How to Actually Get Your Doctor to Listen to You - Article Health

The actress has a chronic illness—kidney dysplasia, a condition affecting the structure of one or both of the kidneys from birth—and in 2012, she revealed she had a kidney transplant. Since then, she’s spoken openly about how ongoing health concerns have changed her physical appearance, putting body shamers in their rightful place.

Her chronic health problems have lately sent her to see more doctors. Yet she believes that she is not getting the attention she needs. “For those who are chronically ill and in chronic pain: Have you had the experience of doctors not listening to you?” she tweeted. “If so, how do you not tear their heads off with your bare hands?”

Educate yourself
Dusenbery shares the story of Lauren Stiles, co-founder of the patient advocacy group Dysautonomia International. Stiles says it took online research of her own to figure out what was causing her symptoms. “I diagnosed myself through the Internet, I found the doctors I needed through the Internet, I found the other patients I needed for support through the Internet. . . . Thank god for the Internet.”

Be specific about your symptoms
When you see your doctor, describe your symptoms precisely. That means where it hurts, when it started, and remedies you’ve already tried in an attempt to get them under control. This focused approach may help your doctor pay closer attention, gender-specific medicine specialist Marianne Legato, MD told Health previously. Ask about the conditions you’ve researched and the tests you think could help you using proper names.

Insist, "this is not normal"
Conditions like endometriosis, for example, have long been shrugged off as a "symptom" of menstruation and nothing more. But an increasing number of experts are making the case that severe period pain is never normal. Thanks to this change in thinking, Dusenbery notes a shift in how women are responding to physicians who play down their pain. “Women are less willing to accept it when doctors try to send them off with a paternalistic pat on the head and the assurance that debilitating pain is simply a ‘part of life.’”

Switch doctors
If you're getting nowhere with your current doctor, try to find one who is a better listener. Yep, it sucks to have to shop around for a new doc in the middle of whatever you’re going through, but it’s often necessary. Case in point: “On average, autoimmune patients see four different doctors over a four-year period before a diagnosis is made,” according to the American Autoimmune and Related Diseases Association.

Tweet

Article Health

Blogger who interesting to provide various tips about health. especially medicines in a natural way.

Subscribe to receive free email updates: