People around the country are realizing that they’ve been cheated by their healthcare providers. Going to your doctor seems like a place where one wouldn’t have to worry about being dismissed, undermined, or bulldozed. We seek help, support, and answers from our doctors and healthcare teams. So, why do so many of us experience medical gaslighting? If you haven’t heard this term before, you may be surprised by how many people and groups experience it for months and even years at a time before they find the answers they’re seeking.
Medical Gaslighting Has More Than One Origin
As many have asked when left to fend for themselves in a seemingly bleak waiting room, why is this happening? What inspires medical gaslighting from doctors and healthcare professionals when all that’s asked of them is support? There are many reasons that someone might find themselves speechless when a doctor dismisses their concerns, and none of them stem from the adage, “do no harm”.
In medical school, doctors are taught, “When you hear hoofbeats, look for horses, not zebras”. This is an excellent method to use as a first step toward answers, but only if that first step is one of as many as are needed. It’s as easy as it comes to tell a patient that their pain, fatigue, and weight fluctuations can all be explained very simply: lose weight; get on antidepressants; take a spa day. Any degree of aloofness that doctors and medical professionals show to their patients is too much, but it can boil down to many different explanations.
Laziness, for one. It’s a well-known fact in medical careers that doctors, nurses, and their peers are busy people. Innumerable patients, procedures, treatments, and time spent dead on their feet could make anyone less likely to jump at an opportunity for more work, but while that’s a fact, it’s also a moot point; doctors spend nearly a decade in school to learn all of the possible things that a patient may struggle with so that they can help them. Allowing a patient seeking care to continue to suffer due to one’s own laziness is one of the many evils of our healthcare system.
Medical histories are vastly important when it comes to understanding someone’s experience as a living, breathing thing in this world. One test on someone’s history may significantly alter the route a doctor might take when diagnosing and treating their patient. A problem arises when a patient’s medical history transforms into a thing that could end their life. Depending on a person’s medical history to justify a flippant explanation for a new or escalating medical problem can and has nearly done exactly that.
Medical Gaslighting: More Common Than You Think
A married mother of three, 27, went into the emergency department to be treated for debilitating pain in her lower abdomen causing her to vomit. Upon speaking to a nurse, her medical history of ovarian cysts was mentioned to alert them to the fact that this was a different scenario and she needed immediate help. “I know what ovarian cysts feel like and this is not an ovarian cyst,” she told the nurses helping her. She was met with eye rolls, deep sighs, and passive-aggressive commentary like, “yep, ovarian cysts tend to hurt” and “Cysts don’t all feel the same.” Pain meds were offered, but only those that she repeatedly denied because they made her violently ill and incoherent. After a quick ultrasound, a blockage was found in her fallopian tube and dismissed, again, as an ovarian cyst. After hours of excruciating pain, the young woman accepted the pain meds and was discharged with a nonchalant suggestion to visit her OB-GYN. Later, her ovary ruptured and she was rushed into emergency surgery. She could have died, and nearly did due to the hasty negligence of her healthcare team.
The accusatory “hysteria” blanket thrown over women doesn’t stop at reproductive health and medical emergencies. Diagnoses for medical conditions that anyone can develop, such as autoimmune disorders like Hashimoto’s disease, are also disregarded by doctors and swept under the proverbial rug. Prejudice covers so many differences between people and groups, and one of the major prejudices that present themselves in the majority of medical gaslighting is the issue of a patient’s weight. While excess weight can contribute to potential health concerns, it doesn’t give doctors and medical staff the right to shelve the concerns of their patients. Without proof through testing, the immediate jump to blaming a person’s size or figure for symptoms is irresponsible, lazy, and prejudiced.
A scenario another married mother had to endure, though not focused on their reproductive health, involved a long, dragged-out plea to find the cause of their struggles. At 19 years old, they took their symptoms to their doctor and were brushed off as “overweight and depressed”. Without a single test, they were sent on their way to tend to their symptoms alone and confused. It was a journey of 11 years before they would get a diagnosis. The time it took to reach that point was enough to cause permanent, irreversible damage to their joints, memory, mental health, and organs due to malnutrition. How many doctors should it take to run the tests required for an autoimmune disease? In this person’s case, too many.
Stereotypes dating back through history have been harmful to minorities and subcultures of the United States, exploding over the last fifty years. Beginning with the AIDs crisis in the 1980s, gay men and men who have sex with men (MSM) have been targeted with stigmatizing limitations and requirements when it comes to their healthcare. Across the board, MSM are recommended to be screened for not only HIV but all sexually transmitted infections (STI) significantly more frequently than men who have sex with women (MSW). When considering the ethnicity of the individual seeking treatment for STIs, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continues to pile on recommendations. Why is this? When it comes to minorities, such as people of color (POC) and non-heterosexual people, authorities in the healthcare industry have rarely bothered to ask the “why”, choosing to simply add the “who, what, and when”. MSW aren’t recommended by the same authority to be checked nearly as much if at all, even those with multiple sexual partners. The data simply isn’t there. Despite infections such as HIV being on the decline, gay men and MSM are zeroed in on and continue to live with the stigma caused by a lack of opportunity for safe healthcare and non-judgemental support.
Take Control of Your Healthcare
When you find yourself being dismissed, spoken over, or reeled into a treatment plan that isn’t helping you, it can be overwhelming and even terrifying. Whether your life is on the line or a simple inconvenience turns into a life-long condition, everyone is worthy of advocacy. Several things can be done to take action against medical gaslighting.
- Ask for a differential diagnosis – Requesting this from your doctor gives you a breadcrumb to follow, e.g. “You’re diagnosing my symptoms as anxiety. What else do you think it could be?”
- Referral to a specialist – A specialist may be more likely to look into your concerns due to their experience and specific motivation
- Ask for their denial to be put in your chart – If a doctor is going to use his position of authority over the health of a patient, adding their refusal to the chart may force them to change their behavior and follow through with the needed tests or allow future doctors a jumping off point
- Ask for patient advocacy – Patient advocates are an excellent resource when a patient feels like they’ve been treated unfairly
- Seek medical professionals that match your identity – If your current doctor is not validating your medical concerns due to underlying biases, another doctor whose philosophy aligns with your circumstances may take your concerns more seriously
- Seek community support – There’s nothing wrong with seeking support from those around you and those who have similar experiences; online communities, support groups, and those close to you may have the experience necessary to help you reach your health goals
All individuals; despite ethnicity, gender, sex, or medical history; should be able to depend on the healthcare system when they need to. Data should not be shrugged off for one group and overflowing for another and self-advocacy should not be dismissed simply because a doctor doesn’t want to, holds unfair bias, or thinks they know your body better than you do. Fighting for the support and attention that the institution of healthcare claims it represents is more than your simple right; it’s your duty.
As a lifelong writer of creative stories and novellas, Vance graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in English and Communication. She is deeply invested in the art of connecting others through writing and words and shining a light on otherwise shrouded communities such as LGBTQ+, neurodivergent groups, and survivors of domestic abuse. Located in Talkeetna, AK with her five cats and Australian Shepherd, Corvo, she works towards a career in writing and editing as well as a Master’s in Communication.
