New AIHW survey data reveals a troubling pattern in how Australian women’s dementia symptoms are received by health professionals, one that leaves many facing longer, more expensive and more dismissive diagnostic journeys than men.
The Living with Dementia Carer Survey, which captured responses from 266 people living with dementia and 1,648 carers between May 2025 and January 2026, found women were nearly twice as likely as men to have their symptoms attributed to something else entirely during the diagnostic process: 24% of women reported this, compared with 13% of men.
One woman, then 59, described the pattern directly: “I’d raised this with my GP, and I had the usual, it’s probably menopause or your chronic fatigue syndrome. And then finally, that was taken a bit more seriously, and I did a cognitive test, and that was all okay. So away we went again, but I think my husband started to notice changes as well and he said, ‘Look, I really think we need to push this a bit more.'”
The cost of being taken seriously
The gap isn’t just clinical, it’s financial. Women were more than three times as likely as men to cite the high cost of seeing health professionals as a problem during diagnosis (24% versus 7%). The report links this to prior research showing women’s dementia symptoms are more often misdiagnosed, extending their diagnostic pathway across more appointments and more out-of-pocket costs.
Delays compounded further upstream. A 69-year-old woman recalled a two-year wait: “So that would have been in about 2019 and 2021. I got formally diagnosed in ’21, but it took me two years with my doctor. They kept on saying… you’re just getting old.”
The survey also found a shift in who initiates the process. Overall, more than half of people living with dementia (55%) said a family member first contacted a health professional about their symptoms, but this was particularly pronounced among men, while a larger proportion of women reported initiating the evaluation themselves.
In other words, women are more often the ones pushing their own case forward against symptoms that clinicians are inclined to explain away.
Where the diagnosis does land better for women
Not every part of the picture favours men. Once diagnosed, women reported somewhat greater benefit from the diagnosis itself: 72% said it helped explain their symptoms (versus 52% of men), and diagnosis was rated as more helpful for planning, decision-making and accessing therapies among women than men.
That may suggest the years of dismissal make the eventual clarity land harder, or that women arrive at diagnosis further along and more ready to act on it.
