Doctors just talk shit about women’s health don’t they

[Lampenme]

95% of diagnosis’s = stress/hormones.

I’ve had 28 day cycles since I was 14 years old. This month I’ve started a new period 13 days after the last one. Heavy, painful, dizzy, nauseous. The best the doctor can do is a head tilt and “are you stressed?” WE’RE ALL FUCKING STRESSED.

Amazing how 20 years of ups and downs have never affected my cycle. What scientific basis do they have to base stress as a cause of your whole hormonal cycle turning upside down? It’s just bullshit isn’t it

Yeah, I'd insist they actually investigate properly!

Yes, if they are even bothered to talk to you. In my experience many are just happy to ask you to talk to a female doctor about it.

And they are never prepared to do examinations.

It’s a a very sorry state of affairs all that.

I couldn't agree more. The amount of total crap relating to reproductive behaviour that I've had put down to stress , changes in home life and the pull of the damn moon from GP's is ridiculous.

My favourite was being asked by a GP was I aware that there could be slight changes every so often to my period which were perfectly normal. I was thirty fucking one , I'd been having my period since I was 11. Yes of course I was aware, I wasn't there because it twinges on a different side that month .

I nearly fell over in shock 6 months ago when a somewhat dramatic change meant I rang for a telephone consult and the GP took me seriously and we sorted it out.

I hasten to add she was a female GP , draw from that what you will.

I was told by a female GP and male gynaecologist I just need to relax and my periods will go back to normal and I will conceive.
It turns out I have a fibroid, low AMH, and IVF is my best chance of having a baby 🤔
Turns out "just relax" doesn't actually solve everything.

There is a book called invisible women. amongst the problems it noted, was the fact that the human body is defined as a 70kg man, with women not even part of the equation. As this is such an ingrained historical fact, its taught from the very beginning of any biology education down to primary school. Research on drug doses etc is almost always based on men as the default. I was horrified to learn this, and it made me look at my own medical education in a different light.
Having said that, the stress axis has a huge effect on reproductive hormonal cycles, and common things are common, so its appropriate to consider stress first. The thing about a 4 legged creature in England being more likely to be a dog, than a zebra, applies.
Having said that, the treatment for a prolapsed uterus, if not surgical, is exactly identical in the 21st century AD as it was in the 20th century BC. I can quote the hieroglyphic document if you would like. We just use plastic instead of a pomegranate.

I am embarrassed to admit that I have seen 12 consultants and 3 gps over the last 4 years. Only 2 have been dismissive and both of those were female. That is probably unusual, but of the remaining lovely, professional 10 people, the split was 50 50.

When I went to the doctors regarding menopause, the doctor told me they virtually have no training about it she was only in her mid 30’s so it’s not as if she been trained that long ago. Another go offered me anti depressants instead of HRT, she couldn’t tell me how ADs would help me with hormonal deficiency I decided to give up on HRT, I’d tried two types and two different doses but wasn’t prepared to keep on feeling crap while they didn’t know which ones would help.

I had very similar recently, she sent me for a blood test and it came back fine so no further investigation?? I'm making another appointment if it happens again this month.

My old male GP was excellent. The three female GPs we're left with now are terrible, no interest in anyone.

What did your GP say when you said you are not stressed? It's a reasonable question to ask, so long as they're going to look further when you tell them it's not a factor.

Agreed...some are terrible I've had one great gp in my whole 33 years and he actually listened to me.

What I find most shocking is a lot will admit they are not trained in xyz surely as a bloody general practitioner they should be on constant cpd and personally keeping up to date with health trends etc! I'm astonished at some old school doctors that get things so so wrong!

Same here - prescribed an SSRI for perimenopausal anxiety despite it being against the NICE guidelines where there is no clinical depression (I do not have clinical depression). Female GP was dismissive. Am now trying again with new GP practice. Going to stand my ground this time.

I was told in mid pregnancy by a young male go that the pain I felt in walking may be a “sports injury” 🙄🙄

I knew it was spd so just needed a referral from him. He was very handsome so guess he was more ornament than use!

Female doctors are just as bad in my experience. You'd think they would understand a bit more but I suppose they're reading the same outdated textbooks as their male counterparts.

Similar experience to you OP but was patted on the head and sent on my way because "you're getting older, what do you expect". I was thirty fucking five years old.

What I find most shocking is a lot will admit they are not trained in xyz surely as a bloody general practitioner they should be on constant cpd and personally keeping up to date with health trends etc! I'm astonished at some old school doctors that get things so so wrong!

Except they are general practitioners, not consultants with a specialism. The GPs at my practice all have a particular area of interest, but it's not fair to expect them to keep up with everything in medicine, it's simply not possible.

It is 100% true that if you are better informed about your health and make a fuss about things you get better care. Not exclusively a women’s health issue, but I’m pregnant with my second baby having had suspected preeclampsia with my first. In my first face to face appointment I pressed hard for a consultant appointment due to high risk status (per the NHS website, NICE guidelines, and what was in my maternity notes). Midwife was very huffy and all: “well I will put in a referral but they’ll probably cancel it!”

She sheepishly called me the next day with 2 consultant appointments and details of some medication I needed to start immediately. But if I hadn’t pressed I wouldn’t have seen a midwife again until 28 weeks by which time it’d be too late to start the medication as needs to be taken from 12 weeks!

A more passive (nicer) person would have received inferior care with potentially disastrous consequences for mother and baby. And if passiveness is a discriminatory factor, this could well turn into a gender issue.

@dubyalass

What I find most shocking is a lot will admit they are not trained in xyz surely as a bloody general practitioner they should be on constant cpd and personally keeping up to date with health trends etc! I'm astonished at some old school doctors that get things so so wrong!

Except they are general practitioners, not consultants with a specialism. The GPs at my practice all have a particular area of interest, but it's not fair to expect them to keep up with everything in medicine, it's simply not possible.

It is fair if they are the gatekeepers to proper specialists - which they frequently are!

OMG yes.

I know GPs are not specialists but sometimes they really shock me. Recently my GP told me if my cycle wasn't 28 days long it was irregular. I said no, it's regular, just longer than 28 days. He was really unsure about this and eventually concluded 'well, we'll say it's irregular since anything longer than 28 days would be'.

Like ... how? How do you misunderstand both the English language and the really simple bits of the female reproductive cycle?

I was told by a female gp I I saw for a bp check and hrt prescription renewal (hrt was brilliant for me) that if and when I gave up work I would probably cope better with the menopause. I was about 54 and have a professional job. When I responded that as a woman I was entitled to optimal medical care and an excellent quality of life whether I worked or not she was agog but did apologise. Unbelievable.

To be fair, however, op I probably wouldn't have gone to the Dr after one short cycle with yucky symptoms. I'd have kept an eye and followed up if it happened again.

@dubyalass it's absolutely fair and any professional will do this. I work in HR I'm expected to keep up to date with trends. Menopause has been big on the agenda for a while now due to the Mh effects it has on a woman. If businesses need to be aware of this why isn't a gp fully aware of best way to treat menopause and differences with women etc.

A pp has said a gp admitted to no training in this area and one offered anti depressants how is that right?

Yup.

I have had bloating, back pain and abdo pain. GP said he didn't think it was ovarian cancer but sent me for an ultrasound scan. Nothing seen so GP said it was just menopause/getting old.

Two years later I still have same symptoms. I then develop a chest infection and am put on steroids and antibiotics. I get better from the chest inf but I start with what I thought was kidney stone pain.
End up in hospital on IV antibiotics and morphine. Very very poorly. CT scan shows I have a kidney infection and a leaking infected diverticuli ( I didn't know I had diverticulitis). The infection looks like it's been there for a long time grumbling away and the steroids just gave it the power to resurrect....

Fucking menopause/getting old!!!

PP is right about them not keeping up with current research. Not even the consultants bother in my experience at work. When a bunch of them moved to a new building their secretary laughed at me for forwarding all their subscriptions for specialist research publications in their field. I rang to ask her to change their addresses on the subscriptions and she said they don't even bother reading them so chuck them in the bin. These were periodicals paid for by the NHS and probably counted towards their continual professional development.

Yep, numerous doctors telling me my increasingly heavier periods were ‘normal’, due to age (this is from mid 30s on), irregular because I was ‘stressed’ about them. I can’t even count the number of times I was fobbed off.

Eventually went private, had a laparoscopy and lo and behold I have severe endometriosis, a totally frozen pelvis and a large cyst that’s so imbedded into my bowel the only way to remove it would be a bowel resection........... Needless to say I won’t be going for that surgery but attempting to manage the symptoms.

Fair enough I stand corrected. In my case it was only this female GP that listened to me. Looking at the posts above it is obvious it is sheer luck of the draw and sex of GP not relevant.

More than worrying that you need to get lucky with a good GP though. I tend to agree with pp that it requires an ability to be assertive to be heard. It makes one despair of the integrity of any sort of diagnosis pathway system if assertiveness affects it heavily

Yep. In my early 20s I saw my gp repeatedly for what I described as spasms in my stomach causing back pain, lack of appetite, feeling sick and barely able to move. Was told repeatedly it was related to my hormones / cycle.
Turned out it was gallstones which, left untreated, caused pancreatitis and left me in hospital for a month.

Have suffered migraines since I was a teen. Again, dismissed as hormone related / advised to alter contraception.

Went to a dr after my previously under control migraines were happening at least once a week for 2 months with slight changes to symptoms, hot flushes and dizziness which were new, felt my heart was going extra fast. Told, more than once, this is related to my cycle and not unexpected as I have PCOS.
Well yes but I've had that for years and these issues were new.
Saw a different (female) gp who read my records, actually listened to me and ended up being told my bp was so dangerously high she was surprised I was still functioning ok.

So many issues are dismissed - if you are a woman, it's all hormones
If you're overweight, every issue is because of that (even the migraines you've had since you were a skinny teen)! Infuriating.

It's good to be able to discuss these things openly without a huge cohort of Mumsnet stamping all over the thread. Can you imagine if this was about certain other professions who dominate this website?

The fact is if people are doing a crap job we should be allowed to complain about it and there are a large number of doctors who don't listen to womens problems.