WomenKind Collective

ADHD & Gender Bias in Healthcare with Sarah West

WomenKind Collective

Show Notes

Link to Pre Order: Tackling Gender Bias in The Healthcare System. What Patient stories Teach Us About Implementing Systemic Change: https://www.waterstones.com/book/tackling-gender-bias-in-the-healthcare-system/louise-hockings-thompson/jinty-sheerin/9781805018810

This week on Spill The Tea, Lou and Jinty are joined by Sarah West, a nurse, ADHD coach, and passionate advocate for women who've spent years being everything except correctly diagnosed. Sarah first joined us in Series 12, Episode 3 to share her own story. Now she's back as part of our Gender Bias in Healthcare series, and this conversation goes deeper. Together we explore how ADHD research was almost entirely built around hyperactive boys and the lasting legacy for generations of women and girls who simply didn't fit that picture. We discuss why girls tend to internalise where boys externalise, and whether that's still playing out in referral pathways today. We examine why so many women receive anxiety, depression, or even bipolar diagnoses before anyone considers ADHD and what it does to a woman to have her neurology repeatedly mistaken for a mood disorder. Sarah also tackles the topic of perimenopause and how it can dramatically unmask ADHD symptoms, the emerging research linking ADHD and autism with hypermobility, the "over-diagnosis" backlash and whether that criticism is actually a gender bias story in disguise, plus what still needs to change, and what good post-diagnosis support should look like.

We also share what we’ve been up to this week, and stick around for some beautiful inspiration to carry you through the week. ☕ Subscribe for honest chats on women's health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy one cuppa at a time. 💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment! 🙏 Scroll down ⬇️ ☕ Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast 💬 Email Jinty & Lou: [email protected] 👀 Join us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820 🎧 Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3 🎧 And all your favourite podcast platforms Thank you for listening 💛 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah West: Web: https://www.sarahwest-adhd.com/ LinkedIn: Sarah West Insta: @sarahwest_adhd

ADHD & Menopause Book by Dr Helen Wall - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Menopause-ADHD-neurodivergence-Vermilion-Empowered/dp/178504642X Sarah West ADHD & Menopause, previous episode here - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/adhd-late-diagnosis-with-adhd-coach-sarah-west/id1557937820?i=1000687993934

Further Information: & Support Web: https://adhduk.co.uk Books: Menopause and ADHD: How to Navigate Hormone Flux and Neurodivergence. Dr Helen Wall. Vermillion. 2026

☕ SUBSCRIBE for honest chats on women’s health, feminist issues, sisterhood & smashing the patriarchy, one cuppa at a time. 💛 Enjoying the podcast? Please share, leave us a review or comment! If you would like to you can Buy us a coffee at Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/womenkindcollectivepodcast 💬 We love hearing from you, email us your ideas here Jinty & Lou @ [email protected] 👀 Join us on instagram here https://www.instagram.com/womenkindcollective?igsh=ZmxmbGs2d3BjcXA1&utm_source=qr 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/womenkind-collective/id1557937820 🎧 Listen on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/42KniEtc5WGQhNvREsN1WP?si=e14a83c93a304bb3 And all your favourite Podcast Platforms Thank you for Listening Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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