The Medical Self-Advocacy Guide

A practical guide for women navigating complex health systems.

If you’ve ever left a doctor’s appointment thinking “I didn’t explain that right” or “I forgot half of what I wanted to say,” this guide is for you.

Women — especially those navigating perimenopause, chronic illness, or complex symptoms — are routinely dismissed, under-diagnosed, or told their symptoms are “normal.” The result is delayed care, misdiagnosis, and unnecessary suffering.

This guide exists to change that.

What this guide helps you do

The Medical Self-Advocacy Guide helps you:

• Track symptoms in a way clinicians actually take seriously

• Translate lived experience into medical language

• Prepare for appointments with clarity and confidence

• Recognize red flags — and know when to push for answers

• Advocate for yourself without burning out or self-doubting

This isn’t about confrontation.

It’s about preparation, pattern-recognition, and power.

Who this guide is for

This guide is especially helpful if you are:

• In perimenopause or menopause

• Living with chronic or unexplained symptoms

• Managing multiple conditions or medications

• Tired of being dismissed, rushed, or gaslit in medical settings

• Trying to make sense of long-term changes in your body

You don’t need to be “good at medicine.”

You just need tools that weren’t built for you — until now.

How to get the guide

The Medical Self-Advocacy Guide is free for Asterisk email subscribers.

By subscribing, you’ll also receive occasional updates on women’s health research, self-advocacy tools, and the systems we’re building to close gender health gaps.

About Asterisk

Asterisk is a women-led research and technology project focused on closing persistent gaps in women’s health — starting with data, language, and self-advocacy.

When systems don’t work for women, women build better ones.