This thread about trying to get a medical condition diagnosed as a female is extremely sad and disheartening. There’s so many stories here from women who desperately need medical help and are being ignored because of sexism. If you don’t believe these anecdotes, here is an article about how gender bias in medicine is literally killing women. Just to be clear, men can obviously have problems getting diagnosed as well, but just imagine if it was made even harder due to your gender. The bottom line is that less research is done on women’s issues and women’s pain is believed less. Here is the full thread:
Do you have any stories of trying to get diagnosed or get treatment as a female? Tell us your story in the comments below!
I was 14 years old and woke up in excruciating pain in my abdomen to the point that I could not stand. My mom took me to the HOSPITAL. The doctor asked me a bunch of questions and told my mom it was gastro and sent me home. The next day it continued. She took me to my family doctor and he sent me for an ultrasound. They saw what looked like a cyst the size of a grapefruit and I had emergency surgery. They found what was essentially my twin that had been absorbed Into me in utero. My ovary had grown around it and when I hit puberty somehow it started getting bigger and burst my ovary from the inside. I had internal bleeding and if I’d gone one more day I would have died. After that I cobtinued to have pain. Numerous visits to the gynaecologist and I was told I have a spastic colon, I am lactose Intolerant etc etc. I read something in a women’s magazine that described my symptoms, endometriosis, and asked the doctor if it could be that and he straight up said no. It took me moving to another country three years later to be diagnosed with… Yes… Endometriosis.
I saw 9 different doctors over 10 years for pain before giving up looking for answers. My current GP was the one who pointed out that I visited on a very regular cycle, and send me to the ROYAL WOMEN’S HOSPITAL – now that name should mean something. It didn’t. The “specialist” I saw decided on my 5th visit to him that I’d never been there before and he’d never met me before and I was making things up. This was the appointment to confirm my lap for endo diagnosis. I complained, the head of gynae called me and promised an excision specialist… Pre-op room I found out my surgeon was a new surgeon and it was her first day (not the guy I was promised), at which point the anesthesiologist piped up that it was also HIS first day, and his assistant laughed and said “mine too!” to which a freakin’ nurse then started laughing because it was also HER FIRST DAY TOO! This was literally as I was being wheeled in to surgery. And my result? A single paragraph “report.” That’s it. One paragraph saying “we found nothing, go back to your GP.” I’ve given up. I’ll die in pain before I deal with any of them again.
I’m 34, have had back pain for at least 10 years. I’ve also had issues with my period, but that’s recently been rectified.
My GP told me at 25-26 yrs old that I’d end up in a wheelchair by 35. She refuses to send me for scans and claims she never mentioned a wheelchair. Went to a new GP (male) who is helping me slowly go through what I need, including scans. We’ve been dealing with my migraine issues recently, but he’s been more helpful to me in 3 months than my family GP of 8 years!
I fell during army basic training when I was 18. Had some pain in my back afterward, thought it was a pulled muscle, so I didn’t insist on getting it documented as an active duty injury (i was national guard). Pain gets worse over time, I start getting pain down my right leg, and some of the flare-ups would be so bad I’d be lying in bed sobbing because I was in so much pain.
I saw multiple civilian doctors & physical therapists over the course of the next 13 years. Despite never changing my description of how I hurt myself, not one would authorize an MRI. They’d do x-rays and tell me my spine looked normal and to lose weight, despite being in extremely good shape when my injury occurred. They just gave me a prescription for Percocet and muscle relaxers.
I finally found a doctor after 13 years that believed in fixing problems instead of just medicating them, and she got me an MRI. Lo and behold, I have a herniated disc in my lower back. She referred me to a neurosurgeon, but he said that due to the time passed since my injury and the scar tissue my body had built up to try to protect itself, the disc was inoperable.
TBH, some of the worst medical treatment I have had as a woman has been at the hands of other women.
One example: Had an abscess on my labia, was really stressed out about it, so went to a woman gyno. Good idea, right?
Told her I cannot have epinephrine in local anesthetic, so they have to use straight lidocaine. Without epinephrine, the local takes a few minutes to kick in. You would think a doctor would know that?
She injected the area and then immediately started cutting. I was sobbing, cursing, trying to breathe through it, and she was ANNOYED with me.
When it was done, I’m lying there crying. She and her assistant go out of the room. In the hallway she says, you better go back in and check on the crybaby. And they laughed.
I make sure to tell every woman I know about this doctor. Unfortunately, she is still practicing.
I have 3 daughters. I encouraged them to get female doctors just because male doctors don’t seem to really know the female body while female doctors HAVE one. I myself now have a female doctor because I found they LISTEN more.