Tips for listening, and how to avoid dismissing young women

In this really interesting episode, Doctors Lisa and Sara talk to Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan - Consultant in Sexual Health and HIV Medicine, and Dr Laura Tinner - Research Fellow in Centre for Public Health, at Bristol University. Rageshri talks about her lived experience of being dismissed in a medical situation, despite her professional background and how this led to her researching the topic in depth, and writing a book on the subject. Laura speaks to a piece of research she carried out around the views of young women accessing medical care and explains that we need to put more emphasis on listening in healthcare. They both talk to the system pressures and challenges that lead to patients feeling dismissed, but also share practical advice and tips for what healthcare professionals can do to help certain groups of people feel more heard in healthcare.

You can use these podcasts as part of your CPD - we don’t do certificates but they still count :)

Resources:

• Unheard - The Medical Practice of Silencing by Dr Rageshri Dhairyawan: https://amzn.eu/d/03u4y1DX

• Animation about a young women’s experience of healthcare accessible through the embedded link on this site: https://ayph.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/SHIFT-Improving-young-womens-care-resource-sheet.pdf

• The Association for Young People’s Health: https://ayph.org.uk/

• The Young Women’s Movement: https://youngwomenscot.org/

• Training session: Enquiries taken by Association for Young People’s Health who have a 90-minute training course to healthcare professionals. It’s co-delivered by young women who have been trained in facilitation skills and can be booked by groups of healthcare professionals who would benefit from training support related to delivering care to young women. The training uses the animation pillars to go through scenarios and exercises. Cost is dependent on whether delivered online or in person and whether any bespoke elements need to be included, but please get in touch to discuss what could work for you. Contact AYPH for more info: [email protected]

• The Young Women’s Movement:  EmBody to EmPower: https://youngwomenscot.org/resources/embody-to-empower/

• Intersectional discrimination and mental health inequalities: a qualitative study of young women’s experiences in Scotland: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12939-024-02133-3#citeas

• An exploration of discrimination in healthcare for young women in Scotland: An intersectional study: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321525000125

• Fighting the “Bog Standard”: Intersectional experiences of gender and disability discrimination within healthcare among women in Scotland: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2667321526000119

• Women's experiences of discrimination and the impact on health: https://www.gov.scot/publications/womens-experiences-discrimination-impact-health/

• Reflect, collaborate, and listen: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)00251-X/abstract

• Listening is a tool for health equity, not just a soft skill: https://www.bmj.com/content/390/bmj.r1164.long

• Listening to the voices of the medically silenced: https://journals.plos.org/globalpublichealth/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgph.0003761

• Scotland’s Women’s Health Plan: Phase Two: https://www.gov.scot/publications/womens-health-plan-phase-two-2026-2029/

• Dr Jonathon Tomlinson’s blog : https://abetternhs.net/about/

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