Dealing with Unhelpful Doctors: My Frustrating Experience

Claude- as you are gender neutral that could be a huge factor into this. Women and those who are not cis men are often overlooked by doctors and not taken seriously. I’m currently reading “invisible women” and while it talks about the gender side of it- it really explains why anyone who is not a (cis, white) man struggle in this world and society.

If the doctor doesn’t listen to you find someone else. That’s why he’s getting paid to do is help you. If you’re not satisfied go someplace else.

ugggh that sounds very frustrating a few things I’ve learned that might help (though at the end of the day, it’s the doctors who are in the wrong) - if you can, it’s usually best to just get a different doctor - idk if this applies to the ER, but in regular office visits, you can ask doctors to write in their notes if they decided not to run tests and why; I heard that can encourage them to run tests - having done some research beforehand can help steer doctors in the right direction. especially with chronic and poorly-researched conditions, I wouldn’t totally trust doctors to be on the ball diagnostically - and the last thing I can think of—almost everyone with chronic pain or illness of any kind tends to understate their symptoms without knowing you personally, I can’t say if that applies to you, but I thought of it bcus I know doctors at ERs base their treatment at least partially on what number out of 10 you give them so, err on the side of overstating, and maybe they’ll take you a bit more seriously at the end of the day, it’s still frustrating and not your fault even if it’s not fatal, doctors should address symptoms, especially debilitating ones so good luck! and remember that everything you’re experiencing is real and not imagined!