This pisses me off.
It’s bad enough that so many of women’s health issues are written off as “it’s all in your head” or “lose 10 pounds, and that will fix it,” now the NYPost is reporting about a study claiming that there is such a thing as a “nocebo” effect – which when us stupid women (and maybe some dudes too, but the study focused on Birth control) attribute a health issue as a side effect of the medication we’ve been given but medical science decides that the thing we are feeling is too vague with too many possible contributing factors to be the result of the meds.
I tried birth control once after my second child. It made me want to walk out into oncoming traffic. And because of my Mullerian Anomaly, I’m not a candidate for many forms of birth control, so I quit. But if that happened now, would they tell me it’s all in my head??
For years, I have struggled with the medical community. Decades of doctors telling me to “just lose the weight,” and all my joint pain would go away. But when I did manage to lose the weight in my mid 20s, and my joint pain got worse, I thought it was arthritis. Well, I was assured that wasn’t possible, because I was too young to be having that kind of problem. A few short years later, when I found a female civilian doctor, she discovered I had a pretty decent case of early-onset arthritis.
I said I wasn’t feeling right, I’ve done my research, and I think my thyroid is off. The doctor at the military clinic doesn’t believe me, tells me I just need to lose some weight. After a year or so, I managed to see a female civilian doctor. She runs the labs. Calls me that night. My thyroid is so low, she has no idea how I’m able to get out of bed. That was about 25 years ago. I’ve been on Synthroid ever since. Turns out, it’s really hard to lose weight if your thyroid isn’t right.
Fast forward, after yet another move, and Tricare placed me back into a Military treatment facility with an ever-revolving door of doctors. Now, not only are my knees bad, but my back is killing me to the point that I’m bedridden and unable to stand. An X-ray tech says it’s the worst arthritis he’s ever seen in someone my age, and that something in my back is NOT right. However, the doctor tells me it’s just some mild arthritis, and it shouldn’t hurt that badly. He won’t order an MRI or any other testing; I just need to lose weight. So I leave the military clinic and get a female civilian doctor who is willing to listen to me. Get an MRI – 3 bulging discs and a pinched nerve, plus a wicked case of arthritis for someone my age.
I’ve been saying for decades that there is something systemically wrong with me. God bless my female doctors who believed me and gave me every referral I asked for. But then the specialists that Tricare sent me to all run a handful of labs and tell me they don’t see any issues. I’m repeatedly told “lose weight” or made to think that it’s all in my head. It’s only now, in my late 40s, that the specialists are willing to investigate. Turns out, I’ve got some nasty inflammatory arthritis, and possibly inflammation of the tendons, along with the run-of-the-mill osteoarthritis.
I have spent at least two and a half decades of my life fighting to get doctors to listen to me. But sure, let’s tell young women that those side effects they started feeling after going on a new medication or birth control are just all in their heads.
Some days, I hate the medical profession with a passion.