Women across Catalonia are often diagnosed years later than men for a range of health conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. Medical experts say the gap is linked not only to symptoms being missed, but also to long-standing bias in healthcare and research.
One case cited by doctors involved Pilar, a 70-year-old from Sant Andreu in Barcelona. After she noticed memory lapses at 61, her GP first linked them to anxiety and mild depression. It took two and a half years and several visits before she received a mild cognitive impairment diagnosis, which was later confirmed as Alzheimer’s disease at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona after a lumbar puncture.
Neus Falgàs, a neurologist at Hospital Clínic’s Alzheimer’s and Cognitive Disorders Unit, said women’s early symptoms are often overlooked or put down to mood problems or age. Elisa Llurba, a gynaecologist and coordinator of the Women’s Health Transversal Programme at the Sant Pau Research Institute, said sex and gender can affect disease risk, symptoms and how illness develops. More Catalonia news
Research cited in the article points to the scale of the problem. A 2019 study in Denmark involving seven million people found women were diagnosed with hundreds of health problems, on average, four years later than men. The delay was 4.5 years for diabetes and 2.5 years for cancer. Llurba said this reflects both biological differences and bias built into the system.
Cancer care shows the consequences clearly. María José Ribal, head of the Uro-oncology Unit at Hospital Clínic, said women with lower urinary tract discomfort are often treated for infection without further investigation. She said some patients visit a doctor five or six times before bladder cancer is considered. The article also cites a recent case in which a woman who first sought help in October was diagnosed with bladder cancer in April.
The article says the pattern extends beyond cancer and neurology. A 2024 study by the European Commission and the OECD found women live about five years longer than men, but with poorer health, due to diagnostic delays, pain bias, research gaps and limited access to services. It also notes that cardiovascular disease, autism, ADHD, autoimmune disease and chronic fatigue syndrome are all affected by underdiagnosis or under-research in women.
Llurba said women remain underrepresented in scientific studies and clinical trials, and that treatments have long been based on male bodies. The article argues that addressing these gaps is necessary to improve diagnosis, treatment and outcomes for women in Catalonia. European Commission OECD Health
