To be angry that the NHS doesn’t take pain seriously?

You do know that the PSA test is not very accurate ?

Might be why it’s not often offered.

Oh gosh, OP, how unbelievably frustrating thet just be.

Yanbu. I'm not sure it's just the nhs, I think it's healthcare full stop.

Essentially we have a "diagnosis and treatment" service, not a "health" service. I feel that the medical model of healthcare, whilst it has delivered many improvements in clinical outcomes ans life expectancy, has left us with major gaps in compassion and "care".

Doctors are rushed, inundated with guidance, and expected to be everything to everyone. It's just not working for people who have needs other than a straightforward diagnosis and treatment conveyor belt.

I'm not sure whether it's just underresourcing, or attitude, but it's very unfortunate for the poor sod in agony for no obvious reason. I faced two years of aggressive "So what do you want from me?" GPs, when my pain had no easy explanation. I never got any results that explained it, but on my own meticulous research I finally stopped taking statins which helped reduce it to manageable levels.

I'm so sorry that yours turned out to be something like this. And I wish you all the best for the future. 🙏

I tripped and fell recently resulting in a broken wrist and broken nose, I rang my Gp for some decent pain relief and was refused, told to buy over the counter meds, I just wanted to cry 😪 it's just shocking now

Im so sorry you’ve been through this, it is absolutely appalling and they do it’s expect people to live in pain unless they can afford private, especially women it seems.

I've had invisalign braces.

The dentist asked about pain on my first follow up visit. So I told them yes they hurt but its fine.

He and the dental nurse immediately started laughing. She was new and he had told her that every single man that has braces complains bitterly about the pain and every single woman minimises it and i had performed as expected.

Women have for generations had their pain ignored and are expected to cope.

I'm sure there are a million stories of women being told there is nothing wrong with them when in fact they are suffering.

It's the patriarchy at work.

I can only urge those who have been ignored to complain. Even if time has passed since being dismissed.

Blimey, even when we’re discussing women’s health we still have to consider those poor men!

Anyway a comparison from me. My dad went to the GP with slight hand tremors and was immediately referred for further tests. Fortunately it wasn’t Parkinson’s as suspected, just a side effect of one of his COPD medications.

My mum also went to the same GP with hand tremors and shuffling when she was walking. No referral for her, she was definitely suffering with stress. This went on for several years. Her symptoms got much worse but despite repeated visits to the GP she was still refused any further tests. Then she had a bad fall on holiday and had to go to the local A&E for stitches. They were sufficiently concerned to write to her GP. Fortunately on her last visit she saw a locum who was horrified at the state of her and finally made the referral.

Mum does have Parkinson’s and is in a pretty bad way. Had she been offered the same tests as my dad then medication could have been started much sooner and we would have had much more quality time with her.

Even outside of ‘women’s problems’ there is still a huge discrepancy in how men and women are viewed and treated by the NHS.

Yanbu but it's not only young women, it's women in general (see also menopause).

When dsis was 21, she had excruciating pain in the pelvic area. Her (male) GP sent her away telling her it was period pain 🤔 Only when she was doubled over and my dad literally marched into his surgery demanding action did he take it seriously. Turns out she had pelvic inflammatory disease and ended up minus one ovary and with both fallopian tubes too damaged to conceive naturally.

When I was in labour with my first, I was told I wasn't in enough pain to warrant gas and air and was instead told to walk around the hospital until I was really 'ready' for it. After 10 mins of traipsing down stairs and corridors, again bent double, dh demanded that I was given pain relief. When they examined me I was 6cm.

With my second labour, I was told to wait my turn to be 'triaged'. Dh told them after 10 minutes that if I wasn't seen immediately I'd be giving birth in the corridor. 15 mins later, without gas and air, dd was born (indeed I was briefly considered for an emergency c section because she was in distress, wanting to come out!)

And now, at 46, I'm fighting to have my progressive joint stiffness and pain investigated. I've been sent to physio and told it's probably perimenopause and that the physio will 'hopefully' help.

It gives me the rage, more and more. There are countless similar stories.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jan/04/women-more-likely-die-operation-male-surgeon-study

I think it is ridiculous to take this as an attack on men - this is comparing outcomes- if there is a space in medicine where men are being failed then I expect no woman would have a problem with them advocating for this. However, the fact that women are failed by the medical industry due to years of sexism is not an attack on men, it is just the truth and there are.known historical causes- eg all practise and study was based on male anatomy. A current example is that the known symptoms of a heart attack are those for men -.women's symptoms are different and largely unknown and they have.worse outcomes here. And women should be able to advocate for this without men taking offence.

My anecdotal note is u am.looking for a diagnosis to a health issue that is.very.under researched - it only impacts women- but 10% of women - the gps have not heard of it, the only treatment is not available in the UK on the nhs, there are no specialists in the UK, getting a diagnosis is v difficult) 5 years trying so far.

https://lordslibrary.parliament.uk/womens-health-outcomes-is-there-a-gender-gap/

https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/closing-the-gender-health-gap-the-importance-of-a-women-s-health-strategy

https://www.gov.scot/publications/womens-experiences-discrimination-impact-health/pages/4/

*link removed by MNHQ for privacy concerns.

Source?

And still no posters have addressed the inability for men to get PSA tests when they ask for it (for a disease that kills in huge numbers) despite claiming men get all their health needs served to them on a silver platter. Whilst women get invited to smear and mammogram tests. The bloody patriarchy eh!

Referred for what was thought to be a gynae problem and the doctor was very dismissive of the pain (I was crying) and said there was nothing he could do. It turned out to be a urology problem and suddenly there was plenty of pain relief. You only need to look at the respective waiting rooms to find out why.

Rather than anecdotal cases and emotional guilt tripping, consider facts

Statistically, women undergoing the same surgery as men by male surgeons have worse outcomes and are more likely to die than the male patients.

The cauda equina patients I have encountered have been sent to the nearest specialist hospital immediately - via ambulance for emergency surgery. I haven’t heard of partial and wonder if the specialists who reviewed ops images interpreted them differently.
Back pain is such a difficult one. As previously posted, the vast majority of those over the age of 50 have degenerative issues and often, an MRI won’t change management, even for those under 50.

Cauda equine is an emergency and requires surgery to prevent paralysis.

So what's happening with cauda equine have you had emergency surgery. No real treatment for stenosis anyways injections aren't in nice guidelines and they may operate but it only helps leg pain not back pain .

Bed bound following my gp ignoring my consultant and cancelling my painkillers prior to that I was so active, hobbies , animals , swimming .
now my husband late 70’s with a heart problem is my carer.

You can have partial I think, mine went from "almost" to "you're going to theatre" very quickly
I never lost bowel or bladder control and was still able to walk

Oh no that's awful. Such a callous thing to say to people. Shockingly unprofessional.

Right, so a ‘broken’ thing that can’t be fixed in your case. But visible and diagnosable, and recognised by medics. I know it’s disabling, I’m sorry.

My point wasn’t that men never have problems. It was that a lot of women suffer a lot of symptoms that aren’t visible or fixable. But still real and needing care-

But dismissed.
No one told me what fibroids do. They just mentioned in passing that I had a big one, after a scan about a coil if I remember correctly.
If I’d known the implications things would have been easier to manage.

@LilyJosephine

Not to scare you but you know that Cauda Equina can cause paralysis and you can lose the use of your bowel and bladder if not treated within a certain time period?

It's not terminal no, but life changing!

@tiger2691

I'm sorry to hear you have cauda equina. I was diagnosed with that but thankfully treated quickly. Hope you're ok x

Yeah I could walk by dragging one leg behind me, the relief when I lost feeling was insane
I told them to cut my leg off and was going through the best part of a bottle of morphine a day
The consultant said I was grey with pain

It's everyone these days. My coworker's husband has a kidney stone stuck in his ureter plus a few others and they kept sending him home before it got really bad and they finally opted to blast it which is what they should have done weeks ago.

@Roseshavethorns I have back pain. You can see from how people move if their pain is really bad. And people with really bad pain can not take a dog for a walk. They can not walk that far.
Drs see people in really severe pain. When patients may have zero understanding of how bad pain can get.