To find that going to the doctors doesn't resolve the issue

I have to be honest, my GP is brilliant. I've been depressed recently and I've actually felt like he couldn't have done enough. I think it helps that I come from a medical family but so have learnt what to say. I think the other point is asking yourself what you want the GP to do and the expectations. As a PP said, you can't expect to be referred to a gastroscopy for a one-off stomach pain. They have to show that they've taken appropriate steps and followed procedures.

I feel bad, as so many people struggle to get HRT and I just literally asked once and that was that! But now everything is down to my age when I go in, and instead of being pleased that my GP acknowledged it, I'm ruing the day it was mentioned. I understand the wide and weird range of things that menopause can do, but it can't be the cause of everything!

DH regularly gets "ah, I see you're a lawyer, we won't take any chances". So much fkr NHS equality.

I had a GP tell me once , many years ago , while I was telling him why I came, that ‘I shouldn’t make it too many things’ 😢.

I pointed out to him that I was likely one of his most irregular patients, so I would be using all the 10 minutes slots I believed I accrued, so he could help me, or I’d start making a habit of being there until I was satisfied. Cheeky fucker!

I was there last year after feeling a lump in my lower abdomen and the nurse told me she couldn’t feel anything, so it must have been discomfort because of my period. Well thank you ma’am, but after 30+ years of periods, I know what period pains and discomfort are, and having spent 42 years in this body, I know when something is abnormal; so I’ll take a referral for scans please 😒.
Turns out I have quite a few fibroids, and the lump I felt was one that has grown quite large and is now outside my uterus. That one scan explained the ridiculous pain, nausea and lightheadedness and bladder problems I have been experiencing.

My advice is go prepared, go strong and know exactly what you would like to happen. If that fails, remind them of the ‘collaborative care approach’ they now bang on about.

I have a PhD and work in medical research. I always find myself holding my tongue to avoid coming across as a "know it all" or undermining the Dr.
I do use my knowledge to ask leading questions like "is there any adjustments to my daughters medication you can make?" Knowing full well as that as she's 2kg heavier than the last time her medication was adjusted that the dose can go up from X to y.
My former GP used to joke I knew more about my medication than she did. Possibly true as I used to work with the person that discovered one of them!

One way to get taken seriously is to put 'Dr.' in front your name. My DH has a PhD and some of his paperwork has Dr on it so GPs always think he's a medical doctor. This backfires a bit as they use medical terms to describe things, but it's amazing how seriously they treat everything he says.

Sometimes I use medical terminology and the GP's head always snaps up, followed by 'are you medical?' The first time I was asked that I didn't know what it meant - it's such a weird way to put it. Now I just answer vaguely so they're not sure. That helps.

I agree with the part about everything being put done to “anxiety”. I recently saw a neurologist for a fairly serious physical problem which untreated could be life threatening.

Not only did he write in his report that the problem is down to anxiety, he stated (among other glaring errors) that my bladder and bowels are normal. I’m doubly incontinent and have been from birth - I have an ileostomy bag which he would have discovered if he had read my notes beyond the part that mentioned I’d had treatment for anxiety in the past.

I’m no further forward with my problem and won’t get any more investigation or treatment for it because of this.

I completely get where you're coming from, but I also think that this kind of approach to people's concerns is unhelpful. There are a lot of people sharing awful experiences with primary care in this thread and I don't think we need to be told we'll miss it when it's gone as if we should be grateful for what we're given.

I'm having private counselling where one of the goals is trusting healthcare professionals again after a GP's terrible communication damaged it beyond belief. That wasn't down to funding or patient numbers or anything like that, it was a GP who - for whatever reason - didn't want to have a difficult conversation with me.

I used to work for the ambulance service, I understand the urge to defend it when things go wrong, but the system has no feelings, and the people hurt by it do. If the system falls apart it's because of the government, not because of the actions or words or lack of gratitude from anyone in this thread.

@Mairzydotes the hypothyroidism was diagnosed by the gp via blood tests and my stubbornness; but the others all involved multiple visits to the hospital and various tests

The ibs was 'diagnosed' in 95/96 by a consultant but I've been back to gastro several times over the years, its not polyps, or coeliac or diverticulitis. I also have a rectocele and it became suddenly worse after a surgery for a burst ectopic pregnancy (2000) which wasn't explained until they found the adhesions and scarring during surgery in 2018. Explains to some extent why fodmap/several medications didn't really work - which usually involved the gp telling me if I didn't follow my diet properly how could I expect the symptoms to stop.......
The best day at a gastro appt was when the consultant said confidently "you have a very fast transit time" not a diagnosis it's a Symptom!

@Olivane - this is very dismissive though. I am/do none of these (when I drank it was infrequent so I don’t believe it had any bearing on my health). Now I have the healthiest diet imaginable (taking control of my reflux), am slim, sleep ok., am reasonably active and try to reduce stress as much as I can (am mindful stress is a factor in some of my health issues and I’m starting therapy - again).
So the GP has nothing to ‘blame’ me for apart from being menopausal and I don’t really want to throw hrt in the mix cos it might aggravate things in other ways (I don’t really have many traditional meno symptoms).

Yes, it took me forever to be diagnosed with hypermobility spectrum disorder. I knew that’s what it was, but I’d say it took over ten years. They did start referring me for scans etc but then I’d always be told it was normal and there was “no point diagnosing me because it won’t change anything”.

Totally. I had worrying symptoms about 4+ years ago - on googling it could be epilepsy related. It was over a weekend so I got an urgent GP appt and she wasn’t worried. Ffwd 4+ years, it happens again (but worse), dh takes me to a&e and even though the Dr was about 12 it pushed things along a bit and I managed to get the GP to refer to neurology - the consultant was eye rolling when I told him the GP dismissed the symptoms originally and am now waiting for mri/eeg.
You have to be insistent on being referred - their knowledge is very limited on certain health issues unless v obvious and visible.

I had my endometriosis symptoms blamed on being overweight. Took me five years to get diagnosed.

I wonder if my problem is I dont know which of my diagnoses (CFS/ME/FM/Hypermobility/Hypothyroidism/Menopause/IBS/internal scarring& adhesions) is causing the current pain, Brain fog, mobility and digestive issues I have currently

But god am I fobbed off

The thing is, many people's health issues are related to lifestyle. Being overweight, smoking, drinking, getting poor sleep, being stressed. There's not a lot the doctor/nurse can do about those things (sometimes there's not much patients can do either) so they just fob you off/humour you. They try to offer people help with their overweight or drinking habits, but people don't like it.

They're also banging their heads against the walls.

Just want to say that my own GP is amazing and bends over backwards to provide an amazing service.

Don't get me wrong we're in a horrifically long list of referrals that should have happened years ago already but in terms of listening to my symptoms, not thinking I'm imagining things and taking me seriously I can't fault them. There's a few amazing Drs there but a couple I don't like and one who has given me completely wrong advice and tried to give me contraindicated things numerous times.

Yeh, I wasn't at all overweight but he said doing weights would give me energy... at the time I was otherwise healthy, early 30s, yet could hardly walk down the road from exhaustion 🙄