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For eleven long months, Suzannah Weiss chained medical appointments in search of answers. Of the 17 doctors that this American consulted, only the last was able to make a good diagnosis on its ills … An endless waiting that this feminist author chose to tell on Twitter, mid-October, enjoining other women to testify wandering medical they too have been victims. Immediately shared on Twitter, his hashtag #MyDoctorSaid ("My doctor said") received a certain echo, including in France. Some terrifying stories illustrate gender discrimination that has been increasingly denounced in recent years.
Women with chronic illnesses: how long and how many doctors did it take you to get diagnosed? I counted 11 months & 17 doctors & wrote down what each did to show what we're going through just to begin to heal. pic.twitter.com/2TJ7FOyH3B
- Suzannah Weiss (@suzannahweiss) October 16, 2018
"Doctor 1: told me everything was fine at home Doctor 2: told me that my symptoms were caused by my anxiety and prescribed invasive exams that made them worse (…) Doctor 6: m said that nobody knew what was causing my symptoms and prescribed me drugs that gave me diarrhea (…) Doctor 12: told me that everything must have disappeared since the time Doctor 13: m said it was probably in my head Doctor 14: told me that I had done this alone by taking the medications that had been prescribed to me (…) Doctor 16: told me to see a psychiatrist Doctor 17: finally tested me for the pathology that I had.
Hundreds of shared stories
Like Suzannah Weiss, hundreds of women shared their experiences on Twitter. Some have had a dramatic outcome. One user reports going to the emergency department, worried about her abnormally high heart rate and heavy bleeding from her urethra. "They sent me home and told me that 'women have worse rules than yours.' I did not have my period, I had a liver tumor," she says.
#mydoctorsaid "Every day you have anxiety" as my BPM has been 188, HR was 144/88, for over 48 hours, continuously. I was peeing pure blood. They feel me home and told me "I have not been in my period. I have a liver tumor.
- NikkiNightmare (@NikkiCarruthers) October 26, 2018
Another explains that she went to see her doctor after feeling "like electric shocks" in her left bad. When asked, "Can I have a mammogram?", Her doctor would have said, "you're too young for a mammogram, it's not like it's cancer." Unfortunately, it was a tumor.
Me: my left bad hurts and I feel like I have electrical charges running through it, can I get a mammogram?
Male Dr: Breasts hurt, too young for a mammogram, not like it's cancer.
Extreme narrator voice: it was cancer.#MyDoctorSaid
- orbMorbid Gurl☠ (@mouthygurl) October 24, 2018
Beyond these particularly serious cases, some diseases often seem poorly understood by the medical profession, such as endometriosis, which affects one in ten women of reproductive age, and is manifested by severe pelvic pain. and belly during menstruation and sometimes after intercourse. Tuesday, Stephanie told moreover at the microphone of Olivier Delacroix on Europe 1 the "so amazing and aberrant things" that his sister, a victim of endometriosis, had heard from doctors.
I'm worried I have ovarian cancer, I always have bread near my ovary.
Doc: How long has this been going on?
Me: On and off for seven years.
Doc: (laughing) If it was cancer, you'd be dead by now.It took 5 more years to be diagnosed with Stage IV endometriosis.#MyDoctorSaid
- Confluence Nutrition (@malachesky) October 26, 2018
"- Me: I'm afraid of having ovarian cancer, I always have trouble near my ovary.
– Doctor: How long has it been?
– Me: intermittently, for seven years.
– The doctor (laughing): If it was cancer, you would already be dead
It took me five more years to be diagnosed with stage 4 endometriosis. "
Several French women have also resumed the movement, still with the hashtag #MyDoctorSaid. "My gynecologist told me for years: 'you're a comforter!' Many years later by changing gynecology, I discovered by having access to my medical file that I had enormous foci of endometriosis. He knew about it and called me a comforter, "says Fleur-de-maman.
- M as M @ m @ n (@Fleur_de_maman) October 31, 2018#MyDoctorSaid My gyné told me for years you are a comforter! Many years later changing # gyne, I discovered by having access to my medical file that I had huge homes# endometriosis he knew about me and called me snug.
"To justify [ses] chronic pain born of the fybromyalgia ", another was replicated:" It's in the head ".
#MyDoctorSaid ... "it's in the head" to justify my #douleurschroniques born of the #Fibromyalgie
- Growing up with him and with fibromyalgia (@MamanFibro) October 31, 2018
Other testimonials recall for example those compiled since the beginning of 2017 by the Tumblr and the Facebook page "Pay your gynecologist", which are part of the badism, verbal and sometimes physical violence that can take place in the field of gynecology-obstetrics.
Gender discrimination
This is what we "have to go through just to begin to heal", says Suzannah Weiss, who believes that these failing testimonials highlight the existence of real "prejudices", including "racialized people, LGBT + people and other marginalized populations "also suffer. "This is a feminist problem, we are sick, suffering and even dying because people still do not trust our knowledge of our own body," says the young woman.
She is not the first to highlight this problem. Last May, the health journalist from New York TimesCamille Noe Pagán, also told in an article that doctors had neglected her suffering, before questioning health professionals to find out if her case was isolated or not.
"I can not tell you how many women I saw went to see many doctors, only to be told that their problems were related to stress or that everything was in their head," the neurologist told him. Fiona Gupta. "Many of these patients were then diagnosed with serious neurological problems, such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.They knew something was wrong, but they were dismissed and ordered not to trust their own intuition. "
The pain of women "is often brutally referred to a psychological dimension, as a physical manifestation of stress, anxiety or depression," and thus advanced in 2017 an article published by the Harvard Medical School.
A study published in 2001 by the International Research Center (SSRN) still found that "women generally suffer from more severe pain, more frequent and longer than men, but are nevertheless treated less aggressively." In other words, doctors and nurses tend to prescribe less painkillers. Another, led by the University of Pennsylvania, revealed that women had to wait an average of 16 minutes longer than men to receive painkillers when they went to the emergency room.
"The doctors make the mistake of not knowing exactly the cause of the disease (women, ed) and treat it as if it were a male disease … It is necessary from the beginning to question carefully on the cause, because the diseases of women and men are very different for treatment. " These words, held by Hippocrates more than 2,000 years ago, seem unfortunately still relevant. The French scientific community, however, began to take up the issue. Last year, the INSERM Ethics Committee published a series of short films, "Gender and Health: Attention to Clichés!", To awaken the conscience of the general public. And that of caregivers.
The importance of talking about it
Last May, in the columns of New York TimesDr. Tia Powell, a bioethicist and professor of epidemiology in New York, gave three tips to women who would question their doctor's diagnosis: do not be afraid to ask questions ("What is the basis of your recommendation – are there any guidelines in this regard and what do they say? ", do not be afraid to be direct (" I'm worried, and I feel you may not hear me. " me to understand why you do not see this as a problem "), and trust your intuition by talking to your doctor.
In 2008, Australian singer Kylie Minogue, then in remission of bad cancer, also put the subject on the table, on the set of host Ellen DeGeneres. "The first diagnosis I had of the doctors was wrong, so my message is this: It is not because he is in a white coat that your doctor is always right.If you have a doubt, go back and see" recommended the singer. She herself had to consult three different doctors before discovering that she had cancer.
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