I'm curious, why is there the assumption that the 'blame' should lie with the patient and not the doctor?
Blame perhaps is not the right word. It carries a connotation of being guilty for something, which is not what I intended. Let's say instead "a source of the problem" could involve the patient's style of explaining things.
We need to identify the sources of these issues, and then see if there is anything to be done to fix them. There are I think going to be multiple sources.
Where a source of the problem lies with the doctors or the medical profession, then this must be recognized. So the medical profession are certainly to blame for their terrible mistake in categorizing MUS illnesses as "all in the mind". I think we all agree on this.
And because MUS diseases are far more common in women, unfortunately in the eyes of some doctors, this may tar all women with the same brush, and make some doctors believe that women's symptoms are often "all in the mind". I hope once MUS diseases are understood to be real biological diseases, this medical bias will cease to exist.
After all, pediatricians often have to diagnose little kids who tend to be extremely 'emotionally expressive' (to say the least
) when trying to explain their symptoms.
That's true, but I imagine for this reason it might be more difficult for a doctor to diagnose a child.
Sure, doctors should be professional enough to deal with adult patients who are very emotional in the way they express themselves; that should be part of a doctor's training.
But it is also in patient's own interests to help the communication process, and get the best out of their doctor. So if the patient can play their role in helping to improve patient-doctor communications, everyone benefits. There are entire books devoted to how patients can get the best out their doctor.
It hurts to think there are people who think that we, women with distressing symptoms who are looking for help, are responsible for this problem.
It's only a tentative idea that a more emotionally-expressive style of communication might hamper patient-doctor communications. I suggested this as a possibly, but could well be wrong. In fact, for all I know, it might even be that having a more emotional disposition helps get
better treatment from your doctor. Maybe the emotion helps engage the doctor better. It's possible.
But I was thinking that because of the MUS problem, some doctors may already (erroneously) think that a woman's symptoms have a propensity to being "all in the mind". So we start off on a bad footing.
Then on top of that, if the patient displays strong emotions, and perhaps also anxiety (because anxiety can be biologically caused by some diseases), then maybe that's unfortunately only going to further consolidate the doctor's erroneous view that their patient is histrionic or over-exaggerating her symptoms.
This is certainly not a criticism of emotional expression per se. Although I am quite a logical type, I've always sought out the opposite, and love people and cultures which have strong emotional expression.
I'm not in a position to judge whether that makes for a better article or not, but that's the article she wrote.
The reason I thought it was not a good article is that it made no reference to MUS diseases, and the fact that women suffer from MUS diseases far more than men.
Any casual reader of that article might therefore surmise there is an institutional bias against women patients in the medical profession, for no other reason than they are women. There is an implicit suggestion in the article of medical sexism, or even medical misogyny.
I would suggest that it's the link to MUS diseases which plays a major role in some doctors not taking the symptoms of female patients seriously. Not because doctors somehow don't like women.
Why is it important to point out that MUS is the likely issue, and not the female gender per se? Because if we're are going to address this issue, we have to pin-point the source of the problem. It's no good blaming sexism if the real source of the problem is that MUS diseases are erroneously seen as "all in the mind".
If you want to learn more about this topic, go for it! But please try not to put the onus on others to find this information. Our brains are foggy, too!
Hopefully it's both sides of the discussion that will put in the effort. Side A might say such-and-such is true. Side B might then ask for evidence to support that. Side A may then quote some studies as evidence. Side B may then look at those studies, but find fault in them, and brings up those faults. Side A may then finds some further more reliable studies. And so forth.
Sometimes when you ask for evidence, you are not disagreeing, just playing devil's advocate: you want the other side to engage further, to argue their point further, and provide further evidence. In this way, we get to the truth of the matter via discussion.
You can also do all the research on your own, but it's more sociable and more invigorating to engage with others.
For many of us, there is something cathartic about being able to share these traumatic memories with others who have had similar experiences. We're not necessarily trying to dump on doctors, or get sympathy, or complain for the sake of complaining. We just want to be able to talk about what has happened to us, and be heard and understood.
I appreciate that. And there are quite a few threads on this forum talking about doctors ignoring symptoms, or misdiagnosing patients. And such stories are one of the most common types of medical newspaper article; you know, the sort of "doctor dismissed my headaches as stress, but it turned out to be a serious disease" article. So lots of catharsis to be had!
But this particular thread focuses on a medical bias against taking female symptoms seriously. So I was just trying to verify that claim, and also trying to get to the bottom of what might be causing it.
I don't think individual stories of doctor experiences offer any evidence of a gender bias, by the way. You need a study for that. My own doctor does not even believe I have ME/CFS, even after 14 years with it. I expect he probably thinks I am just avoiding life for psychological reasons. But that story on its own does not mean much. One would have to perform a survey of hundreds of patients and see if doctors treat male and female ME/CFS patients differently.
Though I understand how talking about these experiences can be cathartic.
