Women Are Sharing Times A Doctor Dismissed Their Symptoms As “Normal”
If you’re a woman, there’s a good chance you’ve had an unfortunate healthcare experience at one point or another. Well, Redditor riverthenerd asked, “What was your craziest symptom that a medical professional said was normal for women?” Here’s what people said…
(However, please note that this post is not meant to take the place of medical advice.)
1.“I had occasional sharp heart pain when I was a kid (around five years old), and the doctor told my parents it was normal because girls are more emotional, and I might be spoiled. The doctor assured them it would go away as I got older and learned how to control my moods. All the while, my father, his father, and his grandfather all had heart arrhythmias that could be inherited. My parents took me to another doctor, and sure enough, it was the same arrhythmia.”
Pocketlight / Getty Images
2.“I had a genetics nurse practitioner tell me that my ribs crunching and my shoulders popping out of place all the time were normal for women due to our naturally poor upper body strength. She said I had no reason to worry and added, ‘Yeah, sometimes my shoulder pops out of place when I stretch too hard.’ I just had an MRI that revealed that my shoulders have started becoming deformed from the amount of dislocations/subluxations I’ve had throughout my life, and I might need surgery.”
PhotoAlto/Frederic Cirou / Getty Images/PhotoAlto
3.“I went to a doctor who wouldn’t treat me for a UTI because she said that UTIs were normal for overweight women and that it would just come back again. The doctor said that I should focus on either losing weight or getting used to the symptoms. She also wouldn’t let me on the exam table because she said that I would break it. It was my very first UTI, and I was a whooping 175 pounds.”
4.“I had undiagnosed Lyme disease, and the doctor actually wrote in my medical record: ‘Typical hysterical female hypochondriac.’ I have degrees in Environmental Studies and Natural Resources, and at the time I collected insects as a hobby. I’ll never get over this diagnosis. Thirty years later, I also continue to have side effects from having untreated Lyme for more than two years.”
Olga Pankova / Getty Images
5.“When my mom was in her early 40s, she kept complaining to our family doctor about her extremely painful abdominal pain, perpetual upset stomach, back ache, and vomiting. All she was ever told was that she needed to lose weight (she was NOT overweight), eat more fiber, drink more water, and take aspirin for the pain. Occasionally, the doctor would try to tell her it was ‘all in her head’ and that she was exaggerating her symptoms. The pain eventually got so bad that she ended up in the emergency room and was diagnosed with pancreatitis, which had been caused by her stage two Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. She survived it, and we never went back to that doctor.”
6.“My wife was 37 weeks pregnant and started complaining about excruciating pain on her left side. A late-night trip to the emergency room sent us to triage at the maternity wing immediately. After about four hours and with my wife still in pain, they determined she was suffering from severe constipation and recommended strong laxatives…”
SerrNovik / Getty Images
“…She used them, with little to no results, for the next week until the pain came back, worse than before. Another late-night trip to the ER, a dose of morphine pills, and an enema that did nothing, and by the following afternoon, her water broke. Still in pain, rushed to the birthing ward, and 12 hours later, only four cm, and the pain was getting worse. So, she consented to a C-section, and about 30 minutes later, our daughter was born. My wife was checked for infections, but a CT scan finally revealed one nurse’s dismissed diagnosis: a kidney stone that got infected. They couldn’t have thought of that a week before?! Anyway, that was all this past weekend. Wife’s on the mend, daughter’s at home, and life goes on. But still, a week with an infected kidney stone? I would not wish that on anyone, let alone a pregnant woman.”
7.“I’ve got multiple chronic illnesses that cause severe pain. In the hunt for a diagnosis, I was told more times than I can remember that I just needed to lose weight and/or get my mental health issues ‘properly’ treated. If I did this, all my symptoms would disappear. Yes, I could stand to lose weight, but I’ve had pain since childhood, including while I was severely anorexic. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis last year and told at the time that there was so much damage to my wrists, I would need to have both of them fused in the next few years. If I had been taken seriously when I saw all those doctors, I might not have had such severe damage. I have complex respiratory problems, and I’ve been told multiple times that it was just anxiety when I actually had pneumonia.”
8.“When I was younger, I went to a new doctor for a regular check-up because I hadn’t gotten one in years. Everything was fine, no health issues, but as soon as he was done, he told me I was overweight for my age (which, news flash, I already knew that). The worst part was that he was a lot more overweight than I was.”
Jose Luis Pelaez Inc / Getty Images
9.“I had palpitations and blackouts. Was told I was being hysterical, and this was all just normal for an 18-year-old. Later, I had my pacemaker fitted when I was 26 for ventricular standstill. Basically, my heart just stopped beating for 10-20 seconds at a time.”
10.“I was suffering a pulmonary embolism. I had lost use of 80% of my lungs, and my heart was pounding. But I’m overweight. So I sat in the emergency room for many, many hours (like 8) while they saw patients with ‘more severe issues than blood pressure associated with obesity.’ Suddenly, a nurse walked in and looked at my initial test results, and then asked me to lie down. Gave me oxygen and had an emergency CT done on my lungs and head. I was in the ICU for 10 days. I know it’s not just from being female, but it sure contributed to them not taking me seriously.”
SDI Productions / Getty Images
Related: 25 Eye-Opening Confessions From A Trauma Therapist That Changed The Way I Think About Mental Health
11.“I went to a medical clinic for a UTI, and the doctor said to me, ‘Be careful of cranberry juice. It has a lot of sugar in it, and I try to protect women’s hips.” Dude, I’m here because it hurts to pee… I’ll never see you again. Just hand over the antibiotics and stay in your lane.”
Stefania Pelfini, La Waziya Phot / Getty Images
12.“I had a 101.4 degree fever, and the doctor said, ‘Maybe you’re just ovulating.’ And this was a woman doctor. No lady, I had Lyme disease.”
RealPeopleGroup / Getty Images
13.“I was having debilitating headaches daily. I would feel the pain start in my head, and that was a warning that I had maybe 45 minutes before I would throw up and pass out. My PCP assured me that it was just migraines and gave me a prescription…”
“…The medication worked to prevent the headache from worsening to the point of being sick, but I was only allowed 13 pills per month. There was no way of me getting enough for every day, but “that’s ok, because no one has migraines every day.”I finally went for an eye exam, thinking that maybe eye strain was causing the headaches. The optometrist dilated my pupils and, in a shocked voice, said, ‘WOW! Your optic nerves are seriously swollen!’
They referred me to an ophthalmologist, who took one look at my eyes and scheduled me for an MRI the next night. The ophthalmologist read the results of the MRI before I was even home and had me call him at his home number so that he could tell me that I had a giant mass in my brain. I was in the hospital the next morning and had my first surgery that night, barely 24 hours after having an MRI. I lived in agony, afraid to make any plans or leave my house for a year because I didn’t want to risk getting sick or passing out while driving. All I needed was an MRI to diagnose a BRAIN TUMOR.”
14.“The only time I’ve gone to the ER in my life was for intense head pain. It felt like a thunderclap of pain (10/10), accompanied by the worst nausea I’ve ever had. So I got myself to the ER (pulling over to vomit twice), and the doctor barely acknowledged me. He said that since I have anxiety and reported stress, I was having a perfectly normal anxiety attack. He said to go home and take a nice bubble bath…”
Ingwervanille / Getty Images
“…The pain persisted (at a lower level), and I lost about 20 pounds in two weeks from being too nauseous to eat. It took three trips to different doctors to discover that one of my wisdom teeth was about halfway out and was hiding just behind a fold of skin that I couldn’t brush. It had crumbled apart and a nerve was exposed.”
15.“My male doctor told me my stomach pains were normal and probably just anxiety. I had lost 30 lbs. It was a bleeding ulcer.”
Skaman306 / Getty Images
16.“I had such severe pain sensitivity that drawing on my skin with a pen felt like I was being sliced open with a knife. Stepping on a crumb was as painful as getting a shard of glass in my foot. Turned out I had a rare autoimmune condition, and my entire peripheral nervous system was breaking down. The first neurologist who observed my symptoms (already quite severe) said I was anxious. She probably delayed my diagnosis and treatment by at least two weeks. I sometimes wonder how much unnecessary pain and agony and recovery time I went through because of that dismissive doctor.”
17.“My knee pain was depression because it was Christmas, and I was single. It was, in fact, a compressed nerve from a running injury, BUT THANKS, GP. (Also, I was so happy being single).”
SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Getty Images/Science Photo Library RF
18.“I was poo-pooed in the ER, and the female ER doctor insinuated I had anxiety when I was actually having a heart attack caused by a coronary artery dissection caused by SCAD. The cardiologist on call rushed me to the cath lab as soon as he saw the three EKGs that were ordered because they thought the first one was a mistake.”
19.“I had heavy menstrual bleeding for four months after a copper IUD placement. It was like a heavy flow period and didn’t stop. I also had daily cramping and pain. The doctor said everything was fine, but I asked for an ultrasound. She seemed annoyed and said she could schedule it a month from now, but I should call to cancel if the pain or bleeding stopped. Five months after my IUD was inserted, the ultrasound showed a perforated uterus. The IUD had to be immediately removed. I guess when I told the doctor I was bleeding a lot, she thought I was exaggerating. I felt instant relief on removal, but I had been in agony for months.”
Catherine McQueen / Getty Images
20.“I was told my chronic stomach aches and nausea as a child were due to not liking school. It turned out that these symptoms were the result of a rare genetic condition that was slowly cutting off blood flow to my kidney, causing chronic UTIs. This was explained to me just before they removed my right kidney. Also, I’m a pharmacist now, and I actually did like school. I just didn’t like feeling sick all the time.”
Towfiqu Ahamed / Getty Images
Women, have you had a medical symptom dismissed by a healthcare professional? Tell us what happened in the comments or in this anonymous form.
Also in Goodful: Therapists Are Revealing The Moments That Made Them Break Their “No Judgment” Rule, And I’m Honestly Speechless
Also in Goodful: 19 “Garbage” Modern Trends People Refuse To Partake In Despite Their Popularity
Also in Goodful: Medical Professionals Are Sharing “Mundane” Things That Actually Make So Many People Sick