."

Since her diagnosis, Dee sai