29 Women Are Sharing The Times A Doctor Totally Disregarded Their Pain - Yahoo

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I know I'm not the only woman who's been completely disregarded by a (male) medical professional and told that something that needs immediate medical attention is essentially a non-issue. A decade ago, I had a psychiatrist tell me that my deep, debilitating depression was "all in my head" right after I divulged some traumatic experiences I had recently gone through.

Feeling completely flabbergasted and knowing that guy could not help me, I attended my next appointment with a smile on my face and lied, saying, "You were right, doctor. It was all in my head. Thanks." He clapped his hands together, basically patting himself on the back for being brilliant, and sent me on my merry way after 3 minutes of a 30-minute appointment. I wish I were making this up. Sadly, I'm not.

And hearing similar experiences from my three sisters and closest girlfriends, I know I'm sadly not the only one who's had a medical professional completely disregard me. In fact, over on Reddit, women are sharing the most infuriating experiences they've had with doctors — from being told it's "just stress" or "part of being a woman" — and I'm literally gagged at the audacity. Take a look:

"The doctor told my mom she had empty nest syndrome. She had a brain tumor. I wish I was joking."

"As a teenager, I was super sick. My doctor said it was anxiety and put me on a heavy-duty anxiety medication meant for adults. Turns out, I had mono. Then, when I tried to come off the anxiety medication, I experienced such horrific withdrawal that I ended up dropping out of college. So, a misdiagnosis at 17 altered the course of my life."

"I started feeling sick and puking all the time. I was nauseous, couldn’t keep food down, had headaches, and would feel dizzy at home. The male doctor I went to said I was the 'puking type' and dismissed me when I tried to address it. It turned out that the apartment where I was living at the time had black mold, and I was experiencing symptoms from the exposure."

"I keep having the same symptoms: constipation, left-sided abdominal pain, and nausea. The first gastroenterologist I saw told me it was anxiety and prescribed me an anti-anxiety medication. I spent the next 10 freaking years going to different doctors trying to get this sorted out, but that damn anxiety on my chart made them all dismiss me. I finally found a doctor who would give me a colonoscopy. Boom, neuroendocrine tumour. A big one. Grade 2. Thanks for nearly killing me, assholes. Luckily, it was a slow-growing version that didn't spread, but it would have been a lot easier to remove if they'd gotten it out a decade earlier."

"My mom had blinding pain in her abdomen one night, to the point that she had tunnel vision and was blacking out. She ended up in the ER, and the (male) doctor dismissed her and told her she was about to start her period. My dad drove her to another ER, and it turned out that her gallbladder had to be removed and that she had some kind of infection that nearly killed her. She likely would have died if she hadn’t gone to the second ER."

"I went to the ER with severe abdominal pains, and the first thing the doctor asked me was if I was on my period. I told him that because of my birth control, I hadn’t had my period in 6 years at that point. He gave me a whole spiel about how birth control can cause cramping sometimes and blah blah blah. I was very adamant that it had nothing to do with my reproductive organs, especially since the pain was sitting right underneath my ribcage. He prodded my stomach with his hands, did a very weak physical exam, and chalked everything up to 'anxiety and indigestion.' I wound up leaving that hospital, going to one in the city next to mine, and getting properly tested. Turns out I had a severe case of pancreatitis, and my glucose levels were through the roof. I was hospitalized for 2 weeks. But hey, maybe it was just my period?"

"My mom took me to the doctor when I was a teenager because I was sick often and was fainting. My mom wanted him to write a requisition for bloodwork so that I could get my iron tested. He refused to do so and instead wrote 'Canada Food Guide' on a prescription for me and implied I had an eating disorder, but not in an empathetic way. Anyways, my mom took me to a walk-in clinic where they happily sent me for bloodwork, and I was indeed severely anemic."