Jan. 20, 2023 – Preslee Marshall, a 25-year-old resident of Canada, began having severe electric shock-like sensations shooting throughout her body. It started happening once a week, then progressed to once a day, then multiple times a day, she says. Worried, Marshall, who co-manages a public relations agency, consulted a neurologist.
“The first doctor my mother saw said, ‘You’ve got to expect this at your age,’ and when she went to a second doctor, he advised her to go home and relax with a glass of wine,” DeCapua recalls. Two years later, Lewis was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, which eventually claimed her life. Karen Lutfey Spencer, PhD, a professor of health and behavioral sciences at the University of Colorado in Denver, says that while “medical gaslighting” has become a popular term to describe the downplaying or dismissing a patient’s symptoms, it may be a label that's not accurate.
“Research has shown that women, people of color, older people, non-heterosexual people, and individuals with ‘stigmatized’ conditions – like being overweight or having a mental illness – are more frequently misdiagnosed and their symptoms are more frequently dismissed,” she says. These various kinds of influences become “baked into medical training.” So when a woman has heart symptoms, “[doctors] may be less certain that it’s a heart problem and give more consideration to other causes, like stress or depression,” says Spencer.
One of the main reasons is lack of education about chronic pelvic pain – and similar conditions – during medical school and residency. Insufficient education can lead to even a common condition being regarded as a “zebra,” according to Shrikhande. This is true for other conditions as well, such as fibromyalgia.Pain similarly has no “objective” measurement technique, according to Metz.
Spencer says she’s been told by female athletes “that when they’ve sought treatment for an injury, they were told to go home and use ice or take ibuprofen, while their male counterparts with similar injuries were more aggressively treated.” When you leave a provider’s office, you should feel respected and validated. Feeling disrespected, trivialized, downplayed, or invalidated is another warning sign.Spencer recommends bringing a trusted friend or family member to medical appointments – especially someone who has been with you when you’ve had your symptoms.
I just gave what will probably be the interview of the year on medicalgaslighting because it is that EPIC!