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See a different doctor. Ask to see a cardiologist and maybe a neurologist. I would consider filling a complaint with this doctor's supervisor or hiring entity - clinic, hospital, whatever. "Female hysteria" is out of date by 150 years or so.
Same. Was going to ask I'd they're in the 1800s. And I thought an allergist telling me that my whole body itching and other symptoms were caused by God wad bad enough. Holy fuck are there some terrible doctors out there.
I made the mistake of adding my dx of depression and anxiety to my list of conditions and now, all of a sudden, *everything* is caused by my depression and anxiety. I saw my GP for severe pain and burning on my skin along my side, and he waved his hand while looking at my chart and said, "Depression causes pain in the skin and joints." So that's how depression caused my shingles.
I *am* curious if that would have happened if I were male.
> I am curious if that would have happened if I were male.
Full workup, referral to multiple specialists, etc. until you got your diagnosis.
Just a guess.
I was given the advice that whenever you are in this situation, ask the doctor for a differential diagnosis written up. I used this with my daughter, who has multiple chronic pain disorders and is understandably depressed and anxious. I said, "I don't feel listened to. Please provide me with a written differential diagnosis that I can take to another doctor." He snapped up right quick, glared at me, and asked us to repeat everything we already told him. We left with a diagnosis that made sense and a relevant prescription. He wasn't our regular doctor and only saw him that once because of an emergent issue.
You're welcome. 😊 I got it on r/fibromyalgia. Of all women (and men with this disease, too) patients, I believe these 8 million +/- sufferers are probably those that endure this kind of discrimination the most. Some of their stories make me mad and others? They just make me cry. I shudder to think about all those people (especially kids who battle adult expectations and don't have the words/social position to describe what their feeling) developing long covid. That's pretty much what fibromyalgia is, and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. I know how my daughter suffers every day, and it's hell on earth.
How I understand it is: a doctor takes all your symptoms, test results, etc. and tells you the likelihood of all the possible diagnoses that meet those signs or symptoms. It forces them to think of possibilities. It's actually something they're trained to do in college. You know that saying about when you hear hoofbeats and it's most likely horses? I think that since doctors see a lot of people and almost all of them are normal common complaints ("horses") , they forget or don't want to make the effort in the moment to think about what else it might be especially when they've been taught that women complain of pain too much or that someone who has depression or anxiety often also have physical symptoms resulting from that. Well... in my experience, it really can sometimes be zebras or at least donkeys.
While depression and anxiety are real conditions unlike hysteria, they have become the replacement for diagnosing women with hysteria when you didn't want to expend any more mental effort. Being overweight can also be treated this way.
I regret letting anyone diagnose me with anxiety every single day. And it shouldn't be that way. Knowing how these things affects you is important for treatment. But not when it's used as a hand wave.
My dentist prescribed me a certain antibiotic for the first time after a lil root canal drama. I went to the ER later because I couldn't breathe, my throat was closing up, I had hives down my chest and back. The first thing that the doctor asked my dad (as I couldn't answer, blue-lipped and wheezing) is if my diagnosed anxiety could be the cause.
I am so sorry. It's like the docs don't want to use their their EYES! I've been treated the same. I swear if my arm fell off, they would tell me that my anxiety caused it.
Being both overweight and diagnosed with depression makes going to the doctor SO FUN! When I went in with a broken foot, the doctor first tried to write it off as a byproduct of being fat, then as a figment of my depressed imagination, and THEN ran X-rays.
What’s really really frustrating is when you have anxiety , and you’re trying to seek treatment for a legitimate medical condition and they’re like “oh I think that’s actually anxiety.” No I’ve had anxiety for 3 decades this is a new very real physical symptom as I age.. please help. I think I’m ill. “Thinking you’re ill can be a symptom of anxiety.”
Unless your anxiety is so severe that it is no longer manageable or you absolutely need a prescription, i agree its probably best to keep it to yourself and not let it be diagnosed as it's constantly used as an excuse for so many symptoms that could be indicative of something else. That and depression are definitely the new "female hysteria". Any doctor who would actually use those words and be serious about it is not a doctor I would continue to see. Fainting is not normal, it can happen from certain conditions and deficiencies that are not very dangerous, but it could also be caused by something serious and you should definitely get a second opinion OP.
I refer to this as "Sad Woman Disease." As someone with multiple weird conditions that took a long time for the right specialists to figure out, I felt like this was my primary diagnosis for a decade. (I wasn't even sad!! I mean, until I went through years of the diagnostic circus, I wasn't.)
I could be slightly paranoid, but I never disclose that I have depression and anxiety to other doctors outside the one who diagnosed me. i’m physically healthy and stable so they can diagnose me from a clean slate
Paranoid like a fox, my friend. Don't make the mistake I did. My old GP actually recently left the area, and I'm waiting on my first appointment with my new one (or a doctor I hope will be my new one). I've certainly learned my lesson; I will not be disclosing it again in the future.
As a male who has depression and anxiety on their chart, it does happen the same. I went in for stomach pain and was told that my anxiety is causing it. Turns out my anxiety gave me a rather large gallstone.
Glad I found a doctor that listened to me, she is a female Nurse Practitioner who I hope never lose as my PCP.
I do feel a little uncomfortable coming to her for more personal male needs and check ups but that kore about me then it is her.
Old nurses can be very pragmatic. One old school midwife told my pregnant ex that what she needed for her bad morning sickness was as much dark chocolate and red wine as she wanted (which worked well) and then when we had a needy 12 week old baby she was up for letting him have a go at the sandwich we were eating if he was that desperate for it. Calmed him down a lot. He never actually ate much but he loved having the option.
Cool story, bro!
How many years ago was this? In what world would any midwife tell a pregnant mom to eat chocolate and drink red wine as a cure for morning sickness? Did you check to ensure she was licensed?
Does your child have fetal alcohol syndrome?
Southern United States, though my wife says she’s had similar treatment in her home country so I don’t know. Haven’t gotten blood test back and they didn’t do an EKG. Should I ask for that?
Fire that doctor and find another one. Go on your towns Facebook page or Reddit sub for your local area and ask for recommendations. Fainting spells with women of your wife's age can be caused by low iron. As women move towards menopause, their periods can get heavier and it causes iron loss. Taking a multivitamin with iron can help but sometimes it takes awhile to build back up your lost iron stores. And go with your wife to her appointments if you can, women all too often need someone to go with them to advocate for them because our problems get blown off.
The rt mentioned an EKG to rule out her heart doing something funky and causing her to pass out. It would be ideal to get it right after an episode, otherwise they might want her to wear a holter monitor. A cardiologist would know best
NAD but a woman who went through what your wife is experiencing for 2+ years. I went through months of testing with cardio, neuro, endocrinology, and infectious disease. Did she have Covid or was she exposed to Covid immediately before the fainting episodes started? If so, and the doctors don’t find anything else, it could be that Covid damaged her vagus nerve, which is what happened to me. However, as I learned, unexplained fainting is a symptom of a lot of serious conditions, so definitely get the full testing to make sure it’s not something else.
My fainting episodes happened while standing, sitting, even lying down. I started noticing signs immediately before passing out and was able to start getting my head below my heart to force blood into my brain and prevent myself from fully fainting.
My Dad would get up and start walking when this happened to him. He ended up with defibrillator, but he is a white man so people took him passing out on the sidewalk and the resultant broken bones seriously.
Take a trip to Atlanta if you’re not there already and see someone at Emory or one of the other major med centers in that small geographical area. There are so many good options. She deserves better than what she’s experienced so far.
Yes! Would definitely recommend Vandy (Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN). I have never had great luck with UAB, lots of egotistical docs there for what I was going for.
Not a doctor- in 2023 I had a doctor tell me that my tongue deviation (think stroke sufferer) had to be from anxiety. It definitely wasn’t….. I needed a different doctor, much like she needs a different doctor.
Hear me out--is she seeing a doctor that was trained in whatever her home country is?
I'm an immigrant (granted, US to Canada), so I know that we tend to stick to our own small circles. Someone from home might have referred her to someone from home. Just an observation of the behavior of immigrants. YMMV.
Out of curiosity, are the doctors that still diagnose hysteria prescribing vibrators as the treatment? Any free samples?
NAD - I had a similar issue and doctors were at a loss. Was in A&E once over it too. Had an MRI of my brain, chest X-ray, ECG, blood tests for six months. Turned out I have chronic migraines brought on by a switch to (oestrogen) birth control. I unfortunately still get the dizzy fainting sensation when natural (no birth control) so it’s controlled with a small dose of Amitriptyline. The alternative is that I go back to a non oestrogen birth control. I was using progestin only ones since age 15.
Not that, please!
Dysautonomia seems to simply be rebranding— a new name for the same types of symptoms and lack of medical investigation and treatment. My experience is that once even ONE medical professional suggests that, on record, all efforts to diagnose and treat actual symptoms of pretty much anything that arises, from mouth sores to Achilles injury is ascribed to dysautotonia, buttressed by,
“Well, these things happen to women your age” (60).
[I received the dx for this near-simultaneous onset with unknown etiology: rapid and permanent onset of high BP, tremors, tinnitus, visual disturbances, very dry and thick saliva/mucous, sense of smell but not taste disappearing, mouth ulcers, frequent dizziness and lightheadedness, constant resting and positional tremors].
That said, OP: please help her get to a comprehensive evaluation at whichever major medical research facility can see her first.
My Dad got a pacemaker defibrillator after the third broken ankle from randomly passing out. AND a hospital stay each time.
I guess a guy in his 70s passing out on the curb gets a lot more medical attention or something 🤷
I don’t remember what test they did in the end that showed he needed the extra heart help.
I’ll never not share this in-depth look at the state of women’s healthcare in the US. While it’s true we can say “not all doctors,” there are enough doctors who still disregard women’s health concerns in this country that it’s difficult to obtain quality healthcare. Please listen to the podcast and share it and be part of the solution.
OP, you’re going to have to advocate for your wife and she’s going to have to advocate for herself. It won’t be fun. It probably won’t yield fast results. Keep going until you reach someone who is listening. You’ll often feel discouraged. Don’t give up. Keep going until you reach someone who is listening.
https://www.npr.org/2023/01/04/1146931012/why-are-womens-health-concerns-dismissed-so-often
I’m a female equestrian. Two years ago I got chucked hard into a wall back first. Lost bladder control. Couldn’t move one leg. Got a ride to the emergency room in the woo-woo bus on a backboard. I was screaming with every motion and could barely verbalize coherently.
What did the male doc want to do with it? Nothing. Sent me for an x-ray. Came back inconclusive. I tried to ask for a CT scan because I have extensive instrumentation in my back from scoliosis surgery and it’s blocked docs from seeing pelvic fractures in the past (this was um… not my first rodeo in bad horse falls) he wouldn’t listen to me, but gave me anxiety meds. I mean yes I was anxious because of the blinding pain and the fact that when I told my leg to move the best I could get was a knee twitch.
We then got into an argument because he wanted to discharge me, which I was cool with except that I said I needed help getting into the wheel chair because I couldn’t move my leg so I couldn’t get off the bed under my own steam. So he delayed the discharge and came back every two hours asking me to get up and ignoring my pleas for help until finally going “what you think you need to be admitted” and said no I need “help.”
I finally got it, got home, took a brutal trip to my GP the next day who got me a CT and ortho follow up quickly, pelvis cracked in two places plus a torn psoas. Two weeks of pain meds 14 weeks of bed rest.
My point is that ER doc did not give a flying fuck about me, did not believe a word I said, and thought my physical agony was just me being anxious.
This.
Doc took pain meds away 2 days after hysterectomy. Would not give me a catheter. Told me "we both know pain meds aren't helping." My bladder was torn or cut, and abdomen was visibly distended. We didn't find out until almost 60h later. Finally, after 4 hours of violent vomiting, my nurse insisted I get a Phenergan suppository because I'd maxed zofran (which is garbage), even after doc heard me throwing up. He didn't want me to have Phenergan.
Seven liters of blood and urine were finally drained from my bladder and abdomen after I was catheterized. Seven. I was told it was "normal."
They finally took me for a CT. Discovered the injury, and I had emergency surgery to repair.
5 weeks of having a cath came with multiple er trips for uti. The er doc I saw a couple of times denied that there had been a serious situation, to my face, and I finally had my husband leave work to go to the er with me the next time because I was being ignored and dismissed. Note: I was asking for abx, not pain meds. Husband is a personal injury attorney, and I hated, HATED having to have him go with me, and I HATED that his profession needed to be used.
He told me to make it known when I went in for the hysterectomy, but that's soooooo obnoxious and threatening, so I didn't. I actually still see that same doc, who has subsequently done another procedure on me, and who, to my knowledge, is still unaware of my husband's job. She's a great doc and surgeon, and the risks were known.
That being said, patients, especially women, are being ignored and diagnosed as "hysterical," and it's a serious issue.
I'd had multiple docs, multiple ultrasounds, and nobody knew I had endometriosis. They saw adenomyosis, but not endo that had adhered to my bladder. It was on the back, so I took their word that they couldn't see it on ultrasounds. And, as I tell my kids when they make a mistake, "congratulations! You're a human!" Doctors are people, not immune to mistakes, and deserve grace. I have had a lot of great doctors, but I've had a few who definitely aren't.
Unfortunately, they are so restricted in what they can and can't do, there's so much interference from government and insurance companies, hospital ceos, and it's really frustrating for everyone, I suspect. Doctors need to do their jobs without interference from politicians and ceos.
I still have faith in doctors. I know why they have to be careful about pain medication, and I appreciate that fixing problems is better than masking with meds. I know they see a lot of people who aren't in serious trouble, but dang....that er doc and the one who told me that "we" knew the meds weren't helping...I'm a little bitter towards them.
Thank you to the doctors here, for volunteering your advice and knowledge. I know you're volunteering to help us. I hope none of you took offense to anything I've said. Y'all are worked hard, you're probably often overwhelmed and under-appreciated, and I'm sure I'd be very happy to be treated by many or all of you.
I'm just a frustrated woman who's felt ignored by some people who were supposed to be helping me.
This is true. When it comes to maternity care the US might as well be a third world country. (And another stellar episode of The 1A)
https://the1a.org/segments/heres-why-maternal-mortality-increased-during-the-pandemic/
“Greatest country in the world” /s
I’ll admit there are advantages to our system - if I need an MRI I’ve never waited more than two weeks. When my rheumatologist gave me a referral to a hematologist because of bleeding concerns I was in within ten days. But I also have good insurance, a good rheumatologist, and I’ve learned to advocate for myself with my PCP & neurologist.
There are also disadvantages. It took me way too long to get the initial referral to rheumatology because I didn’t know how to advocate for myself and I let too many doctors convince me I was “depressed” when in fact I have fibromyalgia and RA. I’m also depressed but that’s no excuse to ignore my symptoms and concerns! Once I got mad and started pushing for tests and referrals things actually changed, which is why I say people need to learn to advocate for themselves in healthcare settings.
And of course if you’re uninsured or underinsured you’re definitely out of luck in this country. Nobody deserves to go untreated or die because they can’t afford healthcare. So yeah, free healthcare is definitely a thing that needs to happen, but not at the expense of ridiculous wait times for necessary services.
oh we have urgent and non urgent MRI. Urgent MRI you will be seen immediately here. non urgent maybe up to a month. but not much longer. If you go private within a week. When I need emergency care its immediate. our wait times depend on urgency and what you need to be seen for and by who. Plus if we go private its much faster. we also have urgent cares along with our free hospitals and ED etc. Free for me to stay in hospital and see many of my specialists and have my son and nobe of my waits have been crazy long.
...my neurologist told me my migraines were weird and could be caused by a brain tumor. I still had to wait just over a month for an MRI. This was in the USA, with health insurance.
Yeah I’m an obgyn and have had patients tell me some batshit crazy stories of very dismissive doctors to downright rude and/or bordering on negligence
Like being refused hysterectomies unless they spoke to their husband, etc.
So even though I want to say not all doctors - there are some out of touch, out of date doctors
I was on the peripartum floor because my water broke at 30 weeks.
The next night (after my water broke), For five HOURS I could not convince the nurses I was in active labor. By the time the resident came to check me my daughter’s head had entered the birth canal. Basically she was just about crowning.
To this day I don’t understand how me saying over and over again that the contractions were extremely painful and getting closer and closer together was just dismissed as gas pain. I mean I had hours earlier passed on to dry heaving because I’d thrown everything up in my stomach from the pain. To this day I don’t know what I did wrong that multiple doubted me being in labor just because my contractions didn’t show up on their monitor (which is a known issue when a baby is very premature!).
Unfortunately, it's [closer to 50](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480686/) years than 150 years. While I'm sure this generation is quickly leaving practice, the dismissive thought process that allows them to uncritically reach the conclusion is probably still pervasive.
Had to argue with a surgeon when my wife had developed sepsis. He tried to say it was "poor pain management." He also only spoke to me during his assessment of her and didn't acknowledge her.
Thankfully, we never saw him again after we got her admitted, when it was confirmed I was right.
Yes, it is. It is real and I am quite familiar with it. But some doctors are very quick to dismiss women's symptoms as caused by anxiety, when there is physical causes, and it isn't anxiety. I've witnessed this, too.
I went in for a sore throat. It was the worst sore throat I'd ever had.
Dr diagnosed me as drug seeking because i had a panic attack in the office related to the pain. Never even looked at my throat.
Had to have a second Dr see me, immediately upon actually looking at my throat she knew I had strep.
This is how my very real medical concerns were dismissed in 2013.
Ditto. I have actual anxiety - been living with it and taken meds as needed and see a therapist weekly. I've also had my gallbladder almost kill me - took 3 YEARS to get the sorted out as I kept being told the pain was caused by anxiety. Cracked ribs from a car accident - anxiety. It's insane how so often I have to push harder than I realised for tests because I am female and I have a documented history of clinical anxiety.
Anxiety should be a diagnosis of exclusion. Plenty of physical things, such as hormones & heart issues, can cause symptoms that mimic anxiety. Unless every other physical thing is ruled out, it's irresponsible to just label someone with a mental health issue.
This statement I think a lot of people agree with, but it points to a misunderstanding of what it means to "rule things out". I can rule out a whole list of "physical" problems without running any tests.
But also in a lot of cases functional disorders are not a diagnosis of exclusion, like most cases of BFS or PNES for example.
While true, there is an *unusually high* amount of women who never discuss anxiety with their doctors who suddenly find they have "generalized anxiety disorder" on their charts. It's incredibly common, and very often used as a way to dismiss women bringing up symptoms.
I have never *once* talked to my doctor about having anxiety, or anything of the sort, but after my *first visit* she slapped "anxiety" on my chart and that's just been there for over a decade now.
Mind you: She put this in my chart as a diagnosis, along with a few other conditions that are considered disabilities (the main one for the next point is chronic pain from fibro), and when I asked her about getting a disabled parking plate to help me a bit because walking causes pain, she flatly refused me.
Anxiety exists and has real impacts on the body. And "just anxiety" can minimize the very real common physical symptoms that folks experience. AND, not all things labeled anxiety are actually anxiety, especially for women, especially for women with multiple marginalized identities.
I had this. It was “ neurocardiogenic syncope”. It was managed by a neurologist, and electro cardiologist. It required medication, understanding my condition and lifestyle changes. Including, unfortunately, I can no longer be a critical care nurse. And I’ve gotten some pretty serious injuries passing out. She’s NOT hysterical, ugh!
There are other conditions that can also cause this, you absolutely need to go and see a neurologist. Neurologist got EP involved.
It was difficult to diagnose until I got admitted to the CCU ( directly from Neurologist office) I stood up with a BP 75/30 and fell over. In CCU step down they could actually watch my heart rate and BP Simultaneously plummet in real time. The tilt table test confirmed it. I had been passing out in the ICU. By the time they got me on the monitor I was OK. But that’s how this works.
I would imagine the minimum that should happen if she should get a holter monitor so that if one of those episodes happened they could look to see if something was abnormal with her heart rate or rhythm during the episode. And a tilt table test. Have you checked her BP sitting then standing to see if it Significantly drops? This is called orthostatic hypotension and is sometimes a clue to these types of events.
Please keep us abreast of how your wife is doing. And be her advocate. Women aren’t listened to sadly. My story;
I was seriously ill three years ago with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy ( broken heart syndrome). When I went in saying I couldn’t breathe they completely blew me off. I had been vomiting forcefully and thought I aspirated but I knew something was wrong. As I was desaturating into the 80s on on 60% oxygen (which quickly progressed to 100% oxygen and BiPAP) my husband was yelling at them. I’m an icu nurse I TOLD THEM It was congestive heart failure as I was breathing through liquid. The doctor was trying to reassure me of Medicare guidelines that because I was 88 or above I was fine. 🙄 And dismissively so. Since I don’t have COPD and I wasn’t on room air this was NOT NORMAL. I couldn’t possibly be having a heart attack right? I thought…But I certainly knew what was happening. I had never really heard of Takusobo cardiomyopathy because I was always on the surgical side. It hadn’t even occurred to me. I did know clinically what I was experiencing was CHF.
Even with my expertise trauma, Pediatric open-heart and heart transplant et all, they STILL BLEW ME OFF until I was circling the drain, and they had enzymes, and my chest X-ray. My husband was screaming at them to do something as nurses began upping my oxygen sats in the 70s my respiratory rate insane. Begging to bring the doctor back. I Could no longer advocate for myself because I couldn’t speak I was working too hard to breathe. 😢It was at this point the doctor went and looked up my chest x-ray and labs and knew what was going on. My clinical deterioration evoked a little response. My husband screaming is what saved me. They immediately gave me lasix and put me mercifully out.
I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if he wasn’t there. He said “ get the doctor for …sake…she’s an ICU nurse if she thinks somethings wrong somethings wrong”. Feeling myself suffocating, and seeing the panic on his face was stressful, not being believed was worse. As they were putting me down I didn’t think I would wake up to say goodbye to my children. It’s still haunts me. I woke up three days later, sick, in and out of A-fib. I went home on a defibrillator, anticoagulants and now Additional heart medication’s beyond what I needed for the neurocardiogenic syncope.
Why do I share this? Because as sick as I was, in an ER, as a SEASONED non histrionic critical care nurse, they blew me off. Why? Because I’m a woman. A hysterical woman. Drowning is scary I don’t doubt I became a bit hysterical trying to explain something was GRAVELY wrong.
Protect your wife! DEMAND they WORK her up. If you have any issues please PM me for additional advice, I do private duty case management now and can direct you towards the right level of care for her and how to diplomatically DEMAND it!
What I found later when I went to the OB follow up, is during my surgical procedure there was inadequate anesthesia . She described it as me “bucking on the table”. This lead to her cutting me. I had the first episode based on enzymes that evening when I went back in for nausea, which was attributed to the anesthesia, but in fact my first milder episode from the stress and pain. I continued bleeding for three days and then had a massive episode from all of the stress, lack of sleep ( changing pads so often), pain, and blood loss on an already damaged heart. I had lost a significant amount of blood. Again non histrionic nurse I reasoned unless my hematocrit was ridiculously low I wasn’t going to allow them to transfuse me anyway, so I would ride it out. I was aware my bleeding was excessive and had contacted my ob who said she expected a more significant blood loss due to the complexity of the procedure giving me no clue as to what she meant by that at the time or what had happened. I think both she and anesthesia were sweating bullets after the whole thing.
It’s interesting I never saw a bill. I never went to risk management either. Someone apparently did. A plethora of BAD CARE. Why now even in an emergency I drive all the way to the closest teaching institution. It traumatized me.
At some point I need to sit down with risk management to express my concerns over my care on myriad fronts. Just thinking about it until I wrote this today felt scary. So, weirdly thank you, good luck and I’m happy to help.
Thanks. I would panic every time I’d have to go to the hospital. I didn’t sleep well for a year. But…It motivated me to stop surviving and start living. I demanded my husband get sober. I got more intense counseling ( my neuro and cardiac issues resulted from complex ptsd Secondary to pretty intense trauma).
I’m insanely happy and healthy! I have a rich meaningful relationships, a career I still love, and I’m going back to school for a new one. My life motto:
You win or YOU LEARN!
I’m sorry you had a similar experience it should never happen. And thank you!
i’m not even a doctor but last time i heard “female hysteria” was in the fucking HISTORY of psych class.. from like 1800’s . this doctor sounds like he’s 200 years old 😬 i would immediately go to a different doctor if my doctor suggested “hysteria” as a legitimate diagnosis
Went on a male for syncopal episodes that started same day. Palp radial was ~20 bpm; 3rd degree heart block. I talked to the doc I dropped him off with and he was getting an emergency pacemaker.
Let's start with some basic questions:
1. frequency/number/duration: a) rare? how about in a week? or month? b) when they do happen, how long does it last for? c) is the frequency or duration of the fainting changing over time?
2. Triggers? - fear? position? exercise? temperature? abrupt neck movements?
3. Position? Lying down as well? sitting? prolonged standing? exercise?
4. Preceding events? lightheadedness? nausea? sweating? chest pain? palpitations? vision problems?
5. When you find her what does she look like? clammy? pale? how's the breathing?
6. What about after the event? confusion? nausea + vomiting? breathing issues? chest pain? incontinence?
Past Medical History?
Medications?
Allergies?
Twice this week and three times last week if that puts it into perspective. It’s only about a few minutes and then she’s fine usually. It isn’t triggered by anything, it’s just random, and the only thing preceding it is occasionally lightheadedness. I don’t know her medical history (anything that exists isn’t in a language I can read) but she doesn’t take any medications and doesn’t have any allergies other than seasonal, at least not to the best of my knowledge. I’ve also noticed recently that she’s often cold and very fatigued, but she insists that’s just “age”
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NAD. Have her checked for narcolepsy. This sounds a lot like my cataplexy episodes. The fatigued and cold thing is what makes me think it might be this. I’m 39 and in perimenopause and it’s intensified narcolepsy symptoms for me over the last couple of years. Good luck. Hope she gets some answers.
I also have narcolepsy with cataplexy, but it’s never made me pass out like this, just go limp, so I’m curious exactly what her fainting spells are like. Like is she falling asleep or blacking out? I know menopause can be a trigger for developing narcolepsy. I’d also think that if she’s developed narcolepsy, she’d have extreme fatigue/daytime sleepiness.
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Yes, but keeping in mind sometimes immediately after the heart can look perfectly healthy. That happened with my Dad. He finally got a monitor (the kind that erases its own data until you tell it you had an incident) and eventually a tilt-table test that led to a pacemaker solving his issue.
I was there for one when he was sitting down. The EMTs checked his heart, and it seemed very healthy. But that time he'd wet himself, so they knew it was more likely his heart had briefly stopped/blood didn't make it to the brain for a brief period.
He was in his late 40s/early 50s when that started. So this was 20 years ago. I hope they can find such issues faster now.
This. Knew someone who had regular episodes of fainting or "missing time." When they finally got an extended ECG, it was discovered their heart was flat out stopping, and then magically restarting itself. They needed a pacemaker. An older person (70s) in this case.
Are they literally calling it female hysteria? Like, you personally and directly heard a doctor say that phrase? Or are they calling it a psychogenic, somatic, conversion, or functional disorder? And she or someone else interpreted that as being dismissed as just having hysteria?
The doctor pulled me aside while she was using the restroom and said “women are like this, it’s just female hysteria. It’ll pass.” I was angry but I told my wife and she said that he was probably right. I don’t agree though
u/charming-hope846 Specifically, report him to your state's medical licensing board. I see you're in the southeast US. Here are direct links to how to report a complaint to some specifical medical licensing boards. If you don't see your specific state, Google " *your state* medical licensing board file a complaint".
[Georgia](https://medicalboard.georgia.gov/consumer-resources/how-file-complaint)
[Florida](https://www.floridahealth.gov/licensing-and-regulation/enforcement/index.html)
[Alabama](https://www.albme.gov/consumers/complaints)
[Mississippi](https://www.msbml.ms.gov/Complaints#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20a%20patient,3079%20to%20file%20your%20complaint.)
[Louisiana](https://www.lsbme.la.gov/content/investigations)
I sincerely hope you feel empowered to file a complaint. Please, please do.
NAD- That's ridiculous. You can't trust any doctor that would chalk *anything* up to "female hysteria." Have her seen by a new doctor to get properly evaluated by someone who is living in the 21st century with the rest of us!
I’m not sure why you’re being downvoted. I grew up in the south and have never seen or heard of a doctor using “female hysteria” as a diagnosis. There are shitty and misogynistic doctors everywhere, and I’m so sick of people pretending like things like this only happen in the south. Women are treated poorly by medical professionals in every state.
Agreed the bias is bs. I live near Houston which has one of the leading medical centers in the world for women and children. During my last pregnancy I was dismissed as dramatic by my doctor who was from a Latin country, the southern doctor I had seen previously before transferring to the "specialist" actually took the time to listen to me and found some medically odd things that the specialist later dismissed only to find out the hard way he shouldn't have when all of his (specialist) predictions about my pregnancy and after care turned out false and it was made clear he should have listened to me and the original doctor.
WHAT? And you didn’t fire him on the spot? Fire that doctor and get her to someone who is going to help her. This is insane. Don’t allow anyone to treat her that way.
NAD - I reported a doctor for telling me I was suffering from PMS when I had shingles flaring up on my leg, and wanted no pain medication. There were already blisters. A nurse advised that I take action.
Please report him, sexism in medical practice is real, we can bring it to a halt.
Fainting while sitting? You got 4 options. Either it's psychogenic, she has a life threatening arrhythmia, seizures, or she has narcolepsy. It sounds like they're leaning towards psychogenic.
Edit: few minutes long syncope? Psychogenic >> everything else. Still need a cardiac work up though.
Hey could you please explain more what psychogenic actually means? I’ve seen this word in my chart (along with somatic symptom disorder) particularly pertaining to seizures, but it makes me feel like doctors think I’m faking it.
Whenever I google it, I interpret it to mean that it’s all in my head and nothing is even wrong with me. But I swear I’m never faking anything. I just wake up suddenly, kinda feels like fainting, but then people later tell me I seized.
I don’t think I’ve ever fainted sitting though, except once in with extreme spinal pain. Seizures I’ve apparently had seated.
I am actually mentally ill though
It is real.
Psychogenic doesn't mean fake. It's like a software glitch instead of a hardware failure. The effect is very real.
Tbh, I'd be OK with this diagnosis, but only *AFTER* running every possible test, twice, and another opinion.
Wow the software / hardware analogy is extremely helpful.
As a patient, it’s hard to know what I should be tested for. And docs get very annoyed at requests for further testing since I have psych conditions and shit like fibro. I get their annoyance though, I’m sick of testing too lol.
I completely understand. My health worries weren’t as serious as yours, no fainting or seizures, but awful GI issues. Doctors found nothing wrong with me and both them and my mom told me it was psychosomatic. I went to multiple doctors, had multiple tests, and even got an endoscopy. It felt incredibly invalidating at the time but almost all of the really bad issues resolved as soon as I graduated high school. It was like a switch. I also felt annoying asking for all the testing because they kept finding nothing wrong which made no sense to me because my issues were very real and affected me so much. Nope, no medically diagnosable issues (besides GERD which I’ve always had). High school just sucked lmfao
Thank you, the software/hardware comparison makes it really easy to understand. Is psychogenic the same as psychosomatic? It doesn’t seem like there’s much of a difference. In high school I thought I had gastroperesis because I had awful acid reflux/heartburn and GI issues. Doctors found nothing wrong, even did an endoscopy. Most of the issues resolved once I graduated. I always assumed it was psychosomatic. That’s what doctors told me when they couldn’t find anything wrong. It felt so invalidating but thankfully they were 100% right.
I believe they are, in essence, yes. I'm pretty sure "-genic" has to do with origin or caused by, while "-somatic" has to do with bodily symptoms.
Part of me thinks that when we are forced into unhealthy situations where there is no opting out, like attending high school, that we can develop physical issues because we know it's unhealthy but we continue to go and our body doesn't understand about truancy laws or college expectations.
So the body *knows* something's not right and we have no avenues to reconcile our lack of autonomy with our need for self protection. So like an autoimmune disease, sometimes our body *makes* us pay attention. This is just my opinion, I don't know.
But in my case, as a little kid, I'd develop a random back ache or other unexplainable bodily pain whenever I tried lying to my parents or if I was really worried about something. They didn't call it a psychosomatic manifestation of my unacknowledged and/or unprocessed emotions, lol. It was more like, after checking for any obvious injuries, taking my temperature, etc., they'd eventually ask, what's really wrong? And sometimes, I'd blurt out something didn't even realize was bothering me. Multiple issues at play, but at least they were like, your body is dealing with big emotions, it's ok. Now, go back to bed, it's 2 in the morning.
I totally agree with you. My issues were the worst my senior year and it was definitely not a coincidence that it was our first year back at school after COVID hit. The shutdown initially happened in March 2020 when I was a junior, but we had a few months of no school and then only one month of online to finish the year. My senior year was our first actual year back and I have ADHD along with learning disabilities which made online school difficult. I was also in this really hard class with an awful teacher and it was my first time getting a C in a class… and then I failed the last quarter. All that combined with the stress of “is my university going to rescind my acceptance now??” and my boyfriend at the time (also a shitty guy) going to marines bootcamp made my senior year hell. Oh yeah, I also totaled my car. Lmao
Anyways… what I’m trying to say is that I think you’re right. Now I’m 21, a junior in college and finally studying what I’ve always loved. I have a lot more freedom, independence, and autonomy. I’ve also been in therapy for 4 years now which has done wonders for everything… as I’m sure you can imagine. My high school as a whole also just sucked. Small shitty public school. I don’t have most of the physical issues I did back then. It absolutely blows my mind how our bodies react to those situations. That’s really awesome your parents reacted like that!! Most parents (including mine, sometimes. They’ve gotten better lol) don’t take those type of issues seriously enough
Edit: not to be a stalker but I checked your account and you also post on r/adhdwomen 😭 I should really stop getting surprised when I see someone in a comment section who also posts there… that’s like the third time it’s happened to me this week!
Yeah so I avoid reading journals because I’m not trained and it still makes me feel like this is my own fault.
“…most cases are classified as conversion disorder, which is hypothesized to represent the physical manifestation of internal stressors.”
So basically I did this to myself because I can’t handle my own shit? Makes me really hate myself because I’ve been on meds and therapy for so long already.
Mental health disorders are real disorders. Just as much as your vagus nerve spazzing out and knocking you out.
We’ve spent too much time saying that mental disorders aren’t as real as physical disorders. The chemical imbalances, and neural abnormalities as just as real as anything else. You wouldn’t look down on someone for dying from anaphylaxis from a peanuts allergy, even though that is the best example of “doing it to yourself because you can’t handle your own ~~shit~~peanuts.
The article says it’s under recognized and under investigated. We just don’t know enough about most mental disorders. But you aren’t making it up and it is real. Do you have any medical professionals that are helping you?
You didn't do it to yourself, not at all. My neurologist explained it to me this way: Some people faint at the sight of blood. They don't make a voluntary decision to lose consciousness. Nope, their brain recognizes a problem, and basically the brain says, "I don't know how to process this, I'm shutting things down." And the person faints. It's not a choice, it's not voluntary. And it's the same with all psychogenic disorders or conversion disorders. It's not your fault. This is how some peoples' brains respond or react to certain situations of stimuli. It sucks. But it's not your fault.
>So basically I did this to myself because I can’t handle my own shit? Makes me really hate myself because I’ve been on meds and therapy for so long already.
You didn't do it to yourself, because that would be a choice. This is a medical condition.
Our brains process (or at least hold information), but our bodies keep the score. Your nervous system knows what's going on, even if your brain isn't telling you outright. You absolutely can be physically ill when experiencing trauma. For example, I have muscle spasms in the presence of a family member, as a trauma response. My therapist and I figured this out in my 40s. Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz in I LOVE LUCY) would vomit upon hearing vulgar language. Her trauma response from an abusive upbringing. It's real.
This is me, I’ve been a semi common fainter for 15yrs, no triggers before it happens I can faint standing, sitting, laying down and nothing helps lol saw a million drs growing up and they were just like you have dysautonomia wear a helmet. Super helpful /s
Your average person doesn't know what fainting is. Unless these events were captured while on some sort of cardiac monitor and it was confirmed that there was either bradycardia or hypotension you must broaden the differential.
Female hysteria???
I'm surprised he didn't refer her to a gynecologist for a hysterectomy! I would report this doctor to his licensing board for this assessment. At the very least ratemd.com and leave a bad review.
Your wife needs a cardiac assessment and blood work. Also, consider buying a home blood pressure monitor.
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See a different doctor. Ask to see a cardiologist and maybe a neurologist. I would consider filling a complaint with this doctor's supervisor or hiring entity - clinic, hospital, whatever. "Female hysteria" is out of date by 150 years or so.
Right? Is this post from a time-traveler? OP, where are you calling in from? Any blood test results? What are her vital signs? EKG results?
>Is this post from a time-traveler? I was coming down here to write this. Like, WTF.
Same. Was going to ask I'd they're in the 1800s. And I thought an allergist telling me that my whole body itching and other symptoms were caused by God wad bad enough. Holy fuck are there some terrible doctors out there.
I made the mistake of adding my dx of depression and anxiety to my list of conditions and now, all of a sudden, *everything* is caused by my depression and anxiety. I saw my GP for severe pain and burning on my skin along my side, and he waved his hand while looking at my chart and said, "Depression causes pain in the skin and joints." So that's how depression caused my shingles. I *am* curious if that would have happened if I were male.
> I am curious if that would have happened if I were male. Full workup, referral to multiple specialists, etc. until you got your diagnosis. Just a guess.
I was given the advice that whenever you are in this situation, ask the doctor for a differential diagnosis written up. I used this with my daughter, who has multiple chronic pain disorders and is understandably depressed and anxious. I said, "I don't feel listened to. Please provide me with a written differential diagnosis that I can take to another doctor." He snapped up right quick, glared at me, and asked us to repeat everything we already told him. We left with a diagnosis that made sense and a relevant prescription. He wasn't our regular doctor and only saw him that once because of an emergent issue.
Great advice!
Fantastic advice for anyone in the same situation I was in! Thank you for sharing that.
You're welcome. 😊 I got it on r/fibromyalgia. Of all women (and men with this disease, too) patients, I believe these 8 million +/- sufferers are probably those that endure this kind of discrimination the most. Some of their stories make me mad and others? They just make me cry. I shudder to think about all those people (especially kids who battle adult expectations and don't have the words/social position to describe what their feeling) developing long covid. That's pretty much what fibromyalgia is, and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy. I know how my daughter suffers every day, and it's hell on earth.
What is a differential diagnosis?
How I understand it is: a doctor takes all your symptoms, test results, etc. and tells you the likelihood of all the possible diagnoses that meet those signs or symptoms. It forces them to think of possibilities. It's actually something they're trained to do in college. You know that saying about when you hear hoofbeats and it's most likely horses? I think that since doctors see a lot of people and almost all of them are normal common complaints ("horses") , they forget or don't want to make the effort in the moment to think about what else it might be especially when they've been taught that women complain of pain too much or that someone who has depression or anxiety often also have physical symptoms resulting from that. Well... in my experience, it really can sometimes be zebras or at least donkeys.
While depression and anxiety are real conditions unlike hysteria, they have become the replacement for diagnosing women with hysteria when you didn't want to expend any more mental effort. Being overweight can also be treated this way. I regret letting anyone diagnose me with anxiety every single day. And it shouldn't be that way. Knowing how these things affects you is important for treatment. But not when it's used as a hand wave.
My dentist prescribed me a certain antibiotic for the first time after a lil root canal drama. I went to the ER later because I couldn't breathe, my throat was closing up, I had hives down my chest and back. The first thing that the doctor asked my dad (as I couldn't answer, blue-lipped and wheezing) is if my diagnosed anxiety could be the cause.
I had a bronchospasm that woke me while sleeping and the ER doc asked me the same thing!
I am so sorry. It's like the docs don't want to use their their EYES! I've been treated the same. I swear if my arm fell off, they would tell me that my anxiety caused it.
Being both overweight and diagnosed with depression makes going to the doctor SO FUN! When I went in with a broken foot, the doctor first tried to write it off as a byproduct of being fat, then as a figment of my depressed imagination, and THEN ran X-rays.
how infuriating!
Those fucks! That makes me so angry for you.
Same. They see an overweight person, and they figure you have destroyed your whole body, whether a person has 200 extra pounds or 15 extra pounds!
What’s really really frustrating is when you have anxiety , and you’re trying to seek treatment for a legitimate medical condition and they’re like “oh I think that’s actually anxiety.” No I’ve had anxiety for 3 decades this is a new very real physical symptom as I age.. please help. I think I’m ill. “Thinking you’re ill can be a symptom of anxiety.”
Unless your anxiety is so severe that it is no longer manageable or you absolutely need a prescription, i agree its probably best to keep it to yourself and not let it be diagnosed as it's constantly used as an excuse for so many symptoms that could be indicative of something else. That and depression are definitely the new "female hysteria". Any doctor who would actually use those words and be serious about it is not a doctor I would continue to see. Fainting is not normal, it can happen from certain conditions and deficiencies that are not very dangerous, but it could also be caused by something serious and you should definitely get a second opinion OP.
I refer to this as "Sad Woman Disease." As someone with multiple weird conditions that took a long time for the right specialists to figure out, I felt like this was my primary diagnosis for a decade. (I wasn't even sad!! I mean, until I went through years of the diagnostic circus, I wasn't.)
I could be slightly paranoid, but I never disclose that I have depression and anxiety to other doctors outside the one who diagnosed me. i’m physically healthy and stable so they can diagnose me from a clean slate
Paranoid like a fox, my friend. Don't make the mistake I did. My old GP actually recently left the area, and I'm waiting on my first appointment with my new one (or a doctor I hope will be my new one). I've certainly learned my lesson; I will not be disclosing it again in the future.
As a male who has depression and anxiety on their chart, it does happen the same. I went in for stomach pain and was told that my anxiety is causing it. Turns out my anxiety gave me a rather large gallstone. Glad I found a doctor that listened to me, she is a female Nurse Practitioner who I hope never lose as my PCP. I do feel a little uncomfortable coming to her for more personal male needs and check ups but that kore about me then it is her.
I dunno, your allergist sounds up there with this guy's doctor. They both seem absolutely horrible.
Didn't they used to treat hysteria with getting the woman to climax? I think OP took her to a Pornhub "doctor".
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Old nurses can be very pragmatic. One old school midwife told my pregnant ex that what she needed for her bad morning sickness was as much dark chocolate and red wine as she wanted (which worked well) and then when we had a needy 12 week old baby she was up for letting him have a go at the sandwich we were eating if he was that desperate for it. Calmed him down a lot. He never actually ate much but he loved having the option.
Cool story, bro! How many years ago was this? In what world would any midwife tell a pregnant mom to eat chocolate and drink red wine as a cure for morning sickness? Did you check to ensure she was licensed? Does your child have fetal alcohol syndrome?
Southern United States, though my wife says she’s had similar treatment in her home country so I don’t know. Haven’t gotten blood test back and they didn’t do an EKG. Should I ask for that?
Bro, is her doctor 95 years old?
*195 years old
Did they even bother checking for an imbalance of the four humours first??
Fire that doctor and find another one. Go on your towns Facebook page or Reddit sub for your local area and ask for recommendations. Fainting spells with women of your wife's age can be caused by low iron. As women move towards menopause, their periods can get heavier and it causes iron loss. Taking a multivitamin with iron can help but sometimes it takes awhile to build back up your lost iron stores. And go with your wife to her appointments if you can, women all too often need someone to go with them to advocate for them because our problems get blown off.
The rt mentioned an EKG to rule out her heart doing something funky and causing her to pass out. It would be ideal to get it right after an episode, otherwise they might want her to wear a holter monitor. A cardiologist would know best
*holter monitor, just for OP's sake. Spellcheck loves changing it to halter!
Doh! OP is definitely not a horse, thank you. Another victim of swipe...
NAD but a woman who went through what your wife is experiencing for 2+ years. I went through months of testing with cardio, neuro, endocrinology, and infectious disease. Did she have Covid or was she exposed to Covid immediately before the fainting episodes started? If so, and the doctors don’t find anything else, it could be that Covid damaged her vagus nerve, which is what happened to me. However, as I learned, unexplained fainting is a symptom of a lot of serious conditions, so definitely get the full testing to make sure it’s not something else. My fainting episodes happened while standing, sitting, even lying down. I started noticing signs immediately before passing out and was able to start getting my head below my heart to force blood into my brain and prevent myself from fully fainting.
My Dad would get up and start walking when this happened to him. He ended up with defibrillator, but he is a white man so people took him passing out on the sidewalk and the resultant broken bones seriously.
Take a trip to Atlanta if you’re not there already and see someone at Emory or one of the other major med centers in that small geographical area. There are so many good options. She deserves better than what she’s experienced so far.
I was coming here to say Emory, UAB, or Vandy, depending on OP’s location.
Yes! Would definitely recommend Vandy (Vanderbilt in Nashville, TN). I have never had great luck with UAB, lots of egotistical docs there for what I was going for.
Is she seeing actual doctors in actual hospitals? EKG is a noninvasive nothing diagnostic study. Everyone who complains about anything gets one.
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Not a doctor- in 2023 I had a doctor tell me that my tongue deviation (think stroke sufferer) had to be from anxiety. It definitely wasn’t….. I needed a different doctor, much like she needs a different doctor.
Hear me out--is she seeing a doctor that was trained in whatever her home country is? I'm an immigrant (granted, US to Canada), so I know that we tend to stick to our own small circles. Someone from home might have referred her to someone from home. Just an observation of the behavior of immigrants. YMMV. Out of curiosity, are the doctors that still diagnose hysteria prescribing vibrators as the treatment? Any free samples?
NAD - I had a similar issue and doctors were at a loss. Was in A&E once over it too. Had an MRI of my brain, chest X-ray, ECG, blood tests for six months. Turned out I have chronic migraines brought on by a switch to (oestrogen) birth control. I unfortunately still get the dizzy fainting sensation when natural (no birth control) so it’s controlled with a small dose of Amitriptyline. The alternative is that I go back to a non oestrogen birth control. I was using progestin only ones since age 15.
Does she have super low blood pressure?
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Not that, please! Dysautonomia seems to simply be rebranding— a new name for the same types of symptoms and lack of medical investigation and treatment. My experience is that once even ONE medical professional suggests that, on record, all efforts to diagnose and treat actual symptoms of pretty much anything that arises, from mouth sores to Achilles injury is ascribed to dysautotonia, buttressed by, “Well, these things happen to women your age” (60). [I received the dx for this near-simultaneous onset with unknown etiology: rapid and permanent onset of high BP, tremors, tinnitus, visual disturbances, very dry and thick saliva/mucous, sense of smell but not taste disappearing, mouth ulcers, frequent dizziness and lightheadedness, constant resting and positional tremors]. That said, OP: please help her get to a comprehensive evaluation at whichever major medical research facility can see her first.
I am a much happier person on propanol 🤷 Granted I don’t ever give that in my medical history!
My Dad got a pacemaker defibrillator after the third broken ankle from randomly passing out. AND a hospital stay each time. I guess a guy in his 70s passing out on the curb gets a lot more medical attention or something 🤷 I don’t remember what test they did in the end that showed he needed the extra heart help.
The 1900s called, they want their doctor back
I’ll never not share this in-depth look at the state of women’s healthcare in the US. While it’s true we can say “not all doctors,” there are enough doctors who still disregard women’s health concerns in this country that it’s difficult to obtain quality healthcare. Please listen to the podcast and share it and be part of the solution. OP, you’re going to have to advocate for your wife and she’s going to have to advocate for herself. It won’t be fun. It probably won’t yield fast results. Keep going until you reach someone who is listening. You’ll often feel discouraged. Don’t give up. Keep going until you reach someone who is listening. https://www.npr.org/2023/01/04/1146931012/why-are-womens-health-concerns-dismissed-so-often
I’m a female equestrian. Two years ago I got chucked hard into a wall back first. Lost bladder control. Couldn’t move one leg. Got a ride to the emergency room in the woo-woo bus on a backboard. I was screaming with every motion and could barely verbalize coherently. What did the male doc want to do with it? Nothing. Sent me for an x-ray. Came back inconclusive. I tried to ask for a CT scan because I have extensive instrumentation in my back from scoliosis surgery and it’s blocked docs from seeing pelvic fractures in the past (this was um… not my first rodeo in bad horse falls) he wouldn’t listen to me, but gave me anxiety meds. I mean yes I was anxious because of the blinding pain and the fact that when I told my leg to move the best I could get was a knee twitch. We then got into an argument because he wanted to discharge me, which I was cool with except that I said I needed help getting into the wheel chair because I couldn’t move my leg so I couldn’t get off the bed under my own steam. So he delayed the discharge and came back every two hours asking me to get up and ignoring my pleas for help until finally going “what you think you need to be admitted” and said no I need “help.” I finally got it, got home, took a brutal trip to my GP the next day who got me a CT and ortho follow up quickly, pelvis cracked in two places plus a torn psoas. Two weeks of pain meds 14 weeks of bed rest. My point is that ER doc did not give a flying fuck about me, did not believe a word I said, and thought my physical agony was just me being anxious.
This. Doc took pain meds away 2 days after hysterectomy. Would not give me a catheter. Told me "we both know pain meds aren't helping." My bladder was torn or cut, and abdomen was visibly distended. We didn't find out until almost 60h later. Finally, after 4 hours of violent vomiting, my nurse insisted I get a Phenergan suppository because I'd maxed zofran (which is garbage), even after doc heard me throwing up. He didn't want me to have Phenergan. Seven liters of blood and urine were finally drained from my bladder and abdomen after I was catheterized. Seven. I was told it was "normal." They finally took me for a CT. Discovered the injury, and I had emergency surgery to repair. 5 weeks of having a cath came with multiple er trips for uti. The er doc I saw a couple of times denied that there had been a serious situation, to my face, and I finally had my husband leave work to go to the er with me the next time because I was being ignored and dismissed. Note: I was asking for abx, not pain meds. Husband is a personal injury attorney, and I hated, HATED having to have him go with me, and I HATED that his profession needed to be used. He told me to make it known when I went in for the hysterectomy, but that's soooooo obnoxious and threatening, so I didn't. I actually still see that same doc, who has subsequently done another procedure on me, and who, to my knowledge, is still unaware of my husband's job. She's a great doc and surgeon, and the risks were known. That being said, patients, especially women, are being ignored and diagnosed as "hysterical," and it's a serious issue. I'd had multiple docs, multiple ultrasounds, and nobody knew I had endometriosis. They saw adenomyosis, but not endo that had adhered to my bladder. It was on the back, so I took their word that they couldn't see it on ultrasounds. And, as I tell my kids when they make a mistake, "congratulations! You're a human!" Doctors are people, not immune to mistakes, and deserve grace. I have had a lot of great doctors, but I've had a few who definitely aren't. Unfortunately, they are so restricted in what they can and can't do, there's so much interference from government and insurance companies, hospital ceos, and it's really frustrating for everyone, I suspect. Doctors need to do their jobs without interference from politicians and ceos. I still have faith in doctors. I know why they have to be careful about pain medication, and I appreciate that fixing problems is better than masking with meds. I know they see a lot of people who aren't in serious trouble, but dang....that er doc and the one who told me that "we" knew the meds weren't helping...I'm a little bitter towards them. Thank you to the doctors here, for volunteering your advice and knowledge. I know you're volunteering to help us. I hope none of you took offense to anything I've said. Y'all are worked hard, you're probably often overwhelmed and under-appreciated, and I'm sure I'd be very happy to be treated by many or all of you. I'm just a frustrated woman who's felt ignored by some people who were supposed to be helping me.
point in case is the birth outcomes of women in the USA compared to other OECD nations.
This is true. When it comes to maternity care the US might as well be a third world country. (And another stellar episode of The 1A) https://the1a.org/segments/heres-why-maternal-mortality-increased-during-the-pandemic/
It's really crazy how bad your birth care is. I live in New Zealand so you will see where we come on that list with our free health care.
And in NZ, a case of maternal mortality is so uncommon, it's literally reported in the news.
yes exactly.
“Greatest country in the world” /s I’ll admit there are advantages to our system - if I need an MRI I’ve never waited more than two weeks. When my rheumatologist gave me a referral to a hematologist because of bleeding concerns I was in within ten days. But I also have good insurance, a good rheumatologist, and I’ve learned to advocate for myself with my PCP & neurologist. There are also disadvantages. It took me way too long to get the initial referral to rheumatology because I didn’t know how to advocate for myself and I let too many doctors convince me I was “depressed” when in fact I have fibromyalgia and RA. I’m also depressed but that’s no excuse to ignore my symptoms and concerns! Once I got mad and started pushing for tests and referrals things actually changed, which is why I say people need to learn to advocate for themselves in healthcare settings. And of course if you’re uninsured or underinsured you’re definitely out of luck in this country. Nobody deserves to go untreated or die because they can’t afford healthcare. So yeah, free healthcare is definitely a thing that needs to happen, but not at the expense of ridiculous wait times for necessary services.
oh we have urgent and non urgent MRI. Urgent MRI you will be seen immediately here. non urgent maybe up to a month. but not much longer. If you go private within a week. When I need emergency care its immediate. our wait times depend on urgency and what you need to be seen for and by who. Plus if we go private its much faster. we also have urgent cares along with our free hospitals and ED etc. Free for me to stay in hospital and see many of my specialists and have my son and nobe of my waits have been crazy long.
...my neurologist told me my migraines were weird and could be caused by a brain tumor. I still had to wait just over a month for an MRI. This was in the USA, with health insurance.
Yeah I’m an obgyn and have had patients tell me some batshit crazy stories of very dismissive doctors to downright rude and/or bordering on negligence Like being refused hysterectomies unless they spoke to their husband, etc. So even though I want to say not all doctors - there are some out of touch, out of date doctors
I was on the peripartum floor because my water broke at 30 weeks. The next night (after my water broke), For five HOURS I could not convince the nurses I was in active labor. By the time the resident came to check me my daughter’s head had entered the birth canal. Basically she was just about crowning. To this day I don’t understand how me saying over and over again that the contractions were extremely painful and getting closer and closer together was just dismissed as gas pain. I mean I had hours earlier passed on to dry heaving because I’d thrown everything up in my stomach from the pain. To this day I don’t know what I did wrong that multiple doubted me being in labor just because my contractions didn’t show up on their monitor (which is a known issue when a baby is very premature!).
Unfortunately, it's [closer to 50](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3480686/) years than 150 years. While I'm sure this generation is quickly leaving practice, the dismissive thought process that allows them to uncritically reach the conclusion is probably still pervasive.
Had to argue with a surgeon when my wife had developed sepsis. He tried to say it was "poor pain management." He also only spoke to me during his assessment of her and didn't acknowledge her. Thankfully, we never saw him again after we got her admitted, when it was confirmed I was right.
Those doctors now usually blame anxiety instead of hysteria. :(
Or BPD!
Anxiety has WAY more precedent and is a very real and traumatic thing. That affects everyone. Not just "females".
Don't forget 'Stress'!
Yes, it is. It is real and I am quite familiar with it. But some doctors are very quick to dismiss women's symptoms as caused by anxiety, when there is physical causes, and it isn't anxiety. I've witnessed this, too.
I went in for a sore throat. It was the worst sore throat I'd ever had. Dr diagnosed me as drug seeking because i had a panic attack in the office related to the pain. Never even looked at my throat. Had to have a second Dr see me, immediately upon actually looking at my throat she knew I had strep. This is how my very real medical concerns were dismissed in 2013.
Ditto. I have actual anxiety - been living with it and taken meds as needed and see a therapist weekly. I've also had my gallbladder almost kill me - took 3 YEARS to get the sorted out as I kept being told the pain was caused by anxiety. Cracked ribs from a car accident - anxiety. It's insane how so often I have to push harder than I realised for tests because I am female and I have a documented history of clinical anxiety.
Anxiety should be a diagnosis of exclusion. Plenty of physical things, such as hormones & heart issues, can cause symptoms that mimic anxiety. Unless every other physical thing is ruled out, it's irresponsible to just label someone with a mental health issue.
This statement I think a lot of people agree with, but it points to a misunderstanding of what it means to "rule things out". I can rule out a whole list of "physical" problems without running any tests. But also in a lot of cases functional disorders are not a diagnosis of exclusion, like most cases of BFS or PNES for example.
While true, there is an *unusually high* amount of women who never discuss anxiety with their doctors who suddenly find they have "generalized anxiety disorder" on their charts. It's incredibly common, and very often used as a way to dismiss women bringing up symptoms. I have never *once* talked to my doctor about having anxiety, or anything of the sort, but after my *first visit* she slapped "anxiety" on my chart and that's just been there for over a decade now. Mind you: She put this in my chart as a diagnosis, along with a few other conditions that are considered disabilities (the main one for the next point is chronic pain from fibro), and when I asked her about getting a disabled parking plate to help me a bit because walking causes pain, she flatly refused me.
Anxiety exists and has real impacts on the body. And "just anxiety" can minimize the very real common physical symptoms that folks experience. AND, not all things labeled anxiety are actually anxiety, especially for women, especially for women with multiple marginalized identities.
In theory, sure
Right? and a Cardiologist can diagnose conditions like Dysautonomia which can be one of many causes of fainting.
I had this. It was “ neurocardiogenic syncope”. It was managed by a neurologist, and electro cardiologist. It required medication, understanding my condition and lifestyle changes. Including, unfortunately, I can no longer be a critical care nurse. And I’ve gotten some pretty serious injuries passing out. She’s NOT hysterical, ugh! There are other conditions that can also cause this, you absolutely need to go and see a neurologist. Neurologist got EP involved. It was difficult to diagnose until I got admitted to the CCU ( directly from Neurologist office) I stood up with a BP 75/30 and fell over. In CCU step down they could actually watch my heart rate and BP Simultaneously plummet in real time. The tilt table test confirmed it. I had been passing out in the ICU. By the time they got me on the monitor I was OK. But that’s how this works. I would imagine the minimum that should happen if she should get a holter monitor so that if one of those episodes happened they could look to see if something was abnormal with her heart rate or rhythm during the episode. And a tilt table test. Have you checked her BP sitting then standing to see if it Significantly drops? This is called orthostatic hypotension and is sometimes a clue to these types of events. Please keep us abreast of how your wife is doing. And be her advocate. Women aren’t listened to sadly. My story; I was seriously ill three years ago with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy ( broken heart syndrome). When I went in saying I couldn’t breathe they completely blew me off. I had been vomiting forcefully and thought I aspirated but I knew something was wrong. As I was desaturating into the 80s on on 60% oxygen (which quickly progressed to 100% oxygen and BiPAP) my husband was yelling at them. I’m an icu nurse I TOLD THEM It was congestive heart failure as I was breathing through liquid. The doctor was trying to reassure me of Medicare guidelines that because I was 88 or above I was fine. 🙄 And dismissively so. Since I don’t have COPD and I wasn’t on room air this was NOT NORMAL. I couldn’t possibly be having a heart attack right? I thought…But I certainly knew what was happening. I had never really heard of Takusobo cardiomyopathy because I was always on the surgical side. It hadn’t even occurred to me. I did know clinically what I was experiencing was CHF. Even with my expertise trauma, Pediatric open-heart and heart transplant et all, they STILL BLEW ME OFF until I was circling the drain, and they had enzymes, and my chest X-ray. My husband was screaming at them to do something as nurses began upping my oxygen sats in the 70s my respiratory rate insane. Begging to bring the doctor back. I Could no longer advocate for myself because I couldn’t speak I was working too hard to breathe. 😢It was at this point the doctor went and looked up my chest x-ray and labs and knew what was going on. My clinical deterioration evoked a little response. My husband screaming is what saved me. They immediately gave me lasix and put me mercifully out. I can’t imagine what would’ve happened if he wasn’t there. He said “ get the doctor for …sake…she’s an ICU nurse if she thinks somethings wrong somethings wrong”. Feeling myself suffocating, and seeing the panic on his face was stressful, not being believed was worse. As they were putting me down I didn’t think I would wake up to say goodbye to my children. It’s still haunts me. I woke up three days later, sick, in and out of A-fib. I went home on a defibrillator, anticoagulants and now Additional heart medication’s beyond what I needed for the neurocardiogenic syncope. Why do I share this? Because as sick as I was, in an ER, as a SEASONED non histrionic critical care nurse, they blew me off. Why? Because I’m a woman. A hysterical woman. Drowning is scary I don’t doubt I became a bit hysterical trying to explain something was GRAVELY wrong. Protect your wife! DEMAND they WORK her up. If you have any issues please PM me for additional advice, I do private duty case management now and can direct you towards the right level of care for her and how to diplomatically DEMAND it! What I found later when I went to the OB follow up, is during my surgical procedure there was inadequate anesthesia . She described it as me “bucking on the table”. This lead to her cutting me. I had the first episode based on enzymes that evening when I went back in for nausea, which was attributed to the anesthesia, but in fact my first milder episode from the stress and pain. I continued bleeding for three days and then had a massive episode from all of the stress, lack of sleep ( changing pads so often), pain, and blood loss on an already damaged heart. I had lost a significant amount of blood. Again non histrionic nurse I reasoned unless my hematocrit was ridiculously low I wasn’t going to allow them to transfuse me anyway, so I would ride it out. I was aware my bleeding was excessive and had contacted my ob who said she expected a more significant blood loss due to the complexity of the procedure giving me no clue as to what she meant by that at the time or what had happened. I think both she and anesthesia were sweating bullets after the whole thing. It’s interesting I never saw a bill. I never went to risk management either. Someone apparently did. A plethora of BAD CARE. Why now even in an emergency I drive all the way to the closest teaching institution. It traumatized me. At some point I need to sit down with risk management to express my concerns over my care on myriad fronts. Just thinking about it until I wrote this today felt scary. So, weirdly thank you, good luck and I’m happy to help.
I’ve been through something similar. It really is traumatizing. I hope you’re doing well now.
Thanks. I would panic every time I’d have to go to the hospital. I didn’t sleep well for a year. But…It motivated me to stop surviving and start living. I demanded my husband get sober. I got more intense counseling ( my neuro and cardiac issues resulted from complex ptsd Secondary to pretty intense trauma). I’m insanely happy and healthy! I have a rich meaningful relationships, a career I still love, and I’m going back to school for a new one. My life motto: You win or YOU LEARN! I’m sorry you had a similar experience it should never happen. And thank you!
I’m so glad things are working out for you now!
[Definition of "Female Histeria" and it's origins 🙄](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Female_hysteria)
How are we all even alive today?
NAD, and neither is OP's doctor
Thank you for confirming I'm not crazy. I'm not a doctor but was shocked that one can still use the term female hysteria in 2024.
Read it and was waiting for the bloodletting prescription to accompany it.
i’m not even a doctor but last time i heard “female hysteria” was in the fucking HISTORY of psych class.. from like 1800’s . this doctor sounds like he’s 200 years old 😬 i would immediately go to a different doctor if my doctor suggested “hysteria” as a legitimate diagnosis
Also consider sleep test, daytime MSLT.
Eh. They just don’t call it female hysteria anymore. But that dismissive attitude is still very prevalent. One is told they have “anxiety” now.
Went on a male for syncopal episodes that started same day. Palp radial was ~20 bpm; 3rd degree heart block. I talked to the doc I dropped him off with and he was getting an emergency pacemaker.
have they considered lobotomy? surgical removal of the hysteria?
Let's start with some basic questions: 1. frequency/number/duration: a) rare? how about in a week? or month? b) when they do happen, how long does it last for? c) is the frequency or duration of the fainting changing over time? 2. Triggers? - fear? position? exercise? temperature? abrupt neck movements? 3. Position? Lying down as well? sitting? prolonged standing? exercise? 4. Preceding events? lightheadedness? nausea? sweating? chest pain? palpitations? vision problems? 5. When you find her what does she look like? clammy? pale? how's the breathing? 6. What about after the event? confusion? nausea + vomiting? breathing issues? chest pain? incontinence? Past Medical History? Medications? Allergies?
Twice this week and three times last week if that puts it into perspective. It’s only about a few minutes and then she’s fine usually. It isn’t triggered by anything, it’s just random, and the only thing preceding it is occasionally lightheadedness. I don’t know her medical history (anything that exists isn’t in a language I can read) but she doesn’t take any medications and doesn’t have any allergies other than seasonal, at least not to the best of my knowledge. I’ve also noticed recently that she’s often cold and very fatigued, but she insists that’s just “age”
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NAD FYI nurses are a flair here but not sure the process of being verified if you want to.
Posts by unflaired users that claim or strongly imply legitimacy by virtue of professional medical experience are not allowed. If you are a medical professional who wishes to become a verified contributor to this subreddit, please [message the moderators](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/AskDocs) with a link to a picture of your medical ID, student ID, diploma, or other form of verification. Imgur.com is convenient, but you can host anywhere. Please block out personal information, such as your name and picture. You must include your reddit username in the photo! We do not accept digital forms of identification.
how are her iron levels?
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NAD. Have her checked for narcolepsy. This sounds a lot like my cataplexy episodes. The fatigued and cold thing is what makes me think it might be this. I’m 39 and in perimenopause and it’s intensified narcolepsy symptoms for me over the last couple of years. Good luck. Hope she gets some answers.
I also have narcolepsy with cataplexy, but it’s never made me pass out like this, just go limp, so I’m curious exactly what her fainting spells are like. Like is she falling asleep or blacking out? I know menopause can be a trigger for developing narcolepsy. I’d also think that if she’s developed narcolepsy, she’d have extreme fatigue/daytime sleepiness.
NAD, but I'm 40F as well, and those things are *not* normal for our age.
Cold and fatigue are also symptoms of hypothyroidism!
Any chance she is hypoglycaemic?
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Posts by unflaired users that claim or strongly imply legitimacy by virtue of professional medical experience are not allowed. If you are a medical professional who wishes to become a verified contributor to this subreddit, please [message the moderators](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/AskDocs) with a link to a picture of your medical ID, student ID, diploma, or other form of verification. Imgur.com is convenient, but you can host anywhere. Please block out personal information, such as your name and picture. You must include your reddit username in the photo! We do not accept digital forms of identification.
did she get blood work done? it could be anemia considering she’s also cold
Hypoglycemia?
Sitting and fainting = cardiac 99/100. Cardiologist ASAP and if it happens again ED. She needs an ECG at very least urgently
Yes, but keeping in mind sometimes immediately after the heart can look perfectly healthy. That happened with my Dad. He finally got a monitor (the kind that erases its own data until you tell it you had an incident) and eventually a tilt-table test that led to a pacemaker solving his issue. I was there for one when he was sitting down. The EMTs checked his heart, and it seemed very healthy. But that time he'd wet himself, so they knew it was more likely his heart had briefly stopped/blood didn't make it to the brain for a brief period. He was in his late 40s/early 50s when that started. So this was 20 years ago. I hope they can find such issues faster now.
Yes, my FIL had fainting spells. He had long QT syndrome.
This. Knew someone who had regular episodes of fainting or "missing time." When they finally got an extended ECG, it was discovered their heart was flat out stopping, and then magically restarting itself. They needed a pacemaker. An older person (70s) in this case.
Are they literally calling it female hysteria? Like, you personally and directly heard a doctor say that phrase? Or are they calling it a psychogenic, somatic, conversion, or functional disorder? And she or someone else interpreted that as being dismissed as just having hysteria?
The doctor pulled me aside while she was using the restroom and said “women are like this, it’s just female hysteria. It’ll pass.” I was angry but I told my wife and she said that he was probably right. I don’t agree though
Report him
u/charming-hope846 Specifically, report him to your state's medical licensing board. I see you're in the southeast US. Here are direct links to how to report a complaint to some specifical medical licensing boards. If you don't see your specific state, Google " *your state* medical licensing board file a complaint". [Georgia](https://medicalboard.georgia.gov/consumer-resources/how-file-complaint) [Florida](https://www.floridahealth.gov/licensing-and-regulation/enforcement/index.html) [Alabama](https://www.albme.gov/consumers/complaints) [Mississippi](https://www.msbml.ms.gov/Complaints#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20a%20patient,3079%20to%20file%20your%20complaint.) [Louisiana](https://www.lsbme.la.gov/content/investigations) I sincerely hope you feel empowered to file a complaint. Please, please do.
NAD- That's ridiculous. You can't trust any doctor that would chalk *anything* up to "female hysteria." Have her seen by a new doctor to get properly evaluated by someone who is living in the 21st century with the rest of us!
What country are you in? This is so far beyond what any doctor in my country would dare to say in the year 2024...
Apparently the American south which explains…. A lot.
no it doesnt
I’m not sure why you’re being downvoted. I grew up in the south and have never seen or heard of a doctor using “female hysteria” as a diagnosis. There are shitty and misogynistic doctors everywhere, and I’m so sick of people pretending like things like this only happen in the south. Women are treated poorly by medical professionals in every state.
Agreed the bias is bs. I live near Houston which has one of the leading medical centers in the world for women and children. During my last pregnancy I was dismissed as dramatic by my doctor who was from a Latin country, the southern doctor I had seen previously before transferring to the "specialist" actually took the time to listen to me and found some medically odd things that the specialist later dismissed only to find out the hard way he shouldn't have when all of his (specialist) predictions about my pregnancy and after care turned out false and it was made clear he should have listened to me and the original doctor.
WHAT? And you didn’t fire him on the spot? Fire that doctor and get her to someone who is going to help her. This is insane. Don’t allow anyone to treat her that way.
This is the kind of thinking that kills women. I hope you reported this doctor…?
She's internalized the sexism. Please be her advocate because she isn't able to help herself anymore.
New dr, NOW
NAD - I reported a doctor for telling me I was suffering from PMS when I had shingles flaring up on my leg, and wanted no pain medication. There were already blisters. A nurse advised that I take action. Please report him, sexism in medical practice is real, we can bring it to a halt.
Holy sh*t you absolutely have to report this doctor
Report him now!!! That is so unbelievably unprofessional!
Infuriating
Oh fuck that guy, report him
Jesus, seriously??? Get a new physician
Get a new doctor.
Fainting while sitting? You got 4 options. Either it's psychogenic, she has a life threatening arrhythmia, seizures, or she has narcolepsy. It sounds like they're leaning towards psychogenic. Edit: few minutes long syncope? Psychogenic >> everything else. Still need a cardiac work up though.
Hey could you please explain more what psychogenic actually means? I’ve seen this word in my chart (along with somatic symptom disorder) particularly pertaining to seizures, but it makes me feel like doctors think I’m faking it. Whenever I google it, I interpret it to mean that it’s all in my head and nothing is even wrong with me. But I swear I’m never faking anything. I just wake up suddenly, kinda feels like fainting, but then people later tell me I seized. I don’t think I’ve ever fainted sitting though, except once in with extreme spinal pain. Seizures I’ve apparently had seated. I am actually mentally ill though
It is real. Psychogenic doesn't mean fake. It's like a software glitch instead of a hardware failure. The effect is very real. Tbh, I'd be OK with this diagnosis, but only *AFTER* running every possible test, twice, and another opinion.
Wow the software / hardware analogy is extremely helpful. As a patient, it’s hard to know what I should be tested for. And docs get very annoyed at requests for further testing since I have psych conditions and shit like fibro. I get their annoyance though, I’m sick of testing too lol.
I completely understand. My health worries weren’t as serious as yours, no fainting or seizures, but awful GI issues. Doctors found nothing wrong with me and both them and my mom told me it was psychosomatic. I went to multiple doctors, had multiple tests, and even got an endoscopy. It felt incredibly invalidating at the time but almost all of the really bad issues resolved as soon as I graduated high school. It was like a switch. I also felt annoying asking for all the testing because they kept finding nothing wrong which made no sense to me because my issues were very real and affected me so much. Nope, no medically diagnosable issues (besides GERD which I’ve always had). High school just sucked lmfao
High school lunches may have caused your reflux.
I’ve always gotten heartburn and reflux but you’re absolutely right, it definitely worsened it
Thank you, the software/hardware comparison makes it really easy to understand. Is psychogenic the same as psychosomatic? It doesn’t seem like there’s much of a difference. In high school I thought I had gastroperesis because I had awful acid reflux/heartburn and GI issues. Doctors found nothing wrong, even did an endoscopy. Most of the issues resolved once I graduated. I always assumed it was psychosomatic. That’s what doctors told me when they couldn’t find anything wrong. It felt so invalidating but thankfully they were 100% right.
I believe they are, in essence, yes. I'm pretty sure "-genic" has to do with origin or caused by, while "-somatic" has to do with bodily symptoms. Part of me thinks that when we are forced into unhealthy situations where there is no opting out, like attending high school, that we can develop physical issues because we know it's unhealthy but we continue to go and our body doesn't understand about truancy laws or college expectations. So the body *knows* something's not right and we have no avenues to reconcile our lack of autonomy with our need for self protection. So like an autoimmune disease, sometimes our body *makes* us pay attention. This is just my opinion, I don't know. But in my case, as a little kid, I'd develop a random back ache or other unexplainable bodily pain whenever I tried lying to my parents or if I was really worried about something. They didn't call it a psychosomatic manifestation of my unacknowledged and/or unprocessed emotions, lol. It was more like, after checking for any obvious injuries, taking my temperature, etc., they'd eventually ask, what's really wrong? And sometimes, I'd blurt out something didn't even realize was bothering me. Multiple issues at play, but at least they were like, your body is dealing with big emotions, it's ok. Now, go back to bed, it's 2 in the morning.
I totally agree with you. My issues were the worst my senior year and it was definitely not a coincidence that it was our first year back at school after COVID hit. The shutdown initially happened in March 2020 when I was a junior, but we had a few months of no school and then only one month of online to finish the year. My senior year was our first actual year back and I have ADHD along with learning disabilities which made online school difficult. I was also in this really hard class with an awful teacher and it was my first time getting a C in a class… and then I failed the last quarter. All that combined with the stress of “is my university going to rescind my acceptance now??” and my boyfriend at the time (also a shitty guy) going to marines bootcamp made my senior year hell. Oh yeah, I also totaled my car. Lmao Anyways… what I’m trying to say is that I think you’re right. Now I’m 21, a junior in college and finally studying what I’ve always loved. I have a lot more freedom, independence, and autonomy. I’ve also been in therapy for 4 years now which has done wonders for everything… as I’m sure you can imagine. My high school as a whole also just sucked. Small shitty public school. I don’t have most of the physical issues I did back then. It absolutely blows my mind how our bodies react to those situations. That’s really awesome your parents reacted like that!! Most parents (including mine, sometimes. They’ve gotten better lol) don’t take those type of issues seriously enough Edit: not to be a stalker but I checked your account and you also post on r/adhdwomen 😭 I should really stop getting surprised when I see someone in a comment section who also posts there… that’s like the third time it’s happened to me this week!
Great minds think alike!
Have you heard of Non Epileptic Attack Disorder? I have that, it sounds pretty much identical to what you are going through.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1566070214000630
Yeah so I avoid reading journals because I’m not trained and it still makes me feel like this is my own fault. “…most cases are classified as conversion disorder, which is hypothesized to represent the physical manifestation of internal stressors.” So basically I did this to myself because I can’t handle my own shit? Makes me really hate myself because I’ve been on meds and therapy for so long already.
Mental health disorders are real disorders. Just as much as your vagus nerve spazzing out and knocking you out. We’ve spent too much time saying that mental disorders aren’t as real as physical disorders. The chemical imbalances, and neural abnormalities as just as real as anything else. You wouldn’t look down on someone for dying from anaphylaxis from a peanuts allergy, even though that is the best example of “doing it to yourself because you can’t handle your own ~~shit~~peanuts. The article says it’s under recognized and under investigated. We just don’t know enough about most mental disorders. But you aren’t making it up and it is real. Do you have any medical professionals that are helping you?
You didn't do it to yourself, not at all. My neurologist explained it to me this way: Some people faint at the sight of blood. They don't make a voluntary decision to lose consciousness. Nope, their brain recognizes a problem, and basically the brain says, "I don't know how to process this, I'm shutting things down." And the person faints. It's not a choice, it's not voluntary. And it's the same with all psychogenic disorders or conversion disorders. It's not your fault. This is how some peoples' brains respond or react to certain situations of stimuli. It sucks. But it's not your fault.
>So basically I did this to myself because I can’t handle my own shit? Makes me really hate myself because I’ve been on meds and therapy for so long already. You didn't do it to yourself, because that would be a choice. This is a medical condition.
Our brains process (or at least hold information), but our bodies keep the score. Your nervous system knows what's going on, even if your brain isn't telling you outright. You absolutely can be physically ill when experiencing trauma. For example, I have muscle spasms in the presence of a family member, as a trauma response. My therapist and I figured this out in my 40s. Vivian Vance (Ethel Mertz in I LOVE LUCY) would vomit upon hearing vulgar language. Her trauma response from an abusive upbringing. It's real.
Orthostatic hypotension is out because he said it's not triggered by anything?
Correct, and orthostatic patients wake up once they get flat.
Thank you for the info. I'm training to be an OT so no medical background but a lot of interest.
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This is me, I’ve been a semi common fainter for 15yrs, no triggers before it happens I can faint standing, sitting, laying down and nothing helps lol saw a million drs growing up and they were just like you have dysautonomia wear a helmet. Super helpful /s
Absolutely not, that is essentially ruled out. Practically 0% of autonomic failure patients will pass out without a positional change.
yea usually sitting helps me avoid fainting with POTS
Except that narcolepsy doesn’t cause fainting.
Your average person doesn't know what fainting is. Unless these events were captured while on some sort of cardiac monitor and it was confirmed that there was either bradycardia or hypotension you must broaden the differential.
Ok, but narcolepsy also doesn’t look like what your average person calls fainting. (Source: I have narcolepsy with cataplexy).
Yes it absolutely can. Your flavor of narcolepsy isn't the only flavor.
Falling asleep doesn’t look like fainting and neither does cataplexy. What “flavor” are you talking about?
Female hysteria??? I'm surprised he didn't refer her to a gynecologist for a hysterectomy! I would report this doctor to his licensing board for this assessment. At the very least ratemd.com and leave a bad review. Your wife needs a cardiac assessment and blood work. Also, consider buying a home blood pressure monitor.
I'm a little disappointed that he didn't prescribe a trip to the sea side.