being a female means needing to see 10 different doctors to get a proper diagnosis because they always think you’re exaggerating and/or lying
define proper diagnosis. I mean, does that just mean the diagnosis you want?
no 🙂 it means going to 10 different doctors who disbelieved your symptoms until the 11th found cysts on your ovaries 🙂 which may mean infertility 🙂 sit on a cactus 🙂
I call bullshit
Of course you do. Like the first 10 doctors. 😒
I call bullshit on the story. If you think you have an issue you should see a specialist not just your PCP.
Like the 4 “specialists” I saw for the crippling numbness in my face and legs I had for over a year while they told me it was “stress”? When it was finally found that I had scars on my brain and spine? Those “specialists” we’re male neurologist who wouldn’t give me an MRI because “women stress too much”. Go fuck yourself.
MY SPINE WAS BROKEN FOR 2 YEARS BECAUSE MY DOCTORS TOLD ME I JUST HAD BAD CRAMPS AND REFUSED TO TAKE XRAYS. FUCK YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. WHEN WILL BOYS REALIZE THEIR EXPERIENCES ARENT STANDARD???? I ALSO LOVE THIS IDEA THAT YOU CAN JUST GO TO A SPECIALIST WHENEVER YOU WANT LOL IF OUR PCP DOESNT BELIEVE US WHEN WE TELL THEM OUR SYMPTOMS THEY ARENT GONNA REFER US TO A SPECIALIST YOU FUCKING MOLDY WALNUT
My parents began noticing something large in my throat, saw a specialist….Guess what? Told me to lose some weight..even though I wasn’t overweight. I would have my period for weeks at a time. Was told that it was teenage hormones and stress.
Two fucking years later I attempted suicide they ran a battery of tests as required and bam! They find out that I have untreated Hashimoto’s. The “thing” was a goiter. Possible symptoms of an untreated thyroid disease is the goiter, unexplained weight gain, and depression. All they had to do was test my blood, but they said young people don’t have thyroid problems. 😒
-Allie
Ten years ago, my mother—who is a pretty tough cookie—started feeling both ridiculously wired, anxious, and incredibly emotional. Every doctor she saw told her she was going through early menopause, even though she was still menstruating. Her health declined to point where she was barely sleeping, losing weight, and crying constantly, which was a huge red flag because my mother never cries. Finally, she went to see another doctor 2.5 hours away who referred her to an endocrinologist. And what did the endocrinologist say? He diagnosed her with one of the most advanced cases of Grave’s Disease he had even seen, and said if she had gone just a few more months without being treated, she could have FUCKING DIED.
Also, it turned out that her thyroid levels had been moving out of the normal range in a progressive pattern for years, but nobody bothered to look at her past test results until after the diagnosis. They would just do a test, see that it was “in the normal range” and leave it at that. She could have caught it before she even had symptoms, instead of basically being accused of having hysteria.
i had a brain aneurysm/hemorrhage ten years ago, doctors still tell me im faking my disability
BECAUSE YOU CAN TOTALLY FAKE LIMITED MOVEMENT OF THE LEFT SIDEMy sister had intercranial hypertension which was causing headaches, dizzy spells and loss of vision, and you know what the hospital told her? She was being a hysterical girl and making it up.
A few weeks later she spent roughly a month in hospital and had several lumbar punctures to relieve her RECORD HIGH spinal pressure that was causing so much strain on her brain and optic nerves she was being sent blind.Everytime I see this post (and it’s been a good 5/6 times), it has different stories and experiences of women who have been horribly mistreated by doctors and it just blows my mind that this is so big. It’s absolutely disgusting how terribly women are treated in the medical world and something needs to be done about that.
my friend lea had back pain, then pain in her legs and feet, and then numbness. despite seeing 7 different doctors over 2 years, by the time they found the cancer it was inoperable. chemo and radiation didn’t work. the cancer spread. she died and left behind a 5 year old daughter.
A few years ago I would go through spells where I literally could not stand on my own and I couldn’t get out of bed. I would be freezing and too weak to eat. I would keep having heart palpitations as well. I got up the money to go to a clinic and they told me it was just stress and to basically just work on chilling out. I saved up money for a few weeks to do this and I pretty much get a “chill out” from them.
As time went on it got worse, most noticeably the heart palpitations were happening almost constantly. I went again to a different clinic and was told it was normal and that it was probably stress. They did no tests, and they told me it would “just go away”.
Two weeks later I ended up collapsing going down some stairs, and at the hospital it was discovered that I had such severe anemia that my heart could barely keep up with trying to get enough oxygen to my body. I had developed left ventricular hypertrophy (my heart muscle is too big) and because of them ignoring me and dismissing me I’m at a much higher risk of heart attacks and stroke now.
I went to the doctor with severe intermittent pain in my upper right stomach area that was so bad I had to miss school. Despite the fact that my period has been on a regular 3 month cycle for years, and I still had two months left until my period, my doctor told me it was period related cramps and or indigestion. 2 months later I’m in the hospital getting my gallbladder removed. It was so obstructed that there was gangrene developing my my system.
So…everyone who’s given me shit for that one post (about medicine and equal treatment and shit) can just read this because I’m sick of defending my case.
i know this post is already long but here’s a pretty good article about how gender bias in medicine is quite literally killing women. it focuses a lot on heart attacks but it applies to all areas of medicine
Hey @asleepybisexual we just talked about this bs today!
I’m sorry but if I tell you I’m getting violently sick from what you prescribed you better change it not tell me to Try Taking It Again!!!
(I have soo many stories… I’m an NB but I was female at birth so that’s all the doctors see.)
Horror storys are all we have as women.
I thought I had classical (life-threatening) CAH until I called my doctor requesting my exact diagnosis and mutations at age 21. Now I’m going through a temporary (hopefully, fingers crossed) period of mini-Addison’s disease while my adrenal glands regain proper function after the many years in my childhood and adolescence of being on heart-damaging corticosteroids that someone with nonclassical CAH shouldn’t even be using for that long a time. NCAH isn’t inherently life threatening on its own but Addison’s is, and explains why I’ve had severe issues mimicking my childhood declines into hypovolemic shock when I wasn’t able to take the corticosteroids. I should be fine now that I’m six months off of all cortisol replacement therapies, but it shouldn’t have happened in the first place had they read the fucking blood tests on my shock hospitalizations properly to see that they weren’t caused by my adrenal glands.
Another article on the subject:
The Doctor Doesn’t Listen to Her. But the Media Is Starting To.
Also, love that the comments are all either:
1) Women speaking about their experiences.
2) Men disbelieving said experiences. 😒
By the way, go see female doctors exclusively if you can. Sure, there are some terrible female doctors and a few great male ones, but female doctors have statistically much better outcomes and are far better listeners. This is specially true for OB/Gyns.
all women’s pain isn’t taken seriously, and especially black women’s, who have outrageously high maternal mortality rates because of racism and implicit biases that they can somehow tolerate more pain than other women
For decades when I told doctors about my symptoms they told me I was told I was “hysterical”. I was eventually diagnosed with a GENETIC DISORDER which I have HAD SINCE BIRTH.
My mother has the same genetic disorder. She still does not have a diagnosis. If I have it then she definitely has it because we have similar symptoms and IT’S GENETIC. They still will not diagnose her.
A friend of mine was exhausted all the time. For years doctors kept telling her that she was overweight, depressed and menopausal and needed to “lose weight and cheer up.” One day a nurse looked at her fingernails, went “hmm” and ordered a blood test. The next day they called her at home and told her to sit on the floor until the ambulance got there because THEY HAD NEVER SEEN ANYONE THAT ANEMIC WHO WAS STILL CONSCIOUS.
But sure, there’s nothing wrong with the way healthcare providers treat women.
When I was 16, I started having periods of time where I would be in a lot of pain and would throw up, especially after I would eat. Yes, I have a history of an eating disorder, but trying to convince the 6 GI specialists that this was not related at all to the ED (I was in a decent place at that time) was impossible. I had a few ultrasounds and CT scans but structurally everything was fine. It wasn’t until I was admitted to the hospital for severe pain and nausea and acute pancreatitis (I was throwing up every 10 minutes over a 24 hour period) did a doctor think to check the function and not just the structure of my gallbladder. My gallbladder was at around 5% functioning. Anything under 35% is abnormal.
I was 20 at this time, so I spent 4 years being told if I didn’t think about the pain and nausea, it would go away. When I woke up from the surgery to remove it, the burning pain and nausea was complete gone.
I also had joint and muscle pain dismissed throughout the years, as well as periods of lightheadedness, tachycardia, weakness, and heat intolerance. More of the don’t think about it drivel from doctors. I spent years researching my symptoms, even in the midst of being called a hypochondriac. I took an anatomy and physiology class because I thought if I figured out how a body is supposed to work, then I could figure out how my body wasn’t working. I diagnosed myself with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and POTS, but telling doctors that I had it without diagnosis just got me laughed at. I made the 12 hour trip to one of the biggest experts in genetic collagen defect who validated me and finally diagnosed me.
Doctors don’t believe pain. They dismiss it and don’t fully appreciate how debilitating symptoms are. And this is especially bad if you happen to have mental health struggles.
My doctors were compelled to entertain the thought that a seven year old was anorexic, or that I was being neglected, and STILL did nothing to treat/report me for those conditions. It took until I had an unrelated heart emergency for my cardiologist to notice my extreme weight loss and referred me to a gastroenterologist who diagnosed me with Crohn’s.
Not to mention years before when I was screaming in pain because of severe arthritis (a precursor to the Crohn’s) and my doctors all dismissed my pain as a little girl hysterical over growing pains.
I started falling asleep in class around age 12. My teacher yelled at me for staying up late, my parents said I was just becoming a teenager. I continued falling asleep in class and being perpetually exhausted for FOURTEEN YEARS (during which my parents and doctors told me I was lazy and to lose weight), two sleep studies, and at least 6 doctors before I was finally diagnosed with narcolepsy last month, at 26
A few years ago I started getting hand tremors, more pain, GI problems, and severe bladder issues. I went to 3 neurologists and 5 urologists. I was told I have anxiety over school which was the cause by a neurologist who did no testing. One urologist told me it was mind over matter and I just had to tell my body to pee and I would be okay… I was going through periods where I had to self catheterize to pee. Still these doctors said it was mental.
4 years later I see a specialist in my genetic condition and it turns out I need a fucking piece of my spinal cord cut out. My spine had been tethered and not moving like it should for years and no one caught it. It took years and so much money and so many doctors to figure that out all the while I was in agony and couldn’t pee and was throwing up almost everything I ate towards the end. I lost my job because of it.
Women are far more likely to be dismissed by doctors. This is a common experience for so many women and that needs to change.
i had spasmophilia due to PTSD and the male neurologist told my parents, condescendingly, that “i was a stressed out young girl” and that i just needed to relax.
i thought i was being a liar for years until i discovered articles about this very phenomenon, but yeah, let’s just say girls are stressed about school shall we
medusa-avenging-squad 