All right...I avoid being a bundle of sticks today.
These articles are in an EBSCO database that I have access to through the school. I can't/don't know how to link them directly (unless someone can tell me how. I R not a smrt man). There is no dispute that there are services for veterans, both male and female. It isn't necessarily that the Veterans Affairs is turning away male OR female veterans but that the number of facilities that are run by the VA are too few and way to far between. As of 2012, there were only 11 facilities that could treat these cases (again, either gender) for long term, inpatient care. That is but one of the reasons they have implemented the program that allows us to seek private treatment if we are more than X miles away from a VAMC/CBOC.
Yes, women were cleared for combat operations in 2013, however, with no historical data of female US Service Members in combat positions, there isn't a lot of research that has been done into the long term effects of combat exposure and the increased risk of sexual assault and other traumas that were endemic to our sisters while overseas. It goes without saying that there are more than a few feminist publications have chimed in on the subject but I haven't nor will I use such an obviously biased source to attempt to glean unbiased information.
I know the frustration and feel the pain too. But, you can't let that quote in your OP be the one that drives you over the edge. It is from a .com site; not scholarly journals, not researchers, not actual doctors. Yahoo's job is to get clicks and articles like this are good at garnering them. I don't think that ANYONE is disputing that these issues are more prevalent in men and to think that they aren't being taken seriously by those in power positions isn't true. All of us that have "been there, done that" KNOWS that the system is fucked up. But if a stupid fucking Yahoo article gets more funding for the VA and can get me in to see my crazy doc more than once every 3 months, I don't give a shit how it gets done. Should the article just drop the "female" piece? Sure. But there are hundreds of the same types of articles that just address the issues that male SM's face. This is a human interest piece that is focusing on a specific instance of an epidemic level problem right now.
So, on to a couple of my sources:
This is a journal article that goes into the lack of facilities, treatment options, and and the rise in female veteran homelessness and draws the correlation between the rising numbers of women exposed to combat roles and sexual assault. It talks about female combat veterans being the fastest growing (though not the largest by far) demographic of homeless veterans. This doesn't refute that there AREN'T facilities but not nearly enough of them and the presentation of PTSD does differ between genders as well as differing between member to member; basically, there is no "one size fits all" PTSD treatment regimen but women and men do experience it differently. This further goes on to talk about the trend of homeless, addicted, suicidal veterans has shifted from the middle age, African-American male to the 25-30 year old, Caucasian, male with an increase in women that has never been seen before.
Source: Tsai, JackRosenheck, Robert A.Decker, Suzanne E.Desai, Rani A.Harpaz-Rotem, Ilan. "Trauma Experience Among Homeless Female Veterans: Correlates And Impact On Housing, Clinical, And Psychosocial Outcomes." Journal Of Traumatic Stress 25.6 (2012): 624-632.
This one goes on to tell why there isn't much information on how to treat PTSD within the female military demographic because of the lack of data from previous conflicts.
"Though the broader literature suggests that women may be more vulnerable to the effects of trauma exposure, most available studies on combat trauma have relied on samples in which women's combat exposure is limited and analyses that do not directly address gender differences in associations between combat exposure and postdeployment mental health. Female service members' increased exposure to combat in Afghanistan and Iraq provides a unique opportunity to evaluate gender differences in different dimensions of combat-related stress and associated consequence for postdeployment mental health. The current study addressed these research questions in a representative sample of female and male U.S. veterans who had returned from deployment to Afghanistan or Iraq within the previous year."
Source: Vogt, Dawne, et al. "Gender Differences In Combat-Related Stressors And Their Association With Postdeployment Mental Health In A Nationally Representative Sample Of U.S. OEF/OIF Veterans." Journal Of Abnormal Psychology 120.4 (2011): 797-806.