I was told was told my stomach ulcer was psychological, how about you?

[Kay00]

In response to this article in the guardian, what conditions have you been told by a doctor or medical professional with psychosomatic or psychological?

For fun-ish 🙃

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/oct/13/women-autoimmune-conditions-psychological-misdiagnosis-cambridge-study

My broken neck was psychological for 6 weeks 😂

My 12 year old was told by a nurse his head pain was because he was getting stressed from the cannulas and needles when he was in hospital. It was a brain infection and he needed emergency surgery. Still fills me with rage when I think of it. I’ve got my own experiences as a woman (stomach ulcer being passed off as anxiety- but my lovely GP listened and got the tests I needed) but the one really makes me angry, he was patronised and not listened to and that seems to be a common denominator

My 25 years of IBS which apparently could be 'cured' by hypnotherapy and CBT (never did) turned out to be endometriosis which was only discovered at the age of 50 and I'm still suffering.

When asking to be investigated for endometriosis and listing my many symptoms, the doctor said "heavy periods aren't really one of the symptoms". When I eventually had an appointment with a consultant and he couldn't see any deep endometriosis via transvaginal scan, I mentioned that I thought endometriosis couldn't be seen via scan and he got cocky and said he had an 80% accuracy rate, then said "It's not going to kill you" if it is endometriosis.

Asking to be referred back to the breast clinic when I felt a cyst reappear, the GP said she couldn't feel anything unusual and begrudgingly referred me but said if it turned out to be nothing I should really do something about my anxiety. (Despite my records showing that I'm autistic and have been on anti-anxiety medication for years and in various forms of therapy for even longer. Oh, dear doctor, what should I DO about my anxiety?! Is it that easy?! Please give me the cure!) Of course it was a cyst and the surgeon wrote a letter to the GP to say I should be referred back to him any time I feel a change in future.

I was imagining the heat in my c section wound and pain beyond what is considered normal. Junior doc want to prescribe pain relief beyond paracetamol and ibuprofen but was told it wasn’t allowed on that ward. Apparently p and I are all that is needed after major surgery. I was later re admitted with spesis and there were discussions around move me to HDU or even ICU.

Yeah my friend was ‘too anxious’ about her period pains. For years. Until she was actually looked at properly after paying privately, and they found endometriosis had taken most of her insides. She has to have a stoma now.

I also wasn’t in labour, both times. The first time I was told it can’t possibly be labour and don’t come in because it was 2 weeks early, so my dc arrived unplanned at home. The second time I was literally contracting whilst on the Xray dept bed having a scan that the Mat dept had sent me down for and they still didn’t believe me, ‘it’s all psychological’ despite the contractions showing on the actual machine and the radiographer watching my stomach move, then I gave birth back up on Mat ward about 30 mins later. Then the Mat nurse was like ‘oh…that was quick’. If staff can’t believe a 9 month pregnant woman is in active labour on a maternity ward, when will they ever believe women?

I'm too young to remember mine. It was my mum who didn't get believed. When I was very young, I had some quite worrying symptoms. My mum took me to A&E. The first doctor didn't take her seriously and tried to send us away. My mum's instincts were telling her that what I had was more than an ear and throat infection. My behaviour was different from how it usually was when I was sick and I had cold hands and feet. She demanded a second opinion. The doctor reluctantly agreed but gave her a note to give to second doctor. My mum opened it and read it before seeing this other doctor. In it, the first doctor had simply 'Please reassure this overanxious mother' My mum put the note straight in the bin. 2nd doctor arrived, agreed with my mum that I had worrying symptoms and he did some tests, following those I was diagnosed with bacterial meningitis. Luckily I recovered with no lasting damage.

Hyperemisis, for the majority of both pregnancies. I needed to snap out of it.

I was a teenager when I started getting this awful pain in my side. I was ignored, my mom was told I was being dramatic. It went on for months. Eventually I was scanned and a huge ovarian cyst was found. They were surprised as there was some discussion about my appendix. A surgeon decided to remove the cyst.

When I came round from the anaesthetic I still had the pain. The surgeon told me I couldnt have the pain as he had looked for my appendix after he'd sorted the cyst and it was nowhere to be found.

A whole year I was in agony. Eventually it was agreed that they would take my appendix out but it was made clear
it was not necessary but they were doing it to shut me up.

8 hours it took to remove my appendix which was over 2 ft long and wrapped around various internal organs, squeezing them. I nearly died.

I was a mini celebrity in the hospital as my appendix was now a medical exhibition and was being preserved and sent to the medical school as a specimen. Not one apology. Just 'what a marvel'. At least the pain was gone.

......Should add that I'm currently battling a possible B12 deficiency which doctor has said is all within NHS range (although according to NICE it's in the grey area) but a recent private blood test shows I almost likely B12 deficienct and this all stems back to the decades of undiagnosed endometriosis being the cause of a B12 deficiency. It's an on going battle.

DH and I both had the same symptoms the other week. Via eConsult: I was told to take Benylin for a week to see if it improved. He got a face to face appointment that day, a chest x ray, blood tests and antibiotics.

what I said were very painful contractions solely in my back were clearly just a back ache that coincidentally was happening 8 days after my due date and hours after a sweep. I shouldn’t have needed pain killers but they were very kind and gave me two paracetamol while rolling their eyes before sending me home. Clearly unrelated going by what the professionals scoffed at me, a couple of hours later my waters went and a placental abruption was discovered as was my baby being back to back. Luckily for me it was picked up at the hospital since I’m a stubborn cow and my husband had driven me for an hour in rush hour traffic to the other, bigger hospital in the trust and after a cat 1 c section my baby was OK.

I was in severe pain, difficulty walking, and had a huge bulge protruding out of my lower abdomen. My lovely (female) GP immediately diagnosed a large inguinal hernia and sent me to A&E as she thought it was at risk of strangulation and would need surgery to repair regardless (not immediately, but fairly quickly). By the time I was seen at A&E, the bulge had gone back in temporarily (it kept going in an out depending on how long I'd been standing/sitting) and they said it must have been an ingrowing hair from shaving my bikini line and that I was imagining the pain due to anxiety (which I've never even been diagnosed with)! I was sent home in agony and they refused to even do a scan.

I paid privately for a scan a few days later and, sure enough, it was a large inguinal hernia. Repaired with surgery soon after involving a lot of mesh to hold everything back in place. The surgeon was amazed to find that it was also full of endometriosis, making it particularly painful.

My issue was with my mother's useless GP when she was in her early 90s and in sheltered housing. She told met she was making arrangements for her blood to be monitored as she was on Warfarin, but she was still getting a lot of bleeding under the skin for the slightest knock. The carers, who obviously saw quite a lot of that sort of issue, became so concerned about it that they called her out, but she dismissed it as normal. When she was subsequently admitted to hospital for something else, the hospital told me they'd never seen someone with such a low clotting factor and her Warfarin levels were obviously way too high.

The GP also dismissed a bleeding episode as being gynaecological. When I pointed out that that would be odd as my mother had had a hysterectomy, she decided it must be piles but did not check any further. The same hospital admission also resulted in the discovery that she had bladder cancer and that was the cause of the bleeding.

Finally my mother was having considerable stomach pain. I tried to get her into the car to take her to the doctor's but she just couldn't'. When I phoned the GP for a visit she refused to come out, because the last time she visited (for the blood clotting issue) she felt my mother was capable of coming to her. Eventually I had to borrow a wheelchair and walk her quite a long way to get her to the surgery. Useless doctor finally acknowledged that there was a problem and called an ambulance. That was what resulted in the hospital admission, where they also discovered a serious bowel blockage - if it had been left any longer it could have killed my mother.

On the other hand, DH git given thyroid blood tests as he was tired a coiple of weeks after his vascetomy. No other symptoms.
He did have a problem. He takes daily medication. But a blood test as he was tired is a different world.

Years of random symptoms. Mainly vertigo. Then limb numbness. GP insisted it was stress. I’d gad therapy previously for childhood trauma so it feel like every single thing gets put down to the ptsd caused by that. Doctor refused me an mri and suggested anxiety meds.

two years later I woke up unable to pee. Numb face. I went to A&E. Spent a week in and still didn’t get an mri. Just discharged with a neurologist referral and a catheter. Months later finally see neuro who diagnosed FND. The first question he’d asked me wasn’t about my symptoms, it was about my childhood. He referred me to a specialist FND clinic. They refused my referral on the grounds I’d not had the MRI.

finally had the MRI a whole year later. Was very quickly diagnosed with MS and a serious spinal condition.

my dh on the other had went to sane GP with numbness and tingling in his hand, immediately got nerve tests and scan. How fucked up is that.

Me too, was told it was psychological

I was told the Doctor couldn't see anything wrong with me, that maybe I was imaging it. I was mis diagnosed on sight with 2 other conditions and given drugs, suggested that it was maybe the menopause. Made me feel like a hypochondriac and reduced the amount of times I went back. After a year of this, another GP referred me for an MRI.....well, thats when they found the brain tumour! Turns out scowling and belittling thr patient isn't the best diagnostic approach.

This is outrageous, your poor mum! I really hope you reported that GP.

My experience was similar.

In the 90s I didn’t fit the ‘fair, fat and forty’ bracket they used to describe gallbladder patients. I was late teens and made many trips to A&E over around a year with agonising pain.
Told it was constipation until I was eventually scanned at the newer hospital and they found gallstones blocking my bile duct.

It was that bad that the surgeon stated the risk of death during keyhole was too great so I had open surgery. Stayed in hospital for nearly two weeks and discharged with a bile bag attached to my wound.

Being the Teflon teenager I was I remember playing pool at the pub with it still attached and covered with a little cloth bag my mum made 😂

It seems to be a family tradition amongst the women in my family being told abdominal pain is ‘just constipation’. DM when she had a surprise geriatric pregnancy (the 24 week foetus kicking was ‘only wind and the change’) and DD’s extensive endometriosis and ovarian cysts.

Another young relative was also dismissed as making things up until she collapsed with a rapidly growing mass in her abdomen which was bowel cancer at the age of 19 and removed 😡

This may be more common with women patients, but my father, over his life, had doctors tell him all of the following were stress and nothing physical wrong (all subsequently found to be the named condition):
Stomach ulcer
Glaucoma
Heart attack
Stomach cancer.

I also had a very severe burn, which nurses decided wasn't serious enough to bother a doctor over (but ended up being moved to a specialist burns unit once one saw it later...).

I think doctors belive they can gauge how bad something is with their spidey senses, rather than the words you say, and perhaps if you're not screaming, they think it can't be that bad. They forget we're british, with stiff upper lips :-D.

With the burn, they did ask me why I had tears running down my face, but I can only think that because I wasn't wailing, they didn't understand it was a response I couldn't prevent, to great pain!

My symptoms were apparently 'psychosomatic' because I had [previously had severe depression when my parents died in horrible circumstances. A really nasty gastro consultant reduced me to tears when he said 'Your doctor has just wasted my time with this referral'

Ten years later I was finally diagnosed with scleroderma and rheumatoid arthritis . I had such clear symptoms- but I was a woman who had had depression so...
Ironically depression is also one of the symptoms of scleroderma because the disease is so fucking awful. No consideration that perhaps my symptoms were making me depressed

When I went to the Dr concerned about early menopause, they asked me why I wanted to be menopausal at my age.

I worked in a very pressurised job. Over a number of years I suffered headaches, then brain fog and shakes. I felt dreadful. Constantly told by several male GPs at one surgery that it was stress related and given different meds. A colleague remarked that I had developed a slight limp. I knew there was something else going on and changed GP and I was referred to hospital and given an MRI just before Christmas. I had a benign but large brain tumour (meningioma) and was operated on two weeks later.
(name changed for this)

I was told I was imagining DDs epilepsy. Thankfully we had insurance and an ECT confirmed I was not. Next visit to the GP he said "that will have pleased you then". Thankfully it is now well managed with medication.