how do you get taken seriously by doctors? my story (awareness!)
(18f)
I have been constantly fobbed off by male doctors about my symptoms and its getting super frustrating. I have heavy periods, constipation that goes into diarrhoea, yellowy white narrow stools and weird itchy feelings. I get really bad brain fog and fatigue also and it all seems to be somehow mapped to my cycle - I thought it could be a prostaglandin or progesterone issue as I don't even feel my gut moving at all.
I had an episode at the start of LAST year where I fell unconscious and projectile vomited due to blocked up stool, and had to go to the hospital in an ambulance. I was so weak that I couldn't speak or move, and they had to pump food our of my stomach and poop outta my ass. It was so frustrating to be told afterwards that it was probably nothing and be referred to a gastro in 6 months time.
I was just about to go to uni, and that gastro appt that I waited 6 MONTHS FOR basically told me they are not doing anymore tests, bloods are fine, and its all anxiety and when I go to uni it will be fine. He was a male doctor and spent more time telling me about how he wanted to go to Cambridge but he couldn't (I had an offer from Cambridge and he asked me about what uni I was going to, instead of actually talking about my symptoms.)
A few months later things got a lot worse. Fatigue where I couldn't get out of bed, I couldn't type on some days. Swollen glands and itching. Still, every doctor I had never took me seriously, and it was just really hard to get through. They told me it was stress, anxiety, yadda yadda, that there was no point doing anything, bloods were fine. I knew something was wrong, but every doctor (mainly male!!!) NEVER TOOK ME SERIOUSLY.
I thought, you know what? Im going to take my savings from my job and pay for a private medical assessment. Guess what? 1000 POUNDS and the doctor still didn't take me seriously?! He did all the tests, and even when my hip was audibly grinding and my calcium was sky high he said it was fine. He told me the swollen lymph nodes in my neck were normal even though I knew they were not. 1000 pounds for nothing, when I thought I would maybe get somewhere.
Fast forward to April of this year, I finally through the NHS get a really kind female, Asian GP and she takes me seriously. Notes down everything I say. Swollen Lymph nodes, itching, sweating at night, losing weight fast. She arranges me to have a chest Xray. They find I have significantly swollen hilar and mediastinal nodes and tells me its very very possible I have lymphoma. LYMPHOMA. fricking CANCER. Still waiting on the biopsy results but my bloods, with high ESR and calcium that wasn't taken seriously before, as well as my xray shows it is likely I have cancer. Who knows if I have bowel cancer too?
I can't help but wonder if I had been taken seriously by all those countless male doctors before, if I would have been able to get help faster. Its frustrating as a young woman to know you have to constantly fight against the healthcare system to get any help. any suggestions?