being a female means needing to see 10 different doctors to get a proper diagnosis because they always think you’re exaggerating and/or lying
define proper diagnosis. I mean, does that just mean the diagnosis you want?
no 🙂 it means going to 10 different doctors who disbelieved your symptoms until the 11th found cysts on your ovaries 🙂 which may mean infertility 🙂 sit on a cactus 🙂
or being told not being able to walk up a flight of stairs without fainting/not being able to stay awake for more than 5 hours was ‘anxiety’ until finally the 5th doctor you saw diagnosed ur CFS/ME
It’s not getting proper treatment for over a decade because people think another female only disease isn’t real. And your insurance still does not cover your prescription even though it’s the only one you can take.
Dismissing symptoms for three years before finally sending you to a specialist and suddenly everything is happening very very fast because it is so obviously cancer.
Being constantly hounded to “just lose 5 or 10 pounds” when you came in for a fucking bronchial infection. Being talked over when you try to emphasize the fact that, not only did you not come in to talk about your weight, you are also recovering from an eating disorder.
The amount of eye rolls and shitty recommendations I got from doctors when trying to find the cause of my sexual pain was astounding.
It’s almost going blind after a years worth of appointments that culminated in the doctor telling me to “come back when you have a real problem” and finally getting referred to a specialist that found that I had spinal fluid pooling in my brain and pressing on my optic nerve causing me to slowly go blind.
Going to the emergency room over and over again, because of severe abdominal pain, vomiting after meals, and weight lose. Having a doctor not talk to you, but your father instead. Then being put on anti-psychotics (the doctor said they were anti-anxiety), after the doctor tells your father that you’re faking it for attention. Going back to the emergency room a year later in so much pain you’re delirious, only to be left there for hours, because they still think you could be faking it. Only to find out that you have gallbladder pancreatitis and it’s gotten so bad that emergency surgery is the only option and you almost die because NO ONE took you seriously because not only were you female but your were a teenager.
There are actually research articles and opinion pieces on this. My two favorites include “How Doctors Take Women’s Pain Less Seriously” and “The Girl Who Cried Pain”
Tag: medicine
Introducing ShameOver: A Conversation About Men’s Mental Health
In our culture, men are expected to be “strong” or “tough.” We regard the expression of feelings as a weakness. Look no further than the Webster’s Dictionary definition of “man,” which uses this as an exemplary sentence: “Don’t cry, little boy: be a man!“
Because emotions are not a weakness.
this is why its depressing to work in a pharmacy.
I was definitely a profit killer when I worked in a pharmacy (which honestly was my favorite job in the entire world, but it was short-lived and nowadays you can’t work at a pharmacy like that, it’s all tied in with corporate retail and no one should ever trust me with a cash register ever). It was not, however, actually a profit killer for the pharmacy, just for the drug companies, so no one cared. These days I do medical billing, which means I actually bill OUT from hospitals so I’m mostly spending my professional time taking money away from insurance companies.
I will now impart all of my profit killing resources onto you, in case you don’t know them. I think most of you know them, now. But just in case you don’t.
THIS IS US-CENTRIC. I’M SORRY.
1. GoodRx – this thing has an app now, so you can look up the best places to get your expensive medicines at the lowest possible prices without insurance on the go, and you no longer have to print coupons because you can just hand over your phone or tablet. Times have changed for the better with GoodRx. Definitely use it before trying to fill your scrip, because it will tell you the best place to go. (You can do that on the website, too.)
2. NeedyMeds – Needymeds is basically the clearinghouse of drug payment assistance. They have their own discount cards, but also connections to many patient assistance programs run by drug companies themselves. They are good assistance programs, too.
3. Ask your county – This is not a link. This is a pro tip. Most county social services will have pharmacy discount programs for people with no and/or shitty pharmaceutical coverage. You can often just find them hanging around at social services offices; you can just pick one up and walk off with it.
4. Ordering online – There are a few safe online pharmacies. I keep a little database in a text file on my computer. Most of them are courtesy of CFS forums, my mother or voidbat, so a lot of that is a hat tip to other people, but if you’re in need of a place to get a drug without a prescription … first I’ll make sure you 100% know what you’re doing for safety reasons and then I’m happy to turn over a link.
5. Healthfinder – A government resource that helps find patient assistance programs in your area. This might also point out the convenient county card thing. RxHope is something a lot of people get pointed to via Healthfinder that’s a good program.
6. Mental Health America – Keeps a list of their best PAPs for psychiatric medications, which can be some of the most expensive and a lot of pharmacy plans don’t cover them at all.
This is so important ppl.
Signal boost the shit out of it!
Booooooooooooooooooost
Good Rx Saved my family a hundred dollars a month while I was getting signed up for CHIP
seriously it’s a life savor especially for ridiculously expensive drugs like abilifyUseful info, friends! 😉
The Sick Rose by Richard Barnett is a collection of 19th-century medical illustrations. Prior to the use of photography, these images were used to capture the gruesome diseases of the era in painstakingly beautiful detail. Meticulous illustrations were an essential tool for educating students and helping doctors of the day diagnose and record ailments.
Purchase your copy here.
I feel morbid for wanting a copy.
Waiting for Winter 