Do women have greater difficulty getting help from the V.A.?

I'll start with the disclaimer that at the Erie, PA, V.A. I was treated very, very well. I only waited a few months to hear about disability claims testing, the women's care office sent me out for a ton of consultations about a problem I had at the time and my nurse practitioner at my local outpatient clinic was outstanding.

But when I enrolled at the Bronx, NY, V.A., oh Lordy. I am 100 percent sure that had I been a male veteran's dependent, I would have been treated a million times better. I went because I was between jobs and needed a new prescription for my hypothyroidism medication. I spent almost two hours at my intake appointment, first talking to a med student/resident and then with the actual doctor. While the doctor did order the labwork I needed to have done, she didn't record the reason, and when I called to ask if she'd ordered the prescription, the nurse said she wouldn't write it without seeing me.

Never mind the fact that all the records should be digitized and accessible nationally, this doctor apparently didn't take any notes during my appointment! That's such an incredible waste of time.

I say "yes" only because the limited amount of resources allocated to women as opposed to men and two, because most people still do not see women as frontline warriors and we know that is slowly becoming a thing of the past.

I have personally had no problems at several different VA hospitals and clinics. While I've had the joy of waiting forever for appointments it is no different than a male veterans' frustrations. I have never had a problem not being considered a Veteran at the VA. I don't really know where the information is that you are using to support this. The VA needs a makeover period, let's not separate medical gender issues as more or less important .

while it's nice that the VA's are becoming more "female-friendly", they have a long way to go. Years ago, I had a serious repro issue. They female womens clinic doctor was extremely patronizing. I went to a regular OB/GYN and had surgery. I showed the pathology report to the VA doc and she refused to discuss it. I will never go to a womens clinic within a VA. I have found a good (male) doc but they come and go.

yes but I find why to be that most female soldiers tend to go it alone when it comes to there health issue I think because they are female issue and male soldiers tend to be not so touche feel y in this area as it can get out of hand with respect to rank and so forth so on that is why they tend not to socialize with the old dudes running VA and they needs to hear the call for intermediary to help the social barrier and get them talking and get them help I was Sargent in first combat arms mos to get female soldiers in the 80"s long rang missile systems So have some back ground in this area from there to supply field where my unit was 75% female I was in charge of no less than 20 female soldiers in the field for many years , and as to the mess at va there are issues with appointments and the way they try and mange it all but there is a lot of us and the system was not meant to be a day clinic for everyday cold but now that Obama care is in place and this is acceptable care for VET we will just have to deal with it till all us old vets go away to the big command center in the sky or they just give us a health stipend to go out side the system, but it is still all about numbers not care when it comes to Congress and the money

I believe this is another one of those geographical problem areas. I had a wonderful female group leader for a closed females only group in Prescott. The group even called me up after I had moved back to Kansas when their group was in session. I gave the men's PTSD group in Wichita a shot, the participants lobbied for me to stay. The group administrator kicked me out due to my sex. I still see the guys around and we chat. They began a female group which I attempted to join several times but felt like I had lost hours coloring and closing my eyes so I could feel the chair. I started in KS with a male provider who made statements that made me uncomfortable and fortunately, soon, I got one of the best female therapists there. Summer we spread appointments out, SAD gets me in the winter. one stay over as an inpatient (cardiac) the only pjs available were men's and I felt that frontal brisk breeze. They have solved that problem by acquiring one size fits all standard hospital garb with the breeze in the back. Also, we have a contracted ob/gyn who comes once a week and mammograms are contracted out to a very nice facility. Amongst the veterans, I rarely get disrespected even though I have no hat. I look lousy in hats....

I was diagnosed with DDD and was rated at 10%. I re-opened my case and was still reared the same. I sent in my NOD and it shows online that my case was closed! Since then, I've been diagnosed with fibromyalgia and sciatica...but I get the pleasure of starting over AGAIN! I first applied in Augusta, ME and I'm in Arlington, TX now!

CPT (Join to see) I have to believe that female veterans are going to run into issues just based on the OBGYN and other medical specialty shortages the VA seems to have. In the Columbus Ohio clinic there is a area set aside for Women, I have no personal experience to say if this area is effective or not.

The issue I read on social media concerns the woeful lack of childcare at VA medical facilities which makes attending appointments a challenge, to say the least. It actually denies some women their treatment because children are not allowed to bring their child/ren with them in the treatment area.

I know that in Charlotte's VA, they have a women's health area the director of it is Dr. G. She was my first Doc at the Salisbury VA and moved to Charlotte to take over the women's health services. Loved Dr. G and hated to see her go but she is one great Doc and a Hell Of A Person.