Unfortunately, it's difficult to ignore the gender bias that still exists in medicine. Women are often dismissed, misdiagnosed, gaslighted, or all of the above. In fact, a study found that women were diagnosed later than men for more than 700 different diseases. And for POC, the bias in medical settings becomes exponentially worse.
Knowing this, we recently asked women of the BuzzFeed Community about the medical diagnosis they finally received after having their symptoms ignored or misdiagnosed for so long. Here are their stories:
1. "I had wildly irregular periods and went to the gyno because I suspected polycystic ovary syndrome. The ultrasound tech didn't see anything and cheerfully said, 'Pretty soon you'll be in here for us to look at your baby!' I wasn't trying to conceive. The nurse practitioner told me the only thing wrong with me was that I needed to lose 20 pounds. I did. Still had the same symptoms. Went back. Got told to lose 20 more pounds. At this point, I understood this was all I was going to get."
"Five years later — still with irregular periods — I was having trouble conceiving. Went to my family doctor, who sent me for an ultrasound at an actual radiology center. They called within 20 minutes to tell me it was very clearly PCOS. I was able to conceive within three months of starting minimally invasive fertility treatments with a doctor who knew how to work with PCOS and people in bigger bodies.
"I could have known all this five years sooner, but all the first practice could see when they looked at me was ~fat~."
2. "My gynecologist wouldn’t give me the birth control pill when I was 21 years old because she wanted me to have an IUD. She gave me no rationale for why she thought I should have that over the Pill. But the brand of IUD she recommended was all over the products in her office. I went to her office with appointments three times, and she wouldn’t give me the Pill or any other form."
"She took my copay and wouldn’t even examine me the first two times I went after I refused an IUD. I had to literally demand that she give me an actual exam. A few months later, I was in immense pain, and after two ER visits and an urgent care visit, I was finally diagnosed by a doctor with having a ruptured ectopic pregnancy. They confirmed with two different types of ultrasounds. They called that gynecologist, since I hadn’t found a new one yet, and she accused me of 'faking it' for attention or for the Pill, and said 'it’s very convenient' that now I’m in all this pain."
3. "It started when I was around 15 or 16 years old. I was in so much pain in between periods — I knew mid-cycle pain was a thing, but this was severe and it didn’t feel normal. My OB-GYN at the time dismissed it as mittelschmerz, or ovulation pain. She did one ultrasound and told me, 'Oh, you have a cyst. That’ll go away on its own.'"
"Fast-forward several years later, I’ve moved to a different state, and now the pain is so bad in between my periods that I can't stand, I can't lie down, and I can't do anything to relieve it. I ended up going to the ER, and they found a mass on my right ovary. My new OB-GYN ran some tests because, in his words, 'We’ve got to figure this out, you can’t go on like this.' Turns out I had two massive fibroids: one the size of a golf ball and the other the size of my fist. So $36,000 and one major surgery later (thank god for my good insurance), I am now pain-free between cycles. I owe my new doctor the world. But my right ovary is no longer functional."
4. "I’m 23 years old and I’ve been having severe headaches for a couple years now. I’ve mentioned it to my doctor several times, and it was always fluffed off as being migraines or stress from work/school. She would make me feel as if it was all in my head. I recently started feeling very nauseated and dizzy on a daily basis. So I finally got a referral for a CT scan. Turns out I have a benign 3.2-centimeter brain cyst. Now it’s a massive waiting game with more doctors on whether or not to operate."
—Anonymous
5. "My sister went to the ER two nights in a row because she said she couldn’t breathe. Both times, she was written off as having anxiety. Luckily we had our annual body check two days later, and the X-ray technician found that her lungs had collapsed."
6. "I first got symptoms at 16 years old. I had deep, painful cysts in my armpits. Doctors told me it was just poor hygiene and cheap razors. At 18 years old, I had a dermatologist tell me this wasn’t 'simple acne' and if it came up again to come back immediately for surgery. Zero explanation or diagnosis."
"At 20 years old, my armpits cleared but the abscesses moved to my groin area. A family doctor said one plum-sized one on my groin was an ingrown hair. I had two nurses hold me down while she tried draining it with a syringe. When that didn't work, she cut it open to drain it and quit when I passed out. Finally, I found a dermatologist at 26 years old who diagnosed me with hidradenitis suppurativa and has been treating me ever since. This disease has no cure, no certain cause, and consumes a lot of my life."
7. "My twin sister had cerebral palsy. She was having a feeling of pressure in her chest and a little difficulty swallowing. We went to doctor after doctor, year after year, trying to get anyone to listen to us and take her seriously. They kept saying it was just part of her CP and nothing to worry about. We finally, after she had lost about 30 pounds, found a doctor who ordered a CT scan. Guess what? She had a thymus (small gland beneath your breastbone) tumor that was the size of a grapefruit. And cancerous. By then, it was too late to do anything. She passed away in my arms a few months later. I will never stop missing her and cursing every one of those doctors who ignored us."
8. "After I had my child, I was constantly breathing hard, my hair was falling out, nails breaking, and my resting heart rate was 110. I was always anxious and would go days without sleeping. After SEVEN years of doctors telling me that I needed to 'calm down' and 'work on my stress,' my first female primary care physician gave me a blood test. I had SEVERE hyperthyroidism and Graves' disease. I have permanent damage to my heart and overall health. My hair will never fully come back. It has really messed up my long-term health."
—Anonymous
9. "My junior year of college, I started experiencing nausea and vomiting every time I ate, no matter what I ate, whether it was a slice of bread or Hot Cheetos. After having tons of different tests done and being told nothing was wrong and that it was 'just heartburn,' I switched to a different doctor, who ran totally different tests."
"I told him my first doctor said it was 'just heartburn,' then changed his mind and said, 'It could be your gallbladder,' so I had that removed. Well, fast-forward THREE YEARS from the start of it all and I found out none of that was ever the problem, and instead it was gastroparesis (when your stomach muscles contract exceptionally slow). Imagine vomiting after every single meal your last two years of college!"
10. "I had abdominal pain for YEARS and once went 30 days without passing stool. I was told it was just normal for women to have abdominal pain and constipation, especially since I work at a desk. Turns out I had a tennis ball–sized tumor on my colon."
11. "For years I was told that I was just anxious. Then it was OCD because I couldn't handle things being different. Any time I thought, Hey, maybe I might be autistic, I was dismissed as being 'too smart' or 'too social.' Turns out, women with autism are socialized from a young age to mask their autistic traits and often appear more socially adept than men with autism. I had a special interest in etiquette, so I could learn how to behave around other people. I finally had someone listen to me about my suspicions of neurodiversity a few months ago and got my diagnosis. Everything finally makes sense to me. It's a shame it took 40 years to finally get there."
—Anonymous
12. "After I had my daughter at 22 years old, I had major back and pelvic pain that seemed to never end. I knew something wasn’t right, but the doctors told me there was no way I could be in constant pain because my Pap smears were normal. I dealt with it for a couple of years, deciding I would just always be in pain and never be able to be 'normal' again."
"About three years later, I was still in pain and intercourse was becoming more and more painful. I found a new specialist and originally made an appointment to find out why I wasn’t getting pregnant. They scheduled laparoscopic surgery to take a look. After I came out of surgery, the doctor came in and said my uterus was completely prolapsed and was falling on my bladder. This was a result of having hard labor and my uterus having no elasticity. As a result, I had to have a hysterectomy at barely 25 years old. Doctor said he couldn’t believe I’d gone that long with the condition and pain."
—Anonymous
13. "I was told over and over that I 'bit my cheek' and 'it doesn’t look like cancer' — but all the while, an actual tumor was growing in my mouth. I had a dentist inject Novocain THROUGH the tumor and then scold me for moving. An oral surgeon gave me penicillin and told me it was an infection. It wasn’t getting better, it was getting bigger, and no one would help for so long. Two years later, I finally got someone to do a very painful biopsy and was diagnosed. It had been so long that the surgery ended up being pretty invasive, including a neck dissection to remove lymph nodes."
14. "Not me, but my best friend. Her family has a very long history of cancer on her mother’s side — specifically breast. She was 38 years old and asked her doctor for a mammogram, but he said she was too young and shouldn’t worry about it 'until [she was] at least 40 years old.' He instructed her to do a self-examination and follow up."
"She explained that she had been doing a self-exam once a month for the past 10 years. She asked again, and he wouldn’t give her the referral. Well, the new doctor did, and less than a week later, she was diagnosed with stage 0 breast cancer. She had genetic testing done and ultimately decided to do a double mastectomy due to the risk of recurrence. Because of her persistence, she caught it so early that her odds are great. But the type of cancer she was diagnosed with has a very high mortality rate. She literally saved her own life by advocating for her own health."
15. "I had unexplained hip pain for many years. I'd be fine for months, then suddenly get this pain so intense that I'd be bedridden for five days. My doctor kept saying it was tendinitis. When I finally pushed for an X-ray, they found a cyst. I saw a specialist, who told me the cyst should not cause pain, and my pain was likely just period pain. A few months later, I was rushed to the ER when the pain got so bad that I couldn't sit up, stand up, or walk; I'd lost feeling in my leg and back; and I couldn't relax enough to even pee. They did an MRI and found a malignant tumor. I had bone cancer and ended up having a total hip replacement at 29 years old. Had it been left another six months, it likely would have been stage 4 and metastatic."
—Anonymous
16. "I had extreme periods for years, starting in 2015. I had one that lasted a full 30 days, then nothing for three to five months, then had a week's worth of a period in one day. My research led me to PCOS, which I had to fight to get diagnosed with because the only 'normal' symptoms I had were the irregular periods. A few months after, my skin became extremely itchy, with no other symptoms — no rash, dryness, redness, or anything."
"That lasted for three years. I saw a dermatologist, and he told me to just use CeraVe. The itching kept getting worse, and my periods were not settling, no matter which brand of birth control pill I used. I had aura migraines on top of everything, so I stopped taking the Pill. The itching continued until I had a lymph node in my collarbone pop out. It turns out I had stage 2 Hodgkin's lymphoma, and the doctors had no idea when it started. I'm almost one year posttreatment and am completely cancer-free, though!"
17. "I suffered with endometriosis for decades. I cramped so badly, I couldn’t walk some days. Sex was painful. I couldn’t carry a child to full term. I would go days without having a bowel movement. I kept telling my doctor and my ex that something was wrong. I was dismissed as just having bad periods and making excuses not to have sex. After a week of not being able to have a bowel movement and being in so much pain I thought I was dying, I was finally told by my gyno that I needed a hysterectomy."
"They scheduled the procedure as laparoscopic. When they got into my abdomen, they had to open me up at the bikini line. My bowels, intestines, and colon had grown to my uterus. There was so much scar tissue that they had to burn it away from my organs. Turns out I had class 4 endometriosis as well as a tilted uterus. My bladder has now dropped and I constantly leak urine. I still have intermittent pain in my abdomen, which I assume is scar tissue. So many years wasted and in misery because no one would listen to me."
18. "I had sudden loss of appetite, extreme nausea, and intense pressure in my chest after eating even small amounts. I lost 33 pounds in a few months from being unable to eat. I had several painful 'episodes' that landed me in the ER with intense stomach and upper chest pain, graying out and tunnel/blurred vision, feverish chills, and inability to stand unassisted from the pain."
"My primary doctor tried to help, but the gastroenterologist said it was 'not possible' to have the symptoms I described and said maybe it was just in my head. I found out nearly 18 months later that I have a rare genetic mutation that resulted in me developing low-phospholipid-associated cholelithiasis. Basically, I can’t process cholesterol the way most people can, so without medication, it turns into tiny crystals that shred the bile ducts in the biliary system. That was the pain I felt: my insides literally being shredded by tiny crystals."
19. "I lost 50 pounds within six weeks of having my second child, despite only having gained 20 pounds. I had extreme anxiety (which I had never had before), felt overwhelmed all the time, and couldn’t be outside for any period of time because I felt as if I was on fire. I saw my doctor every month for an entire year. He told me numerous times that there was nothing wrong with me, I was just old and broken after having kids. I had just turned 32 years old."
"After a year of the back-and-forth game, I grew tired and requested copies of all my labs. I have no medical background, but I was easily able to figure out that I had developed Hashimoto’s, a thyroid condition. I contacted my doctor, and he said there was nothing to do but wait for my thyroid to die. A few months later, I noticed a lump in my neck. I requested an ultrasound and shortly after was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. Had I not pressed, and advocated for myself, who knows how long the cancer would have stayed and grown in my body."
—Anonymous
Have you ever received a delayed diagnosis due to a medical professional brushing off your symptoms? Let us know in the comments below, or you can fill out this form if you prefer to remain anonymous.
Note: Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.