40 Outrageously Misogynistic Things Doctors Actually Said To Their Female Patients

I have a missing disc in my lower back. The med student (it was a teaching hospital) did a great work up. Recommended PT and a steroid shot. Attending came in, didn’t look at the MRI, and prescribed an opiate. I’m allergic, and it’s all over my chart. I even have a medic-alert necklace.

A French GP told me, after examining my private parts, that some men might prefer it with no hair down there.

“Are you sure it’s not just your period?” And that was from a female doctor.

“Yes ma’am, I’ve been having my period for over a decade now, I think I know what a cramp feels like.”

Dr. here and some of the nonsense my patients have been told over the years:

"It's all in your head."

"You're not perimenopausal yet, you're only 45."

"Your mother had breast cancer so you're definitely going to get it."

"We need a pregnancy test." (on a 50 year old with no uterus). "We still need it."

"Are you sure you're not pregnant? That could explain some of that."

"It's probably your hormones." (When there are obvious lab findings that it is NOT).

"No way an ovarian cyst can hurt like that." Uhhh, yes it CAN...

"Any time a woman patient comes in for a visit, the first thing you should think about is PREGNANCY."

"Have you asked your husband/boyfriend etc. If he's ok with your breast reduction?"

"It's anxiety." (on a patient I diagnosed with SEIZURES)

"No way you can be in that kind of pain if you're still talking."

"Nobody has 10/10 pain."

"Why don't you get a boyfriend and you wouldn't be so depressed."

"You really are a virgin." My first gynecological exam to get on birth control pills.

A plastic surgeon said to me during a chest reduction consultation, “we don’t do reductions to an A cup because that wouldn’t be attractive”

I had just asked how small we could go because I wanted to be as small as possible.

So gross.

‘Are you an air hostess’ I went in with suspected concussion after twatting my head a few days prior and had started to space out/forget how to get home/couldn’t remember words or speak when I wanted. ‘Oh no, all perfectly normal, everyone forgets words now and then - so are you an air hostess?’

Whilst my dream was always to be an air hostess growing up, I’m now a lowly police officer (UK) and used to spend entire shifts at A&E on hosp watch/fighting with people for hours/holding them down etc on a weekly basis. I knew all the nurses and paramedics by name, had helped change bedding a few times, we were a big family. Just rubbed me the wrong way.

FYI - absolutely NOTHING WRONG in my eyes about being an air steward/ess. It was just asked in a sexist/creepy way if that makes sense.

I spoke to a gynecologist and my GP about getting my tubes tied. I was just curious as to what the procedure/process would be like and was said/asked “you’re too young”, “you’ll change your mind”, “what if your partner changes his mind?” when I said my partner and I both don’t want children.

Also, every gynecologist I went to from the age of 15-20 always insisted on me taking the pill even though I explicitly said I did not want hormones. A memorable one was when a gynecologist actually said to me I was not “mature enough” to get an IUD (I was 19). How is it different from the pill ? Dunno.

I dropped the topic for a few years, changed gynecologists and now have a copper IUD. I’ll ask again in a few years about tying the tubes.

I went to the dentist for an emergency wisdom tooth removal..when I was having an anxiety attack (that was totally triggered by the dentists complete haphazard and dismissive approach), he said “maybe youre crying because your on your period” I tried to make a complaint but it didn’t go anywhere.

I spent a year constantly spotting because my body was rejecting my IUD, but the pain didn't feel like my uterus, so I went to my GP.

He told me it was a bladder infection despite the fact that I told him I've had those before and this pain wasn't the same. Every time he threw a different thing at me to address my apparent infection, it didn't work. Every time they asked me how my bladder infection was doing.

It took me making an appointment with my gynaecologist (against my doctor's insistence that it was still a bladder infection months and months after his first assertion of that) to have the IUD removed early to figure that one out, and my GP was weirdly b****y with me after that.

Oh, and the icing on that particular cake was that he told me I wouldn't be able to differentiate bladder pain from uterine pain, and that I can't feel my ovaries at all. None of those were true, of course.

I had thyroid cancer, a total Thyroidectomy, and I went to me endo saying I feel so out of control mentally and I can’t control my emotions properly and that I was gaining weight rapidly out of nowhere, and he just told me to eat less and that it “all in my head”. I left sobbing….

Get married and the B12 deficiency will get fixed.

After he asked how many kids I had (I had already mentioned them), I told him, and he responded — “you know how that happens, right?”

The worst part for me was that (like many), I struggled with infertility to get pregnant, and this guy who knew nothing about nothing made light of it as if I was too dimwitted for birth control. He was an optometrist…needless to say that was my last visit to his office.

I got told at 19 that maybe having a baby would fix my life long irregular periods. No further follow up.

“It doesn’t hurt. You’re just uncomfortable.”

“Even skinny people have this problem too.” This was in response to my low iron levels.

Getting the birth control implant, male doctor: "If you just got pregnant, you wouldn't have to worry about birth control for 10 months." So funny.

A psychiatric nurse suggested I have a child to help with my debilitating iron deficiency.

I had a pain in my mid back and was worried about a kidney infection, and the male doctor i had a phone appointment with told me it was period cramps. i ended the appointment feeling dismissed and like my time was totally wasted. i really wish i would have told him that period cramps do not happen in the kidneys, that i was certainly not on my period, and insisted that he reschedule me for an appointment with a female doctor.

I told my doctor I had 8 cavities, which was out of nowhere for me (previously had perfect teeth). I asked for testing to see if there was some larger issue because of all the symptoms I experience, his response was that barfing can cause cavities.