we are all mad!

[serenfach]

Came across this while looking for something else...

Research suggests women are often much more likely to be misdiagnosed than men. A 2009 study of patients with heart disease symptoms found 31.3 per cent of middle-aged women “received a mental health condition as the most certain diagnosis”, compared to just 15.6 per cent of their male counterparts. Additionally, a 2020 study found that as many as 75.2 per cent of patients with endometriosis—a painful disorder that affects the tissue of the uterus—had been misdiagnosed after they started experiencing endometriosis symptoms. Among those women, nearly 50 per cent were told they had a “mental health problem”.

I was told I was depressed. I knew I was not. This was then changed to PTSD. Nope! I know many of us here have been told "its all in your head" before finally being diagnosed, but am wondering about the percentage.

The old hysteria and wondering womb theory seems to still exist!

[SlowDragon Administrator]

Certain endocrinologists would definitely agree ….

tpauk.com/main/article/the-...

This brings us to the quite outrageous and sweeping assertion that the majority of these patients have functional somatoform disorders. This fine new description, thanks to Prof Wellesleys efforts, is a neologism for hysteria. It implies that this majority of patients have personality disorders which make it impossible for them to accept, with good (and uncomplaining) grace, their illness. While no illness in medicine can ever be entirely without this pathology, this sweeping assertion is very much open to question. Indeed, one could be forgiven for wondering, perhaps, if these are the patients who havent played the game by the rules, and so remain ill, and it brings the whole of Prof Weetmans argument into a reductio ad absurdum.

No wonder we on the inside cannot adequately describe these somatoform disorders. Could it be, it must be asked, that on the contrary, these patients really are ill?

[Alanna012]

Yes, this is a support group for crazy women. I thought you knew!

[HealthStarDust in reply to Alanna012]

Crazy is far too positive! Just ask gen Z! We are definitely mad 😎

[humanbean]

The old hysteria and wondering womb theory seems to still exist!

I actually think this is getting worse. The names of the conditions we are labelled with may change but the underlying ideas continue.

The NHS is desperate to save money at every turn, so fobbing off, gaslighting, and labelling patients with mental illness is par for the course for so many women.

If anyone wants to read something that I promise will make them angry, there's this reddit thread entitled

"Wastebasket diagnoses by specialty "

reddit.com/r/medicine/comme...

Naturally subclinical hypothyroidism gets a mention.

Edit : Oh, and FND = Functional Neurological Disorder and conversion disorder pop up too.

[Marz in reply to humanbean]

All ready for digital health records to be linked to banking and everything else. 'Sorry madam you cannot pay to watch this play - it's scary and we see you suffer with anxiety '. I think we need to obtain our records and Edit accordingly.

[MissGrace]

Yup - prostrate on my sofa unable to sit up without fainting as my T3 and T4 were so low, (before I was diagnosed), my GP - who at least came out on a home visit since I had been taken to hospital the day before - asked me if I was depressed. Or that should be ‘Are you depressed dear?’

Well I was pretty f**king fed up since my body was closing down - but the implication it was all in my head was enough to make me sit up straight with anger! 🤸🏿‍♀️🥛

[Zephyrbear]

It’s all “Somatoform disorder” now, don’t you know… I’d love to stick his somatoform theory up a certain individual’s fundament and see how he likes it and I totally agree with others here that he should return whatever awards he has been given in the field of thyroidology because there is no merit in anything this man spouts out!

[Sparklingsunshine]

When I first started experiencing my balance and dizziness issues it was blamed on anxiety. I'm a pretty chilled person for the most part so I knew this was bunkum. Turns out I was diagnosed with chronic vestibular migraine by a Neuro.

As a long term Fibro sufferer I'm all too familiar with the Medicine For Dummies handbook so many doctors read from. As a middle aged post menopausal woman I've probably heard every feeble,lazy, ill informed excuse doctors like to gaslight patients with 😡

[snowrabbit]

I am told by G.P. T3 doesn't work.( I would like to try that theory)! I am told go to weight watchers, even though I watch every gram of sat fat I eat. I live with man who is type 2 diabetic, he gets every available treatment going, yet he eats chocolate, cookies, ice cream, etc. Lies to nurse telling them he doesn't eat anything he shouldn't, can they be that blind? I was told when I asked why he gets all the full on help, answer; Men have such trouble losing weight by diet, they do not have the will power that women have..!!!