Okay Friends, Story Time
Okay friends. Story time.
During quarantine I was on a brand of birth control that was giving me a plethora of bad side effects. I was really depressed, breaking out, and all of a sudden my cycle that was once like clockwork had become extremely irregular. After months of putting it off, I decided to go to a doctor and see if I could switch my method.
The entire experience that followed left me miserable. The doctor, who I had initially sought out specifically because she was a woman of color, immediately started questioning my story when I told it to her. She asked why I didn’t want to be on anything with too many hormones. When I told her that it was because I got migraines, and had another medical professional tell me that there was potential for life threatening blood clots if I had any other kind, she made me feel like I was making it up. She kept asking me when I got formally diagnosed with migraines, despite my explaining the exact symptoms I had been experiencing chronically for years. When I told her that I didn’t have a formal diagnosis, she laughed and tried to prescribe me something I had specifically spoken against for my own safety.
I was then told I should get the arm implant, and after asking for more info, which she refused to give, ultimately told her I wanted an IUD. She told me that was an invasive procedure and that she wouldn’t do it. After being essentially worn down I was tired of constantly having to push back to get my needs met. I ultimately left the office with a prescription for the same medication I had entered with, and spent some time in tears in my car before driving home.
This is just one example of a negative doctor’s office experience. I won’t get into my struggles with receiving mental health help or diagnoses. The point is that while I have also had good experiences, negative ones like that are the reason that so many women dread going to the doctor, or wait for symptoms to get extreme enough for them to get taken seriously. Mine was just a relatively minor case of feeling invalidated by the professional who was supposed to help me. Had it been a serious health issue, like the ones I have heard stories about, it could have been life threatening.
The amount of misdiagnoses and stories of essentially gaslighting coming from the medical field is the reason I chose this topic in the first place. I wanted to hear more stories and fully understand how broad and serious this issue was. After hearing first hand accounts as well as results of other studies that have been done, I can see that this is a universal experience for women in America for the most part. The question is what can be done about it. These issues are systemic and come from many places and origins. From med students not being given proper bias training, to histories of women being diagnosed with hysteria and lobotomized, the issue of medical treatment being unkind to women and women of color is one that runs deep.
