In this reported op-ed, Anna Wolfe explores how trauma and autoimmune disorders may be related in women.

At 19, my body was shutting down and my mental health was faltering. My face had gone numb, my breathing was growing strained, and double vision had set in. I was terrified, but when I went to a doctor, they brushed it off as "anxiety." Like many women who feel ignored by doctors, I turned to Google for answers. I decided it must be anxiety after all and dragged myself to work, even as the paralysis started to spread to my arms.

Eventually, I was diagnosed with Myasthenia Gravis (MG), a rare autoimmune disease that weakens muscles and can cause life-threatening respiratory crises and, in my case, a tumor. Doctors told me to avoid emotional and physical stress to prevent a "crisis," but the irony was glaring -- everything they were asking me to steer clear of was why my illness had developed in the first place.

Autoimmune diseases affect around 24 to 50 million Americans, and according to Stanford Medicine, 4 out of 5 of those affected are women. Yet for decades, researchers used men's bodies as the default for "normal." Donna Jackson Nakazawa, award-winning science journalist and author, brought my attention to something shocking -- it wasn't until 2016 that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) required researchers to study how diseases, including stress, impact women specifically. These illnesses manifest uniquely in each person, but treatments rarely follow suit, often relying on "one-size-fits-all" approaches that can be ineffective and harmful -- especially for women and marginalized communities.

"Social-emotional stress provokes the immune system the most," explains Jackson Nakazawa, and higher estrogen levels only amplify the immune response, making women more vulnerable to autoimmune conditions. With young girls entering puberty earlier than ever, she puts it plainly: Autoimmune disorders "aren't only about biology -- they're about how social and emotional stress impacts that biology uniquely."

Society doesn't just deprioritize women's pain, it teaches us to minimize it. "We're told to push through," Jackson Nakazawa says. "This is partly a function of patriarchy; we're not taught that our needs should come first." Childhood trauma especially leaves a lasting imprint. Studies like one from Dr. DeLisa Fairweather, PhD, at the Mayo Clinic show that every adverse childhood experience -- like neglect, emotional abuse, or feeling unseen -- increases a woman's risk of developing a serious autoimmune disease by 20%. This stress doesn't just linger in your mind; it leaves tracks in your body because trauma rewires how you process stress, according to Jackson Nakazawa, creating an overactive immune system that eventually wears down and starts attacking itself.