Dr. Dismissive: When Healthcare Providers Won’t Listen

Health: it’s something you don’t actively want to think about when you’re a busy college student. When your to-do list is full of assignments, club meetings, and interviews, making a doctor’s appointment or picking up a prescription can seem like an impossibly daunting task. Forget about fighting with insurance or jumping from provider to provider to figure out a problem. Often, you can feel like you are the only one who deals with these health stresses, but you’re not alone. 

my story

The constant medical noise is something I am especially familiar with, as someone who was assigned female at birth (AFAB) and has been diagnosed with ADHD and PCOS since beginning college in 2022. Both diagnoses have brought me through countless offices of dismissive and ignorant practitioners who have overlooked my symptoms and even lab results. Though my two diagnoses do not seem to have much in common on paper, the confusion towards navigating the worlds of mental health and women’s health has been frustratingly similar. 

Though I have struggled with my symptoms of ADHD since the age of nine years old, I did not receive a formal diagnosis from a neurologist until I almost failed out of college freshman year. ADHD can be particularly difficult to detect in females because it manifests differently than in the male brain. The inattentive type of ADHD that AFAB people typically struggle with conflicts with the hyperactive, disruptive, and disobedient young boy that teachers and doctors picture when they think of someone struggling with ADHD.

Similarly, after three years, I finally received a PCOS diagnosis this past summer. This timeline is unfortunately quite typical, as one-third of women with PCOS report that it took more than two years and at least three different health professionals before establishing their diagnosis. While this is partially because PCOS can be difficult to detect, as it requires both blood tests and ultrasounds to verify, there is also an undeniable lack of research into women’s health.

Why does this happen?

Medical sexism and medical racism are both incredibly prevalent in our healthcare system. White male bodies are the patients who have the most access to comprehensive healthcare; their issues have been the most researched, and they are more likely to be taken seriously in a doctor’s office. 

As with many other issues in our country, unequal access to proper healthcare is a systemic issue that women and minorities have faced for as long as America has had a healthcare system. Healthcare professionals typically view women as uncontrollably emotional, which is evidenced in the fact that the exclusively female diagnosis of “hysterical neurosis” remained in the DSM-III until 1980. This prejudice is even worse for women of color. Medical racism convinces doctors that black people have a higher pain tolerance, causing their concerns to be ignored and overlooked. This widespread issue affects us all. 

What can you do about it?

There are a few things to keep in mind if you are struggling to receive a diagnosis or proper healthcare: 

• Advocate for yourself. Remember that at the end of the day, you’re the only person who knows when something isn’t right with your health.
• Physicians are human beings with their own biases and ignorance. This means that you may need to be picky when choosing healthcare practitioners. Personally, I refuse to see male physicians for anything other than optometry and dentistry. With anything more sensitive than that, I only trust a female doctor to listen to my concerns. 
• Do your own research. There is a large community of people online who are going through or have already gone through the same thing you are. Take advantage of those resources.
• Remember: you should never feel unsafe or uncomfortable with your physician. 
• Don’t be afraid to ask questions, especially if you feel like your concerns aren’t being taken seriously. 
• Take a deep breath. It can be a long and arduous process, but remember, your health is always worth advocating for.

For many patients, receiving a diagnosis is only the beginning of the uphill battle to receive proper medical care. Once your symptoms have finally been explained, getting access to medications and procedures is often incredibly costly, both in time and money. While a diagnosis won’t immediately resolve the frustration that comes with navigating our healthcare system, knowledge about your body is power and a strong start. 

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• women's health