Ever had a doctor not believe you or discount your own experiences?

Yes, but because of the type of insurance I have, I'm extremely limited in who I can see for treatment. I'm currently going through this gynecologically. I have experienced extremely painful periods that are very heavy (changing a Diva Cup every 6 hours or less) with extremely heavy clotting. I'm pretty sure I have cysts or some other problem, but their first option was BC. I understand that this is first-line treatment for any gynecological problem. Due to my severe depression symptoms on BC, I opted for Mirena. I've been bleeding now, nonstop, for about 6 weeks (since the beginning of my last period), and spotting pretty regularly before that. So after this period, if it stops, I'll determine if this is a viable solution; but I'm thinking it's almost time to go back and try a different option. Depending on what tests show, ablation might be the ultimate end result if it's not cysts and it's endometrial. I'm simply going to have to be my own advocate and ask for more testing.

I had a chronic headache (woke up with a migraine and went to bed every night with it, no matter what I took it NEVER went away...it was so bad at one point I was slightly suicidal) for 3 years. I continuously asked my (military) doctors for a MRI of my brain because I was sure I had a brain tumor. I was given Paxil, Prozac, nortriptyline, and a slue of other antidepressants when all the rest of the drugs would leave me zombie-like and still in pain; this went on for years! I was told I was being "ridiculous and maybe I was a hypochondriac", that "someone my age (24 at the time) could not have a brain tumor with no other symptoms."

I lost my hearing and my face went numb at age 26 (all the sudden-like) and my husband took me into the ER and demanded my hearing be checked and an MRI. Within a few hours, he got what he wanted. I was scheduled for brain surgery within the week. I did have a brain tumor and was in surgery for 18 hours, with 6 surgeons, 7 days in ICU, and 6 months of recovery.

A friend of mine told my original doctor (the one who refused to believe me and wrote "hypochondriac" in my medical record what happened to me). He personally called me at home to apologize to me. It all worked out for the best really. Had he diagnosed me, I would have had to have brain surgery at a military facility; instead, I had world renowned brain surgeons working on me. We are truly blessed!

Since then, I have had the same kind of thing happen with MS symptoms (they are kinda hard to pin down though) but I tell my doctors that I was right the first time with the brain tumor and it is interesting how they began taking me seriously.

Yes I have a few times. One lead to me getting rather sick with Q-Fever

I feel that they do not listen to you. I know that when I take me kids in, they tend to ignore me when I am telling them what is wrong with my son. It seems like they want to get you out as soon as possible, and move on to the next patient.

where I live, the doctor's are infamous for prescribing pills, sending people on their way, and getting sued. Seriously..There are new cases every month you read about in the paper..and those are just the ones we KNOW about. I live in a smaller town too. I, my family, and sadly, a lot of people I know drive over an hour to a place that has a huge medical complex and is very good.

To show you how bad it is here: My son had to go to the ER once for a head injury, and I made the hour drive (in 40 min) to the next hospital. This was an hour and a half after we left the ER in our town, because they looked at his eyes, checked his breathing, said he was "fine" and sent us out the door, after they did nothing. The other ER was able to tell us that he had an Inner ear infection which was making him pass out and have seizures.

Oh I broke my tail bone when I was 16 and Arthour visits a lot. Once I had back pain so bad that I laid down to get rid of it and when I woke up I couldn't move it took about 15-20 minutes to roll over so I could fall from the couch to the flkoor and crawl to the stairs so I could pull myself up. By the time the sport Dr. saw me the pain was completely gone, he took x-rays of the wrong spot. Told me that I lied about the pain. I went to another she took 5 x-rays and found a huge mass of arthritis, degenerating discks and some other stuff.

Sure, more than once. When I was a teen and experiencing my severe endo pain in the beginning, my pain was so bad we suspected appendicitis so my mom took me to the ER. The doctor there told me I was fine, and to go home and take some Pamprin. (I was later diagnosed with my endo.)

I had another doctor tell me I was far too young to be experiencing the kind of symptoms I was experiencing, and that I must just be depressed. (That was for a different issue, but a similar reaction from the doctor.)

It's maddening! I now have a wonderful team of doctors that are very thorough and listen to me. There is no worse feeling in the world than not being believed by a doctor.

I was telling the BF today about how after a car acct once I told the tech who was doing my chest xray that I was going to pass out. She didn't beleive me and told me to just breath. I ended up counting it down and then passing out on the floor. After rousing me she said "You are the only person to ever tell me they were going to pass out and actually do it" I was 17 at the time.

Since I haven't gone around pushing for pain meds or any hard pills, I have never experienced my doctor discounting anything I have to come to him with. Then again, I try to avoid him as much as possible.

Yes. I've gotten to the point of feeling like it's pointless to go to the doctor when they just talk talk talk and then I go home with nothing accomplished. I went in for migraines and was told it was because I was breastfeeding and not drinking enough water (I was drinking plenty of water) I went in for elbow pain (which is still bothering me three years later) and was told to rest my arm. I go in for bladder problems I'm told there is nothing wrong with my urine so drink more water (drink more water/change your diet is a common answer whenever I go to the doctor).

I went to get a different opinion about my abdominal problems (I saw a bunch of doctors/midwives/nurse practitioners about it and never got anywhere) and the doctor looked at my records and saw what the previous doctor had determined via my ultrasounds (she didn't actually look at the ultrasounds) and said I was fine and to try an elimination diet (tried that, it didn't work).

I'm sure some day I'm going to find out there is something horribly wrong with me that no doctor was willing to look into.

Oh, I agree that doctors can be idiots sometimes. I've a friend who worked as an army medic and she's told me of many a time that doctors just prescribe pills without looking too much into things.

My own experiences show that, on the whole, my GP listens to me. However, I do have a recurring problem with headaches, but my attempts to get her, my doctor, to take it seriously has been met with me banging my head against a brick wall. And I think I've just discovered where I get my headaches from...

I am very fortunate that I live within an hour's drive of a large metropolitan area. I may have to drive a bit further than I would prefer, but at least I can go to quite a few different doctors and specialists until I can find one that will listen to me.

I am very sorry for those of you who live in small towns, are in the military or for whatever reason have very little choice in what medical professionals you see. But don't give up. You know your body better than any doctor. If you are seriously in pain or truly know that something is wrong with you, keep pushing until you get the care that you need.