Endometriosis is a terrible disease. I know so many women who have it and it can be debilitating. It can range from moderate discomfort to pain that spreads throughout the entire abdomen.
Every single woman I’ve talked to about it has described how difficult it has been to get treatment from male doctors. They all experienced skepticism about their symptoms and invalidation that what they were experiencing was real.
It’s really tragic that we don’t know more about this disease and don’t have really effective treatments yet.
There are doctors out there that take it seriously and there are a variety of treatments to try. There are no silver bullets, but anyone who suffers from this please look around for a doctor who understands this disease.
I know someone who went from being almost bed ridden for a couple days each month to what most would consider normal after finding the right doctor and treatment.
It is. A friend of mine has this. It took her so much time to actually seek help, despite the excruciating pain, and she got part of her digestive system removed because it spread too much.
Nowadays, after 2 years of the surgery, she manages it with a restrict and healthy diet, and the pill. It takes a big toll on the well being even after the pain is gone, and she is almost always tired because of it, the body is constantly fighting the inflammation.
Female doctors are also skeptics.
From what I've heard, female doctors can be surprisingly unsympathetic to female issues. Especially something like endometriosis. "I get menstrual pain, it's no big deal".
Trained by male doctors, operating in a male dominated field.
Find my a skeptic who has done surgery and seen the endometrial overgrowth on someone’s organs.
The thing about medicine is it has a lot of women who think that, "I am woman hear me roar, I will show my salt in this male dominated field" ... and end up in specialties such as OB/GYN, pediatrics (female dominated - some residencies in those fields are 100% female) Also family medicine, I wouldn't say those are female dominated but it's female majority, if any gender is dominating I'd say it's the majority, females
So if the woman is going to family medicine doctor, or their OB/GYN, for this abdominal pain / diagnosed endometriosis, more likely it's a female doctor. The idea that it's 99.9% misogynistic men is anachronistic, especially so in these fields - and the persistence of that idea, to a degree, has resulted in misandrist kickback on the basis of the misogynistic man boogeyman
The problem is that doctors tend to lose empathy, well not just doctors, most professionals.
Your second point is spot on though. A doctor that suffered the disease or has seen it first hand will approach it differently.
It is 100% irrelevant that a doctor “experience” a disease. They should have training / exposure to it though.
I constantly hear non-medical people talk about how “only female doctors understand because they’re women”. What crap.
The very same people when facing cancer magically don’t require a doctor who has had cancer. Suddenly they just want the most qualified.
The problem lies much more in over-specialization, rapid patient turn-around, patient demand that treatments be easy, pills, and yes, training in how patients (fe|male) communicate and feel pain, illness, etc
Who hurt you?
there just aren't enough doctors. nobody talks about the cap on licenses that the AMA will issue, which makes it so nobody ever has more than a few minutes with their doctor. It's to the point now where seeing an MD at all is a challenge. You go to the hospital and it's NPs and PAs as far as the eye can see.
it took my wife years to discover a chronic illness. why? every appointment is so short. how is any doctor supposed to diagnose anything so fast? disparate symptoms, patterns that are only noticeable over years, and five minute appointments
and for the record she was dismissed for years by a woman doctor and finally diagnosed by a man. anecdotes are just that.
what we need is more doctors, so we can afford to have more than a few minutes a year with them
I've had to actually diagnose myself a couple times after seeing a string of doctors and even specialists. It's baffling how bad my experience has been and it's not just one specialty, and I have good insurance too.
It's exactly how you describe, short appointments that are hard to come by and a general skepticism and aloofness from my doctors.
I live in another country.
That this study even happened is a positive sign this is changing.