This post may include affiliate links.
#21
There is another insidious driver of medical delay: patients stopping themselves from seeking help because past experiences taught them that they won’t be taken seriously.
This phenomenon, called medical gaslighting, happens when healthcare providers minimize, invalidate, or brush off a patient’s real physical symptoms.
Things get even worse when this mixes with gender, race, or age bias.
“Doctors end up asking about symptoms rather than the story. And [people] then get conditioned to talk about their symptoms instead of their stories. But studies have shown that over 80 per cent of diagnoses can be made just by listening. By that, they mean listening to the story, the open-ended story of what happened, rather than asking a list of yes-no questions,” says Dr. Leana Wen, author of 'When Doctors Don’t Listen: How to Avoid Misdiagnoses and Unnecessary Tests.'
#22
1. New onset headache in an adult
2. Epigastric pain
3. Hemoptysis (coughing up blood).
#23
An MD Live by Evernorth study conducted by Talker Research found that boomer women are the most likely group to dismiss their own daily aches and pains (68%).
Decades of subtle dismissals lead many older women to write off potential warning signs as “just a normal part of getting older.”
“Women’s health concerns have often been minimized or misinterpreted, leading many to second-guess their own symptoms,” explains Dr. Maggie Williams, medical director for Primary Care at MD Live by Evernorth.
“However, conditions don’t always present the same way in women, and when these differences go unrecognized, critical warning signs can be missed.”
Studies also show that people of color, especially Black and Hispanic patients, regularly face deep racial bias in healthcare. Their pain is frequently undertreated, and they are far less likely to be sent for advanced scans or tests.
#24
I’ve got a mole on my abdomen right now that’s probably just getting irritated from the waistband of my underclothing rubbing on it. But I’m gonna get it checked out because ignoring it is how you end up with skin cancer that turns deadly.
Had a coworker that ignored some skin problems for a long time and ended up with cancer she couldn’t get ahead of. She passed a couple years ago.
Check your skin peeps. If something’s different, get it checked. Better it be nothing than…something.
#25
That being said, my fun answer is hiccups. Cancer every time.
Doctors and nurses are there to treat the symptoms, but you are the one who has to spot them.
At the end of the day, it is you who knows your body better than anyone else, and trusting your gut could quite literally save your life.
So share these warning signs with your friends, check in on your parents, and push your partner to make that overdue appointment today.
#26
All we other women had to have a special test done. They inserted a needle into our breast to see if the cancer had spread. (No, don't ask me how THAT works. I don' know. Somehow with radioactivity. I only know that it didn't hurt much, so that was okay.)
Anyway. They didn't need to give HER that test, because her cancer HAD spread. (Which also meant that she needed full chemotherapy after the surgery. I did not.).
#27
Sudden onset of migraines when you don’t usually get migraines. Or sudden onset of extreme headache, like the worst headache you’ve ever possibly had. ER immediately. Can be stroke or aneurysm. And don’t let them tell you it’s “just a headache”. Advocate for yourself and your concerns.
#28
In general though, if the symptom js severe, progressively worsening or persistent for weeks or months, you need to get checked.
#29
#31
#32
#33
#34
It was Crohn’s disease paired with grade 3 anemia (7.3 hgb last I checked, probably way higher now thanks to medical intervention). I’m 90% sure thanks to comments by medical professionals that I was like a few pounds away from having a literal IV pump nutrients into me because the inflammation was SO BAD nothing was getting properly absorbed and my body was eating itself alive.
But hey, at least it’s not cancer! Haha. Ha.
I’m still recovering.
#35
Unintentional weight loss, a painless swollen lymph node or mass, shortness of breath, bleeding from any orifice, significant increase of abdominal circumference in a short time.
#36
#37
#38
Not all chest pain is from coronary artery disease, but all consistently exertional chest pain is coronary artery disease until proven otherwise. Also, don't ignore sustained chest pain at rest that lasts longer than 15 minutes. Go to the ER. I've seen way too many people d*e that didn't take their chest pain seriously and waited far too long to seek care.