Medical gaslighting in women’s healthcare leadership

At first, you don’t even have a name for it. You walk into a clinic with chest tightness, irregular cycles, maybe migraines that won’t go away—and walk out with a note that says “stress.” You mention it to your cofounder or partner, joke about working too much, and get back to chasing growth targets.

But underneath the founder armor, something deeper is happening. You're not just tired. You're not just anxious. And yet, the system—the one designed to diagnose, care, support—keeps waving you off.

Medical gaslighting doesn’t scream. It accumulates. Slowly, it erodes the confidence you’ve spent years building. And for too many women in leadership, it becomes the unspoken cost of showing up.

The term “medical gaslighting” refers to a pattern of healthcare professionals dismissing, minimizing, or pathologizing patients’ symptoms—often women’s. Studies show women are more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than pain medication for the same symptoms. Black and brown women are even more likely to be ignored or misdiagnosed.

But what’s rarely discussed is what this does to women who lead. Female founders, executives, and builders already operate in systems that second-guess them. When their health issues are downplayed too, it compounds the problem: a double-discounting of both their body and their judgment. And unlike a missed funding round, this one doesn’t show up in dashboards.

I’ve spoken to women in the Singapore startup scene who were dismissed for months only to discover thyroid disorders, reproductive health issues, or perimenopause symptoms that had gone untreated. One founder in KL told me she kept a spreadsheet of how many times she was told, “Just drink more water.” These aren’t anecdotes. They’re operational liabilities. When you don’t trust your body—or the system that’s supposed to support it—your ability to lead suffers.

You delay decisions. You doubt your instincts. You defer ownership. And sometimes, you break. Not because you weren’t strong enough. But because too many people told you you were fine—when you weren’t.

There’s a shift happening. Women who’ve been ignored by the healthcare system are no longer waiting for reform. They’re building their own answers. Fertility tech. Hormonal health tracking. Menopause support networks. Even digital clinics that focus on female-centric diagnostics. This isn’t a niche trend. It’s a structural correction.

What we’re seeing across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Europe is a new generation of female-led healthtech startups grounded not in market opportunism—but in lived experience. These founders aren’t building products. They’re building the thing they were denied: belief.

Here’s what makes these businesses different: they’re designed from the body out. Instead of treating women’s health as a marketing vertical, they build diagnostic tools that account for cycle variation, hormonal complexity, and bias in clinical research. Instead of retrofitting male-based baselines, they ask: What if this platform was designed for women from day one?

It’s not always easy. VCs still hesitate over “women’s health.” Regulatory frameworks are still biased. But these founders are pushing through—not for visibility, but for viability. Because when the system tells you, “It’s all in your head,” the only option left is to prove them wrong—at scale.

Let’s be clear: medical gaslighting isn’t just a healthcare issue. It’s a credibility issue. When a woman in power says something’s wrong and the system replies, “You’re fine,” it undermines more than just her health. It undermines her leadership.

And that has ripple effects. It changes how she hires. How she raises. How she trusts. It shifts the way she scales, the products she chooses to build, and the kind of culture she models. In short: the cost of not believing women’s pain isn’t just personal. It’s institutional.

If you’re a founder, team lead, or builder who keeps hearing “You’re overthinking it”—please know this:

You are not imagining things. And you are not alone.

Track your symptoms like you’d track OKRs. Get a second opinion like you’d switch vendors. And if the system keeps failing you, don’t shrink. Build around it.

Some of the most powerful startups I’ve seen were born from medical neglect. Pain is not weakness. It’s a data point. And sometimes, it’s a market signal.

This isn’t a pity story. It’s a pivot. What started as dismissal is becoming momentum. And the women at the center of this shift aren’t just talking about gaslighting. They’re turning it into funding rounds, design frameworks, and business moats.

Because when the world doesn’t listen to your body, sometimes the only response is to make sure the next one does. And that? That’s not overreacting. That’s leading.