thefibrodiaries:

can we stop pretending that doctors treat everyone equally and that they don’t have prejudices towards poc, lesbians/gays/bisexuals, trans people, fat people, people of a certain religion, poor people/people on benefits etc and that it actually stops people from getting a diagnosis and/or treatment. stop acting like people with chronic pain, mental illness or other medical issues can just “go see a doctor” and get all the help and diagnosis’s that they need. 

I don’t see male doctors anymore cos every single one at my surgery has treated me like an idiot who doesn’t understand her own body and her own symptoms. They also lie to me way more than the one female doctor at my surgery, so I’ve been given meds that counter act with my supplements and not been told to stop taking them and meds that are of the family I’m allergic to but they didn’t believe me.

I also don’t go to the locums cos they always say ‘just loose some weight’ as if I haven’t been over weight my entire life, as if this isn’t a new symptom and my weight is stable, as if I’m not suffering from a permanent condition (that will eventually cause my death) that causes my weight to increases far easier than decrease, as if I’m not chronically depressed and being told I’m fat doesn’t make me hate myself for the rest of the week.

My weight has also been blamed for my migraines for years, but now a female doctor has asked if I’ve ever had a brain scan cos when combined with my medicine allergies, I might have brain swelling that could be a brain tumour or possibly something worse.

Before I was diagnosed with PCOS, I was shuffled from blood test to blood test to find out why my periods sucked and killed me monthly, the female doctor who diagnosed me was a fellow sufferer.

My IBS diagnosis (after three years of tests) is the doctors way of saying “your guts hate you and we don’t know why” and because I can’t afford the time off to have a colonoscopy, they think it’s not that bad. It is, I have been to A+E with the pain and often go days with constant cramps and pain.

I’m lucky I’ve got a therapist and a doctor that understand that my asexuality is not a symptom, but I’ve had doctors say my “decreased sex drive” (read: has never existed ever) is a symptom of depression and weight.

Doctors aren’t perfect and aren’t always the best choice for everyone, especially if you’re not a white, cis, male presenting, heterosexual, ntab, white man whose only problem is ear wax build up.