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

I don't think being male or female matters.  The VA is a mess across the board.  It seems to be more dependent on whether or not you live in a an area that has well ran VA hospitals or clinics.  The worse the management the worse the facility.

I say no because women have their own clinics in many VA locations that men don't have access to, since women can use every resource men have this acutally gives them more resources to exploit.

Sorry ... I'd have to see a whole lot more data on this to be convinced that this is really an issue.

I work out here in California for the VA at the Santa Maria Clinic. We are an outpatient clinic therefore many specialty clinics are not offered here, but even at this little clinic, we have numerous avenues, groups and opportunities for Female Veterans. Being one myself, I work here and am also a patient here, I can do group PTSD/MST appointments, have one on one appts, whatever I choose and whatever works best for ME, not the VA. If this is an issue VA wide that our Female Veterans have less services. I completely disagree with the article written here, and I feel the author needs to check his/her sources better. What are your sources anyway? One disgruntled female Veteran? I am sorry I just cannot agree with you, if anything I feel the VA as a whole has gone out of their way to ensure good programs for ALL Veterans, but extra care to ensure services for women only are available. I was a Veteran before I was a VA Employee, and I will ALWAYS speak up for Veterans and go above and beyond to help my brothers and sisters in arms. So trust me if I felt there was any truth to this article Id be like where? Who? Give me names!! grrr!! This time, nope not happening.
Alcon, have a great and blessed day.

I haven't seen any numbers either way, but I guess if you are basing this on a female provider for a female patient, that makes sense. I might even go so far as the saying that male providers trained in female specific areas might be a short fall. Otherwise the VA is short on providers PERIOD. It's hard to get an apt within a month for everyone I know.

Not sure how to answer the question. There are pockets within the system that there is very little problems. Then there appears to be other facilities that have horrid stories. My WM wife has been able to get all that she needs and in a relatively timely manner. Many years ago, our facility as many if not all facilities put a Women's clinic into the Primary Care structure. As the population grew, women were then reassigned to the general population. The challenges for VA was dealing with obstetrics. Not all facilities had plans in place to follow a woman who was child bearing. At our facility my staff was tasked with obtaining an obstetrics instrument tray. Not an easy request as there isn't just one surgical tray. There are many. And since we didn't have the capacity to deliver a child, why would we invest in the multiple trays? So typically a female veteran who is pregnant is "fee'd" out, meaning allowed to seek her care in the private sector and VA pays the bill. If I recall correctly, pays until about 1 month after the birth (the first well baby care visit). VA doesn't assume the responsibility of the child after birth. But don't quote me on this.

I had problems until I got my Senator involved. Once I did that boom everything fell into place. Before that it was like pulling teeth to get anything done or to get seen.

I think it depends on your geographic area. When I lived in Illinois and accessed care through the West Site VA Medical Center, it was horrible. I switch my primary care to Middleton VA Hospital in Madison WI with a primary care clinic just 30 mins from me and all was good. They didn't have a women's clinic then but I got good care nonetheless. Now that I live in the Metro DC area, I use the DC VA Hospital. They have a Women's Clinic and it's wonderful. I love it.

If you are not receiving the care that you need, demand to see the Women Veteran's Program Manager. I'm a member of the Women's Healthcare Committee at my facility in Massachusetts, and the push for better treatment of female Vets has pretty much guaranteed that myself and fellow female Vets get faster, better treatment than male Vets. That's not universal and I understand that, and depending on the female vet population you may not have onsite access to mammograms, etc. You can also demand a female PC and if none are available they have to send you offsite. Ensure your provider knows if you have MST and related issues to justify that.

I feel that women Vets do have a bit of a harder time getting the proper care at a VA Medical facility because many of the facilities are not fully or properly equipped to give the kind of medical services for our female Veterans. When I was living in North Carolina I was going to the local VA Hospital and needed surgery and since the VA I was going to did not have the surgeon there that was needed to do the kind of surgery that I needed, I had to travel over 100 miles to a facility that had the kind of doctor I needed. Many of the VA's do not have OB/GYN doctors and the women have to travel great distance or be outsourced to a civilian facility to get the type of care they need.