While women have reduced access to certain kinds of care, an equally serious problem may be instances of inappropriate care. Studies have found that between 16% and 70% of hysterectomies are inappropriate and that 38% of women undergoing hysterectomy for benign indications were not counseled on alternative, nonsurgical treatments (Corona et al., 2015).

Access problems for women begin with finding a physician who provides women’s health services. Forty-four percent of internists do not provide Pap smears (Cooper & Saraiya, 2014). Forty percent of reproductive age women have not been counseled on contraception with a care provider, 70% lack counseling on sexually transmitted infections, and 77% have not been counseled on domestic violence (Salganicoff et al., 2014). Contraceptive counseling is often provided with inadequate information and lack of patient-centered communication (Dehlendorf et al., 2014). Many women’s health providers are poorly informed about emergency contraception and almost one in five practitioners are reluctant to provide this education to sexually active adolescents. Women who are poor, foreign born, or who are not high school graduates are less likely to learn about emergency contraception (American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 2015).