Women With Autoimmune Diseases More Likely to Be Misdiagnosed Than Men

Women with autoimmune disease are also more likely to be misdiagnosed with mental health conditions than men. MementoJpeg/Moment/Getty Images

• A new study found that women with autoimmune diseases often take longer to get a correct diagnosis.
• The researchers added that women are more likely to be misdiagnosed with mental health conditions than men.
• Factors such as disease presentation, research gaps, fragmented care, and unconscious medical bias may contribute to these disparities.
• The researchers suggest that doctors should carefully consider autoimmune diseases, especially in women.
• It’s also important for people with autoimmune diseases to advocate for themselves.

A new international study found that women with autoimmune diseases often experience longer delays in getting a correct diagnosis compared to men.

The research, published in eClinicalMedicine on October 12, also shows that females report higher rates of being misdiagnosed, especially with mental health or psychosomatic conditions.

These findings highlight challenges in diagnosing autoimmune diseases and suggest that sex differences affect patients’ experiences in healthcare.

This is significant given that autoimmune diseases, conditions in which the body’s immune system attacks its own healthy cells, are estimated to affect around 4.6% of the U.S. population. Additionally, despite the observed disparities in diagnoses, women are almost two times as likely as men to be diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.

Diagnostic experiences among people with autoimmune diseases

Researchers conducted an online survey between December 7, 2024, and March 7, 2025, inviting adults ages 18 and older who had a confirmed autoimmune or rheumatic disease.

The survey was carefully designed and tested with input from patients, charities, and medical experts to ensure it captured important information about patients’ diagnostic journeys.

Participants were asked about the time it took from when they first noticed symptoms to when they received their autoimmune diagnosis.

They also reported how many healthcare visits they made before diagnosis and whether they felt their symptoms were ever misdiagnosed as mental health issues, psychosomatic problems (physical symptoms caused or worsened by psychological factors), or another physical disease.

The survey was widely shared on social media, patient support groups, and community organizations to reach a broad audience.

Special efforts were made to include underrepresented groups such as males, younger individuals, and people from minority ethnic backgrounds.

The survey was available in five languages, and participants could complete it with help from researchers if needed.

To analyze the data, the team used statistical methods, adjusting for factors like age, type of autoimmune disease, continent of residence, and financial situation.

These methods helped compare the experiences of males and females while accounting for differences in disease types and other factors

Women took longer to be diagnosed, and were often misdiagnosed

The study included 6,607 participants, with 91.2% identifying as female and most living in the United Kingdom. On average, women were younger than men in the study.

Autoimmune thyroid disease was the most common condition reported. Non-autoimmune conditions like anxiety were more commonly reported by women, while men reported higher rates of hypertension.

One of the main findings was that women reported longer delays before getting a diagnosis. Nearly 32% of females experienced delays of four years or more from symptom onset to diagnosis, compared to about 26% of males.

On the other hand, men were more likely to be diagnosed within a year of symptom onset (nearly 50% of males versus 40% of females).

Women also made more visits to healthcare providers before diagnosis, with 26.2% having 11 or more visits compared to 18.4% of men.

When it came to misdiagnoses, women were significantly more likely to report that their symptoms had been mistaken for mental health issues (43.3% of females vs. 32.7% of males) or psychosomatic causes (33.9% of females vs. 21.5% of males).

However, there was no significant difference between men and women in being misdiagnosed with another physical disease.

The type of autoimmune disease also influenced misdiagnosis rates. Diseases with clear physical symptoms or definitive lab tests, like type 1 diabetes or rheumatoid arthritis, had lower rates of mental health and psychosomatic misdiagnoses.

In contrast, conditions such as autoimmune encephalitis or undifferentiated connective tissue disease had higher rates of these misdiagnoses (over 50%).

After adjusting for disease type and other factors, women still had higher odds of reporting mental health or psychosomatic misdiagnoses compared to men.

Other factors affected misdiagnosis rates, too. People living in continents outside the United Kingdom, those with lower household income, and certain disease groups were more likely to report psychiatric or psychosomatic misdiagnoses. Age, however, was not linked to the risk of being misdiagnosed.

More physician awareness, patient advocacy needed

Muhammad Qasim, MD, a pulmonologist and medical writer with MySleepApneaTeam, told Healthline that autoimmune diseases are often difficult to diagnose. Qasim wasn’t involved in the study.

“Early symptoms can be vague, fluctuate over time, and affect several parts of the body,” he said. “Fatigue, pain, sleep problems, brain fog, and mood changes do not immediately point to one diagnosis.”

Qasim echoed the study’s findings, explaining that similar symptoms may be interpreted differently in women versus men, with complaints being attributed to anxiety, stress, or psychosomatic causes.

However, there are probably multiple factors contributing to this phenomenon, he said.

“Differences in disease presentation, gaps in research, fragmented care, and unconscious bias can all contribute,” said Qasim. “Once a psychiatric explanation enters the medical record, there is also a risk that later clinicians view new symptoms through that same lens.”

Regarding unconscious bias, the study’s authors noted that women have historically been treated by doctors as “less credible” and more “emotional” in reporting their symptoms, which can influence how doctors interpret them.

These disparities in diagnosis are important, however, because longer waits and erroneous diagnoses can delay proper treatment and increase women’s frustration, leading them to stop asking for help.

The researchers suggest that healthcare providers need to be aware of these concerns and consider autoimmune diseases carefully when patients, especially females, present with more complicated symptoms.

Adam Carewe, MD, a physician in Boulder, CO, and a clinical informaticist with General Medicine who wasn’t involved in the study, offered guidance to those experiencing symptoms on how to obtain a proper diagnosis.

“Patients can keep an accurate symptom timeline, bring in family history, ask what else could be explaining these symptoms, ask for a plan for next steps if initial testing/treatment, do not change anything, and lastly get a second opinion,” he advised.

Carewe emphasized the value of not giving up on finding answers. “The most important thing for anyone with persistent symptoms of any kind is to continue to work with your primary care clinician and continue to advocate for yourself,” he said.