Posted by Maryse (198.111.190.2) on October 12, 1999 at 12:35:55:
I find it fascinating that, according to our CH survey, more than a quarter of the 1882 respondents so far
are women (myself included). This reminds me of when, a very few years ago, I drove a long way to hear a lecture
by Dr. Joel Saper, who runs a well-known headache clinic in Michigan. Not only did he seem condescending,
but he told us absolutely nothing that we didn't know already, and when a woman stood up to ask a question
and said she had CHs, Saper replied, "No, you can't have cluster headaches, that's a man's disease.
You probably have hemicranial blah blah blah [my wording]."
And in fact, over the years, I have repeatedly heard CHs described as an affliction of men, and have had
doctors look at me with suspicion, as if I were gender-bending in their presence. It was humiliating.
So I'm glad to see so many other women among our Suffering Horde. March on!
Cheers,
Maryse in Ann Arbor