Taking care of your health is always important, especially if you feel certain symptoms that might indicate some problems. But if you’re a woman, there’s a possibility that going to the doctor won’t solve them. And it is all due to some subconscious prejudice over women some doctors tend to hold.
The perfect example of such a case is this TikToker, who shared a story about her journey of getting diagnosed with sleep apnea. Let’s just say that her journey didn’t lack challenges, both mental and physical.
More info: TikTok
TikTok user went viral after she shared her story of how doctors dismissed her exhaustion symptoms due to her weight or age, and, well, that enraged the women on the internet
“You know what makes me feel incredible and not super angry at all?”
“The way that over two years ago, I went to a doctor and I said, I am tired all the time and something is wrong. And he said, ‘You just need to lose some weight.’ And I tried to tell him about how it wasn’t just regular sleepiness. It was like excessive sleepiness to the point where when it happened, I needed to lay down immediately cause I was going down one way or another. And he once again was like ‘Yep, it’s just because you’re overweight.'”
“At the same doctor’s appointment I told him about how my foot goes numb when I run. And he said, ‘Have you tried thinking about it less?'”
“And then I asked if I could get some tests done for fertility because my mother went through early menopause. And I’m getting up there in age and I’d like to know what I’m working with. And he said: ‘Have you considered just calming down? You seem like you’re a really anxious person.’ Super helpful.”
“So, I left that appointment, feeling like shit about myself. Sure, I could stand to lose a few pounds. But like, I don’t think that my weight should be impacting my energy levels this much. So, of course, had to go sit in my car and cry for a while.”
“Fast forward to the winter. I’m so tired. It’s debilitating. Something’s definitely wrong. I go to the doctor again. So, I go to the doctor and I insist they test me for mono because it’s such blatant exhaustion, that I think it has to be something like mono. It comes back negative for mono. They say ‘It’s just the winter. It’s just the seasonal change, you’ll adapt, you’ll get used to it.’ Perfect. Very helpful. Thank you.”
“That summer, I go see my OBGYN. She asks how I’m doing and I just say, you know, “I’m doing pretty great. But I’m really tired all the time, to the point where it feels like something is wrong. She goes:”
“‘Oh, honey, you’re just getting older. Welcome to the club. It’s very normal to feel super tired all the time. Your body’s changing, growing up.’ Perfect, super helpful. Thank you.”
“This happened two years ago. And since then, none of the sleepiness and exhaustion has gone away. I go see the OG doctor again for a primary care checkup.”
Image credits: @thesam_show
“And he’s so aggressive about my need to lose weight that he focuses on nothing else”
“I tried to talk to him about my migraines, tell him I’m training for a half marathon. He’s like ‘None of that matters. You need to lose weight.’ Okay, thank you. After the appointment, I go and sit in my car and cry again. And I just said, I’m never going back to this doctor ever again. I can’t keep doing this emotionally, just when I’m trying to just seek health care.”
“So, that was last fall. In the spring, the sleepiness got so bad, I was like, it’s getting to the point where I can’t do a job. So, I scheduled an appointment with a new primary care doctor that I just found through my insurance. I walked into that appointment, and I said ‘I don’t want to talk about my weight. I am so tired. There is something wrong, and I need you to trust me.’ And he goes ‘Great. I’ll send you for a sleep study.’ Just like that.”
Image credits: Mikael Blomkvist (not the actual photo)
“I go to the sleep study. Turns out I wasn’t crazy. Turns out it wasn’t because I was overweight. I have sleep apnea”
“My body physically was not sleeping at night. I was waking up like 80 times in the middle of the night because my body decided to stop breathing. Isn’t that crazy? Isn’t it funny how that works? All you had to do is just send me for a f****** sleep study, and then you could figure out what was wrong with me. When I told you I was exhausted and that something wasn’t right, you could have just listened and done that. And I wouldn’t have had to spend two years barely surviving. Isn’t that so funny?”
“And it makes me irate because it’s not just the past two years I’ve had sleep apnea. I’ve been dating my boyfriend for almost 10 years and all throughout our relationships a thing that we’ve always laughed about is how many photos he has of me napping, how many photos he has of me sleeping on him. And all of that was happening when I was 115 pounds. So, it had nothing to do with my weight.”
Image credits: @thesam_show
“There’s just something structurally unsound here. Because get this – being exhausted is not normal. You should not be exhausted all the time”
“You should not be getting great sleep and feeling exhausted. And I’m trying to let go of anger that I feel that I have been speaking about my exhaustion for almost 10 years now. And either someone has attributed it to my weight or attributed it to my hormones or been like ‘It’s normal to feel tired.’ Gaslit the f*** out of me. And now I’ve been treating my sleep apnea for about three months. My migraines are gone. I do not get migraines anymore. These were debilitating migraines that dominated my life for years. Gone. I haven’t taken a nap in the past two months. I don’t need to nap anymore. I’m dreaming again.”
“Anyway, shout out to the doctor who finally took me seriously. Glad I have my life back now”
Watch the video here
@thesam_showONE DAY I WILL LET THIS GO!!♬ original sound – Sam Hart
The original video was posted by TikToker user @thesam_show or simply Sam Hart. The creator describes herself as “sometimes funny, sometimes thoughtful, always talking.” On this platform, the woman usually posts various videos regarding her life and various incidents that happen to her. With these videos, Sam has managed to collect over 38K followers on the platform and over 5M likes.
And Sam isn’t the only woman out there who has been a victim of misdiagnosis. Last year it was reported that around 57% of women stated that they have been misdiagnosed by a doctor.
And there’s more. For example, back in 2016, there was a study published that revealed that women have a 50% higher chance than men to be misdiagnosed after having a heart attack. And in 2014, it was found that women have a 33% higher chance of being misdiagnosed after a stroke.
The history of women being misdiagnosed goes very far back – to Ancient Greece. Back then, men believed that a woman’s uterus could wander around her body and cause various symptoms according to where it landed. So, we can call this the first-ever major misdiagnosis, as we know for a fact that this theory is not true.
Alas, this “diagnosis” was dubbed “hysteria”, a name that originates from the Greek word meaning uterus. This false diagnosis appeared in medical texts for centuries with slightly evolving definitions. In the end, it became a term for women’s psychological issues, and only in 1980 was it denounced as an official diagnosis. Yet, it still holds some influence in today’s medicine.
And that influence shows up in cases like what the TikToker Sam experienced – doctors downplaying women’s symptoms as merely emotional reactions or way simpler diagnoses. Again, like Sam, whose sleep apnea was attributed to her weight or just anxiety. And that’s due to some doctors’ ingrained prejudices against women.
Such prejudice is formed by women being underrepresented in medical research. For example, in heart disease studies, women make up less than a third of all subjects, or in mental health studies, women make up less than half of preclinical studies.
The comments under the video just proved our assumption about plenty of women being misdiagnosed right. For instance, one woman shared how the doctor said her kidney failure symptoms were just her psychological issues, which caused her to nearly die. Some shared how Sam inspired them to get a sleep study, where they also found out that have sleep apnea. And the majority of commenters were simply enraged by the doctors’ negligence and even called out the fat-shaming in the healthcare system.
Apparently, the TikToker isn’t the only one whose life was ruined by a negligent doctor
