Why are females not believed in the medical field

[Onionbhajisandwich]

I’ve honestly lost count of the times that I’ve been told I have anxiety in place of a diagnosis at one point I was referred to a psychologist for stage 4 endometriosis and ulcerative colitis (which I turned down).

So now, I have a range an odd symptoms, pins and needles, numbness, pain, absent reflexes in my legs and various other things. My mum has MS. My GP referred me and the neurologist told me that he would do an MRI scan of if I wanted one but he’s sure it’s anxiety due to my family history. Turns out it’s not anxiety, I’ve got bulging discs in my lower neck, excess fluid, some kind of issue with the bone marrow and a lesion which needs a CT to look at in more detail.

I don’t have anxiety - I’m actually quite relaxed about it - I just want to know what I’m dealing with and what I can do to help myself!!

Why can’t they just believe what we are telling them???!!!

It's awful OP and has been a huge issue for me this year. Once anxiety is in the frame, everything else seems to go out of the window. I've had two life changing diagnoses this year after months of symptoms being dismissed as anxiety and I don't even have an history of anxiety or low mood. It's normal to be anxious when your serious health concerns are being dismissed.

It's infuriating. I find the same over DC's medical care. The eye rolls I got when trying to advocate for my DC have been audible.

The only way I get anything sorted is to take DH along to stand like a golem so they can talk through him. My (female and lovely) GP even told me to take him to my gynae appt because she said I'd be ignored otherwise.

Question for female HCPs: do your male colleagues believe you?

Look at the etymology for hysteria. That tells you everything you need to know about the medical profession's attitude towards women.

I’ve pondered this a lot this last couple of years, had a several things dismissed as anxiety, I’m very lucky I have a health care policy via work and was able to get second opinions each time and it was not anxiety. But it very much felt the whole “hysterical woman” trope each time. I also was taken more seriously when dh came with me

It's so infuriating!! I felt so disempowered advocating for myself with male obstetricians during my 'high risk' pregnancy (although the neurologist I finally saw agreed with me I should not have been classed as high risk to begin with). I remember crying my eyes out after they tried to tell me I was having a C section without listening to me at all. There was no medical need for it. Agree with PP it's the same when seeking medical care for DD.

Am currently waiting for an internal scan following months of insanely heavy bleeding and clotting and its been such hard work even to get on the waiting list. I have been fobbed off with HCPs when I call and ask for a doctor's appointment, then been told I need to book again to see the doctor for a referral 🙄

Truth be told I am quite an anxious person (not with health), and would probably benefit from speaking to the GP about it but I feel if they see anxiety written anywhere on my notes it'll be even harder to be taken seriously!

ingrained sexism
its rife throughout society but becomes noticeable in the medical field
the old advice - take a man with you to get taken seriously still hold a

I was going to post the same thing.

Yes, I'm sure you are right OP. Although bizarrely I have actually had the opposite problem - sort of. A few years ago, I started having many health problems and my GP sent me to numerous different hospital doctors. Most of them had no idea what was wrong and some of them said I said I seemed anxious - which I also found very irritating.

Anyway, eventually I got to a doctor who did know what my problem was and knew how to solve it. However, part of that particular health condition is actually anxiety. So you when the physical problem, you get worried and that fuels the physical problem to get worse. The treatment was very simple - physio for the physical problem, anti-anxiety meds plus counselling. The crazy thing is ai had no idea I was anxious. I now know why I didn't know - it is because I am neurodivergent (didn't know when I had this health problem) and anxiety is an integral part of most neurodivergence.

My GP had actually also recognised that I was anxious and kept on trying to tell me in a subtle way that I was anxious but because I'm autistic I didn't take her subtleties on board - but we didn't know about the autism then.

Roll on a few years and my anxiety got extremely bad and the GP upped my dose of anxiety medication and I had endless counselling, all of which helped but not enough. EVENTUALLY I realised I had ADHD, got a diagnose and medication and boom - like magic the anxiety has melted away.

State op. state. Try the private route and it’s like day and night. We are fortunate to have private and I’ve never had this.

With the state of healthcare in the country, I am not that sure at the moment whether the so called service we receive has anything to do with anyone's gender. It's just pretty abysmal all around.

Its a nightmare and exactly this happened to me. I have discussed on other threads. I think they glance at the diagnosis above and don't listen to a word you say, trusting the previous professional and not attending to the patient in front of them.

Apparently I wasn't having an early menopause after a hysterectomy (uterus only). Despite every single symptom.

A decade on the NHS website has now been updated to include that if you've had a hysterectomy then you may have a much earlier menopause. Makes my blood boil.

The ‘they won’t let you’ about pregnancy. ‘They won’t let you go to x weeks.’ What are ‘they’ going to do, tie me down and induce? ‘They’ give me medical advice and I consider it. It’s worst for young, marginalised women, especially of colour.

OP, just a suggestion not to refer to women and girls as ‘females’. It’s part of the same dehumanising issue.

It probably is disproportionately women but it definitely happens to men too. DH has had horrific back pain for years and they have offered him CBT for it. Like you can think your way out of pain 🙄
I agree with others though saying get private healthcare. I’ve recently had to use it because my GP put all my symptoms down to anxiety even though I know full well it’s not. I was taken much more seriously by private doctors.

Virtually every menopause symptom on the list including vaginal atrophy. That they saw!!

it was my mental health… apparently

im so sorry op and everyone else on this thread.

My GP is amazing (a woman) and in our area, it turns out there's a menopause clinic you can be referred to, which she did. And I have been there three times now.

The entire experience has been AMAZING. Listening to me. Talking to me as an adult who knows what I am feeling. In fact, at my second appointment when I filled in the questionaire, I felt that things were a lot better and her response was, "no, we need to keep working on this because I'd like to see all your responses in the "good" column"

And it made mre realise how often as women we are dismissed or patronised so that being treated like a competent adult is noteworthy.

I have spent ten years being told that every single symptom I have is due to my weight. I’m fed up

Deeply ingrained misogyny. If you can bear it, look up how women were 'treated' for period pains/pms, menopause etc decades ago. One example was treating women with 'hysteria' by stimulus of the clitoris.

The treatments may have changed but the misogyny hasn't unfortunately.

It hasn't helped that the NHS has been practically taken over by trans ideology, ie men in dresses are more important than the women they're pretending to be.

Actually you can think your way out of pain, or at least you can reduce its severity. I was learning about exactly this in a hospital appointment I had today. Pain is not purely the result of a physical problem in your body, it is an assessment by your brain about how much danger you are in. Sometimes your brain can tell you that you are in a very bad situation and so it gives you lots of pain to let you know but actually the brain can be mistaken.

I think if your discs are all but non existent, like my husbands, the brain isn’t mistaken about how much pain you’re in.

Sorry, I don't agree. Why is the term 'female' dehumanising? We know we are discussing female humans. Nothing shameful about being a female human of any age.

Well ok your DH’s brain is obviously not mistaken and I have only learnt about this today, so I probably have not explained it that well. It is possible through to train your brain to reduce its reaction to something.

I also have chronic pain issues. I had an appointment with Guy’s Hospital in London today and was shown some YouTube clips by a neuroscientist on exactly this issue. I would
post a link but they haven’t sent to me yet.

One of the things you can do that I was
shown is assess the tension on your body and then try to reduce it. That actually did help a little and took about 3 or 4 minutes. It was the first time I have ever done that, so I reckon with practise it will help.

I get this all the time even though I am a medical professional myself.
I used to get "it's because you're fat", I lost all the weight and now it's apparently because I am neurotic.
I always challenge it every single time.

I have no faith whatsoever in gp's any more.
I was told I have anxiety when I went concerned about breathlessness by a very dismissive male gp who looked well past retirement, 10 months later diagnosed with asthma.
I was told I had IBS when I knew the issue was my hormones. That theory was completely dismissed, 2 years and many gastro investigations later had a massive uterine fibroid removed, no more 'IBS'.
More recently a swollen ankle that wasn't resolving. It was a blunt force trauma and the very young GP suggested gout despite not having any of the symptoms.
It's absolutely exhausting constantly advocating for yourself with medical professionals. Our healthcare is woefully inadequate.