I strongly believe the appalling way women’s health concerns are dealt with are down to ingrained sexism within the medical profession. I wanted to start a thread which shared women’s stories of trying to seek help and the way we are spoken to and treated. I’ll start.
I was an extremely fit and healthy woman in my 30’s. I’d had some issues since having children. After dealing with declining health for a year, extreme fatigue, sudden & dramatic weight gain despite a lot of exercise, pain in my muscles and bones, extreme coldness, breathlessness, painful ovulation with a lump on my right hip... and much more, I went to my doctors. He barely listened before declaring I had ‘chronic fatigue’. I told him this seemed to happen after I went on a particular contraceptive pill. He ordered a CBC but told me to ‘reduce my expectations of life’ and accept I was aging. At 39. I spent all my savings going private ( at this point I was bedridden ) and as it turned out, I had an endocrine collapse due to undiagnosed thyroid problems, likely endometriosis ( still haven’t been referred by NHS many years later ) and my endocrinologist believed it was caused by the pill I was on ( Yasmine ) and had come off ( he’d seen it a lot ). I barely made any hormones at all- he was surprised I could do anything, shower myself etc I had to do a lot of work but I did get better- now peri menopausal which complicates things! Definitely not going to my doctors about that!
Oh I forgot. They tried to put me on anti depressants. I got a copy of my records ( at a cost of £20 ) and they recorded nothing about my mood or mental health. I have since learnt that a lot of poorly managed thyroid conditions end up being treated with anti depressants.
Please share your stories. Chronic women’s conditions are complicated and don’t get a lot of research or funding. We need to talk about this and what we can do. I’m sick of suffering while certain other groups get a lot of support.