“I was fit, I ran 10Ks, had two kids, worked full time. Then COVID hit. Months later, I still couldn’t walk up the stairs without needing a nap. My GP told me it was anxiety. I left in tears and I never went back.”
This story isn’t rare. Across the UK, thousands of female Long COVID patients are navigating debilitating symptoms, life upheaval and a healthcare system that too often fails to believe them. The symptoms are real. The suffering is measurable. And yet, many women feel like they’re shouting into the void.
Why is this happening? And what does it say about how women’s health is treated in the 21st century?
The Gendered Reality of Long COVID
In the UK and globally, women are more likely to develop Long COVID than men particularly in the 30 to 55 age group. This is supported by ONS data and international cohort studies. Common symptoms include post-exertional malaise, muscle pain, cognitive dysfunction (“brain fog”), dizziness, menstrual disruption, chest tightness, and relentless fatigue.
But despite the evidence, Long COVID symptoms in women are often ignored or downplayed. Many are told it’s stress, burnout, hormones, or anxiety a pattern familiar to any woman who has ever tried to report complex, invisible symptoms to a dismissive healthcare provider.
The phrase “chronic illness medical gaslighting” may sound dramatic, but for many women, it’s just life.
A Historical Pattern: Gender Bias in Healthcare
To understand why women and Long COVID in the UK are treated with suspicion, we need to look at medicine’s long-standing gender bias.
Historically, women have been excluded from clinical trials and underrepresented in medical research. Until the 1990s, it was legal and common to exclude women from studies due to concerns about hormonal variability. As a result, today’s diagnostic criteria and drug dosages are still heavily male-centric.
And this matters because post-viral illness in women is not new. ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, endometriosis, autoimmune diseases, chronic Lyme disease: these conditions disproportionately affect women, and all share similarities with Long COVID. Fluctuating symptoms, immune dysfunction, and fatigue are dismissed as “emotional” or “psychosomatic.” And so the cycle of disbelief continues.
When Tests Are Normal But Lives Are Not
One of the cruelest aspects of Long COVID symptoms being ignored is that the absence of abnormal test results is used to deny care. Women are told, “Your bloods are fine you must be fine.” But invisible illness doesn’t always show up on blood panels or scans. Especially not in diseases that medicine still barely understands.
This disconnect leads to what researchers now call medical gaslighting: the invalidation of physical symptoms based on subjective judgments, not science. Many female Long COVID patients in the UK say they’ve been told to try yoga, meditation, or HRT — without meaningful investigation of their cardiovascular, neurological, or immune symptoms.
In other words, they’re being told to calm down. Not to get better.
The Cost of Not Listening
The consequences of this disbelief are not just emotional. They’re practical, financial, and systemic.
Women lose jobs, relationships, and self-esteem. They are denied referrals to Long COVID clinics. Their symptoms escalate. They push through until they crash because they are told resting is weakness. The toll on mental health is immense, with high rates of anxiety, depression, and trauma related to both illness and medical dismissal.
Many women are also primary carers. Their inability to function has ripple effects through families, workplaces, and communities. But still, their stories are often missing from policy reports and research grants.
Why? Because the problem starts with disbelief. And disbelief doesn’t collect data.
Where the Research Is Failing Women
Despite the fact that women are more likely to develop Long COVID, the gender data gap persists. Many studies still do not report outcomes by sex. Others lump symptoms together without recognising that hormonal changes, reproductive health, and autoimmune risk profiles differ between men and women.
There is very little Long COVID research on menstruation, fertility, menopause, or HRT interactions despite many women reporting menstrual irregularities and perimenopausal symptoms triggered or worsened after COVID.
This lack of data feeds back into the clinical setting, where doctors have no guidance and default to disbelief.
What Women With Long COVID Need
They don’t need mindfulness apps. They don’t need to be told they’re anxious.
They need a system that listens.
That starts with:
- Training healthcare professionals on gender bias in chronic illness
- Collecting sex- and gender-disaggregated data in all Long COVID research
- Funding studies into post-viral illness in women
- Recognising female-specific symptoms in clinical guidelines
- Offering practical, flexible support in work, benefits, and caregiving roles
Because telling a woman she’s “fine” when her life has shrunk to a shell of itself is not medicine. It’s neglect.
Final Thoughts
Long COVID has exposed a fault line that’s always been there: gender bias in healthcare. Women are living with real biological symptoms, yet facing dismissal rooted in outdated stereotypes and systemic neglect.
It’s time we rewrite this script. Not just for Long COVID but for every woman whose pain has ever been minimised, whose test results were “normal,” and whose suffering was silenced.
Belief is not a diagnosis. But it is the first act of care.
Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider for diagnosis or treatment. Information may change as research on Long COVID evolves.
Long Covid Journey 