When women get sick they don't look like men. Beyond the obvious, women's symptoms are different from men's. If a woman is having a heart attack, her arm probably won't tingle, she won't have sharp pain in her chest. Instead her stomach or her shoulder might hurt.
If she should conclude that she might be having a heart attack and heads for the ER, she stands a good chance of being dismissed because she doesn't show the "right" markers. Because she's not showing the same markers as a man.
There's dismissive and then there's dismissive. Sometimes women are offered trivializing advice, like suggestions that they get a new hair cut or a makeover. And sometimes women's symptoms are out and out ignored.
Dr. Nancy Klimas has heard it all from her patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome who have been dismissed by doctors not interested in caring for them. Her advice to women who have been dismissed is this. "If you find you simply cannot communicate or don’t trust your doctor to have your best interests in mind, find another! You have to be your best advocate. Value yourself!"
http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/05/14/why-dont-doctors-listen-to-women