19 Infuriating Stories Of Times Doctors Didn't Take Women's Pain Seriously

Recently, I shared stories of patients who got a doctor's diagnosis and it still felt wrong in their gut, so they got a second opinion to figure out what was going on. I asked at the end of that post for more stories, and the anonymous form lit up. Here are stories from women that are kind of infuriating.

1."The doctor told me I was a woman of that age and had allergies. I went to another doctor and found out I had a brain tumor the size of an orange. The new doctor said I would have had a stroke or would have died if I had waited another two weeks. Turns out it was a meningioma and benign."

— Anonymous

2."My mom was not feeling well one year and went to the doctor. He said it was nerves and not to watch TV news or read the newspapers. After a few weeks, she still didn't feel well and went back. The doctor recommended a psychiatrist and said it was all in her head. A few weeks later and she was feeling worse, so she went back. Her doctor was on vacation the third time she went so she had to see a locum. The new doctor couldn't find anything offhand but had tests done to rule out some illnesses and found out she had bladder problems. He had her X-rayed and found a kink in her ureter. This was backing up, and the excess urine was going into her system. So she was actually dying of uremic poisoning. Good thing he ran some tests. Surgery solved the problem."

— Anonymous

3."When my daughter was 38 years old, she started to get severe pain in her back. She went to three doctors, all whom told her it was a muscle issue or a disc that may be starting to bulge. The third doctor she went to, who was a specialist in his field, told her to take some ibuprofen, and that was it. Fast-forward three months, still in pain, when one of the lymph nodes in her neck grew hard and the size of a walnut. She sought another opinion. The doctor took one look at it and sent her immediately to have a CT scan. Stage 4 pancreatic cancer."

— Anonymous

4."I was in a really bad car accident a few years back where I had been T-boned by a driver under the influence. On the way to the hospital, the EMTs in the ambulance told me I was lucky to be alive. They were great, but once I was in the ER, it was a completely different story. The ER doctor refused to take any of my symptoms seriously. I had the worst headache of my life and even though I could not move anything on my right side or my neck, could not see out of my left eye, or put any weight on my right ankle, he refused to examine my ankle or take any kind of scan to rule out a concussion. When the police officer came from the scene of the accident and asked how I was, the ER doctor condescendingly pulled the thin little curtain shut like somehow that would prevent me from hearing and proceeded to tell him that I was fine and 'you know how hysterical young women can be.' He sent me home and told me to sleep it off."

"Thankfully, I was concerned enough with the possibility of a concussion that I didn’t follow his advice. Fast-forward nearly a month later, I found a doctor that would take me seriously. Turns out, I had a severe concussion that was so bad, I couldn’t remember how to write my own name. I also had nerve damage and had hurt two disks in my back, among a host of other problems. I had short-term memory loss, aphasia, and vision problems that lasted well over a year and affected memories of my wedding that was a couple months later. The doctor that finally believed me only did so because he requested my SAT scores and the near perfect score was a stark contrast to the woman he now saw in front of him that struggled to string a sentence together. It was humiliating. I genuinely believe the other doctors just thought I was a 'dumb blonde' and dismissed me. Thank goodness I’m doing better now, but I’m still in some degree of pain every day. I wish the first doctor had just listened and treated me with some kindness."

— Anonymous

5."My little one started to have very high fever, and she had some yellow-head spots between her legs. I have been seen by the nurse that insisted that she had chicken pox, even if my little one was fully vaccinated against it. I openly questioned the nurse’s opinion, and she called the GP. GP said my kid has scarlet fever, and put her on antibiotics right away."

— Anonymous

6."I was 37 when I started feeling fatigued, and felt that my body was telling me to go to the doctor. I went to my gynecologist and explained the situation. I have three members of my family through my mother’s side (my mom included) that had breast cancer. I told my gynecologist to send me to do a mammogram just to rule things out, and she said to wait until I’m 40, that I was too young still. I ignored her and went to my regular primary doctor and explained the situation AGAIN. She immediately sent me for the mammogram. Well, thankfully it was a stage one cancer and was treated with surgery and hormone meds, but if I would’ve waited until 40, it would’ve been worse."

— Anonymous

7."I was a bartender and worked corporate, so I could not go home sick. Within a month I was in so much pain, I had to leave in a wheelchair several times. The pain was on the crease of my thigh and crotch. It hurt just to drive home and lift my foot. My husband took me to the emergency room that night, and after five hours of waiting, the doctor chuckled and said I was being a 'hysterical female' and that my leg was just spasming. Three days later, I could barely move and had to call 911 for the fire department to pick me up as I have been stuck on the couch for six hours. It turned out I had a fractured hip."

— Anonymous

8."I had a new BF, and well, you know, we were active. I developed a really sore spot there and was having trouble peeing. My GP gave me strong antibiotics and sent me to a urologist who also happened to be the head of the hospital here. After arriving an hour and a half late to my appointment, he told me to stop taking antibiotics and I needed surgery. I asked him, 'Won't it get worse if I stop taking antibiotics?' I immediately made an appointment with a specialist at a bigger woman's hospital. That doctor was dumbfounded and said, 'That's your urethra! There's a big abscess there. You don't want to do surgery on that.' He gave me two more scripts for strong antibiotics and told me I would go into sepsis if I stopped taking them, so make sure I finished all the meds. It took months but eventually healed."

— Anonymous

9."I woke up with severe abdominal pain. I was almost blinded with pain and decided to go to my local emergency room. No bloodwork, no ultrasound, just a urinalysis and I was diagnosed with a UTI and given some meds. Five hours later, it worsened so bad, my husband drove me an hour away to another emergency room. I came to find out I had a 7-centimeter cyst on my ovary that caused torsion. I had emergency surgery the next day."

— Anonymous

10."Almost 10 years ago now when I was 20, I started getting these sharp pains in my lower abdomen. It was so bad that I laid on the floor with my knees under my chest and my face on the carpet because that was the only position that didn't hurt. I called my grandparents to come watch my brother, and I went to the ER, but by the time I could be seen, the pain went away so they sent me home without doing anything. A few days of this on and off pain and ER visits and a doctor finally sends me for an ultrasound, and it turns out I have an 11-centimeter cyst on my one ovary that has twisted around it twice, and the pain I was feeling was it twisting more. So, I get a surgery appointment for two weeks later. TWO WEEKS."

"One night shortly after my diagnosis, the pain was so bad that I couldn't do anything but sit in my bed and cry and hold myself in a ball. My mom took me back up to the ER, and I ended up puking into a bucket that a nurse got mad at me for. The only doctor that could do anything for me, aka perform an emergency surgery, was done for the day and didn't want to come back in. The doctor and the nurses were calling and begging her to come in and see me, but she refused because 'she had a surgery scheduled so I'm not coming in for her.' The doctor working that night finally told us to go to the hospital in the next town the next day, and they performed an emergency surgery on me."

— Anonymous

11."The year was 2017. I had scheduled my annual well woman’s exam for the summer since I am a teacher. The day came, and I had a BAD headache. I was on my second day of the headache and remember thinking it was just a migraine since I had never had one before. Apparently, it was so bad someone wasn’t comfortable with me driving myself so my mom drove me to my well woman’s exam. I went through the exam, got my pap smear, no big deal. My mom took me home, and the next thing I remember is it being weird that I was sharing a bathroom with a stranger, and a weird dog was coming to visit me. Apparently, the next day (after the well woman’s exam), my husband found me on the floor as he got ready for work, and I was not able to move."

"He called my mom and she said call an ambulance. Apparently, I had had a stroke…at 28. My mom wondered how my doctor had not seen how much pain I was in during my exam because it was apparent that I was ailing. I got to go back to school the week after spring break in 2018. But yeah, I’ve had a stroke. 100% do not recommend!"

— Anonymous

12."I had really bad stomach pain and went to the ER. Not only did they only give me Advil, they decided that since the pain came and went (which is one of the symptoms), it couldn’t be a kidney stone and must be that my fallopian tubes were flipping around. I got a very painful transvaginal ultrasound which showed nothing. They wouldn’t do a CAT scan, and instead they discharged me saying it was just a UTI. I passed a tiny kidney stone two excruciating days of pain later."

— Anonymous

13."I was having severe constant pain in my lower abdomen. My gynecologist did some tests and said I had uterine fibroids but they couldn’t be causing much pain. He then suggested I see a therapist because I couldn’t have that much pain. Three doctors and two years later, I opted for a partial hysterectomy because I couldn’t take the pain anymore. Turned out I had a hernia, and the operating doctor had to call in another surgeon to repair it."

— Anonymous

14."This happened to my wife. One year she had a very bad flu, several months later she was always fatigued, and her feet tingled. For months, she went to see many different doctors that could not find anything wrong. Finally, we went to an endocrinologist and did some tests. They diagnosed her with a hypothyroid condition (even though she was gaining weight instead of losing weight). They gave her medication and sent her home, each day after she was feeling worse and worse, went back to the doctors, and they said it was normal and her body was getting used to the medication. Two days later, she couldn't even walk. I took her to the ER. Luckily, we had a very smart ER doctor on duty that day."

"He was checking her out and noticed she looked like she had a tan, asked her if she goes in the sun a lot, she said no, and he said, 'I think I know what's going on,' and sends her for some tests. While she is being pushed on the gurney to get the tests, she goes into cardiac arrest and code blues on the gurney in the elevator. They revive her and finish the test. Come to find out that when she had the flu, she had an auto-immune disease that took out her thyroid, adrenaline, and pituitary glands. The doctor explained that when you have her condition, if you only treat the thyroid and not the adrenaline gland at the same time, it is a life threatening situation, as we found out the hard way. The tan or bronzed color skin is a sign the adrenaline gland is not working. He put two and two together. The ER doctor saved her life; had another doctor been on duty that day, she would have died. The doctor said he probably would never see that again in his career."

— Anonymous

15."I asked for birth control pills to stop per-menopausal bleeding. My doctor would not prescribe them thinking I might get cancer. She wanted to do a hysterectomy. My hematocrit dropped in half from 44 to 22. I made a trip to ER because I was so dizzy, clammy, and pale. They let me rest and sent me home. I made an appointment with a gynecologist. He prescribed the birth control, and the bleeding stopped. I saved my uterus."

— Anonymous

16."When my sister was a baby, she became really irritable overnight. My parents took her to the ER on the recommendation of her pediatrician. They did a couple of tests and concluded it was an ear infection and to go home and give her some Tylenol and to schedule an appointment with the pediatrician the next day. My parents were uneasy because it didn’t feel right. They made the appointment, but she slowly became more and more irritable. When they got to the pediatrician’s office the next day, the doctor told them to rush to the children’s hospital immediately. Turns out, she had bacterial meningitis. She had a stroke in the hospital and suffered severe brain damage, including losing her hearing. Moral of the story is trust your gut and ask questions. Doctors don’t always get it right, and there can be severe consequences."

— Anonymous

17."When my daughter was 15, she developed a sore throat. I took her to her pediatrician, and she said my daughter had strep. They gave her meds and sent her home. Her throat got worse, and she started getting sicker and sicker. I took her back to the doctor several times but kept getting the same answer. Finally, the last time I took her, she was spitting blood but the doctor suggested it was all in her head and said, 'You know how teenagers are. They are always looking for attention. It's just in her head!' I was livid! I called a friend and took her straight to my friend's pediatrician. He took one look at her throat and said, 'Go NOW! Meet me at the ER!' I did, and turned out she had mononucleosis. By the time I got her to the hospital, she couldn't even swallow her own spit! She was deathly ill and in the hospital almost two weeks. Needless to say, she never went back to the first pediatrician, and from that day on, she had a new doctor!"

— Anonymous

18."Not me, but my mom. My mom was in her mid to late 40s when she stopped having her period. She went to her doctor who told her it was just early onset menopause. They did do a scan but said nothing was wrong. About a year after her 'diagnosis,' she stopped being able to poo. Now, she's always struggled with constipation, but this was different. She simply couldn't pass ANYTHING. She saw a different doctor who told her it was probably that melon-sized ovarian cyst they found in her scans from the year before. Yup. You read that correctly. She had a cyst the size of a melon on her ovary that was now blocking her intestines. Turns out, it wasn't menopause after all! She ended up having a unilateral oophorectomy, and luckily, the cyst was benign. After all that, it took me 33 years and a hysterectomy to get a diagnosis of PCOS."

— Anonymous

19.Finally, "Not a human doctor but a vet. My 8-year-old cat had a growth in her mouth, so we took her to our regular vet to have it checked out. We were there for 30 minutes — five minutes was him sticking his fingers and a large tongue depressor in her mouth, the rest of the time was telling us about how it was this terrible cancer, and she needed to be euthanized immediately because she only had days to live. It seemed sketchy so we took her to a different vet, who said it looked like a benign tumor and a little bit of an infection, so she prescribed my cat antibiotics before referring us to a veterinary dentist. The dentist agreed it was a benign tumor and said she’d send a piece out for biopsy. Thirty days after the visit to the first vet my cat is thriving, having had her surgery. The growth was benign. Our old vet has contacted us twice about bringing her in to be euthanized, in spite of the fact that we’ve told them we’re not coming back."

— Anonymous

Jeepers! If you feel so inclined, tell us your wild doctor stories below, or if you'd like to share 100% anonymously, use this Google form!