mellster
Marco
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Hey careful, don't trash Viagra! Thinking back to the hey-days of work hard and play hard, I can tell you this is one drug that works
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Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
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Hear, hear! It so burns my butt that drugs like Viagra get out of the chute with hardly a nod, and we are left to languish for decades. I still maintain that if CFS was a male-majority illness, this wouldn't be happening. In the midst of claims of equality, there are still a lot of ways in which women get marginalized. (end of soap box).
Dont bag males when there is more preventative medicine going on for females. I also dont think there is that big a majority of females to males with cfs/me. I know in australia large amounts of money are pumped into breast and cervical cancer and advertising on preventative screening for these, dont hear much about prostate cancer etc. I think in other medical conditions treatment of males and females in quite even. Treatment of cfs could be different storie but i think we all get treated like crap by most docs when it comes to cfs/me. It could be that males are generally a bit slow on the uptake when it comes to seeing doctors.
i have to disagree on equality of treatment on men vs women, especially when it applies to cardiology and "heart attacks": men are taken seriously when they complain of chest pain. Often for women, it is believed to be heartburn and indigestion. i believe women's symptoms are more likely to be blamed on stress or hormones. Men are taken much more seriously.
ETA: Of course if you have a diagnosis of "chronic fatigue" (roll eyes) or fibro, all of your symptoms, may them be cardiac or others are deemed non serious and blamed on these diseases.
ETA 2: http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJM197302082880605
From 1973...
Alleged Psychogenic Disorders in Women A Possible Manifestation of Sexual Prejudice
K. Jean Lennane, M.B., M.R.A.C.P., and R. John Lennane, M.B., M.R.A.C.P.
N Engl J Med 1973; 288:288-292February 8, 1973
Abstract
Dysmenorrhea, nausea of pregnancy, pain in labor and infantile behavioral disturbances are conditions commonly considered to be caused or aggravated by psychogenic factors. Although such scientific evidence as exists clearly implicates organic causes, acceptance of a psychogenic origin has led to an irrational and ineffective approach to their management.
Because these conditions affect only women the cloudy thinking that characterizes the relevant literature may be due to a form of sexual prejudice.
We are indebted to Mr. Graeme Duncan, F.R.C.S., M.R.C.O.G., for a review and criticism of the manuscript.
ETA#3 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953602005208
It is hard work behaving as a credible patient: encounters between women with chronic pain and their doctors
In various studies during the last decade, women with medically unexplained disorders have reported negative experiences during medical encounters. Accounts of being met with scepticism and lack of comprehension, feeling rejected, ignored, and being belittled, blamed for their condition and assigned psychological explanation models are common. Women patients exerted themselves to attract the doctor's medical attention and interest, and were anxious to be considered as whiners or complainers. Here, we explore the nature of work done by the patients in order to be believed, understood, and takenseriously when consulting the doctor. A qualitative study was conducted with in-depth interviews including a purposeful sampling of 10 women of varying ages and backgrounds with chronic muscular pain. The main outcome measures were descriptions reflecting the patients activities or efforts invested in being perceived as a credible patient. We focused on the gendered dimensions of the experiences. The women patients accounts indicated hard work to make the symptoms socially visible, real, and physical when consulting a doctor. Their efforts reflect a subtle balance not to appear too strong or too weak, too healthy or too sick, or too smart or too disarranged. Attempting to fit in with normative, biomedical expectations of correctness, they tested strategies such as appropriate assertiveness, surrendering, and appearance. The most important activities or efforts varied. However, the informants were not only struggling for their credibility. Their stories illustrated a struggle for the maintenance of self-esteem or dignity as patients and as women. The material was interpreted within a feminist frame of reference, emphasising the relationship between dignity and shame, power and disempowerment for women patients with medically unexplained disorders.
At the end of the day its hard to find compassionate medical help, i think thats the bottom line, not being male or female.
cheers!!!
Don't forget that the exercise test gets more demanding with time (e.g. change in elevation %). And isn't self-paced but paced at the speed of the treadmill:"By week 40, the rintatolimod cohort (n = 100) had a mean change increase in ET of 96 seconds to 672..."
This is precisely why I think the drug has never and will never be approved. There was improvement, but 96 seconds? And at $1,200 a month, that minute and a half cost approximately $12,000?
???
The drug is wonderful- .
"By week 40, the rintatolimod cohort (n = 100) had a mean change increase in ET of 96 seconds to 672..."