Research shows that diagnostic errors occur in at least one in twenty medical encounters. Women and people are color are more likely to be misdiagnosed than men, or white men. Patients who’s symptoms are being ignored or downplayed have adopted the term “medical gaslighting” to describe providers who try to convince them that their pain is really not as bad as complained of. 

Symptom complaints by women and people of color are more likely to be ignored or downplayed. There is a long history behind this, including the fact that women and people of color were long excluded from clinical trials. It was not until 1993 that law mandated that medical research funded by the National Institute of Health include women and people of color. 

By way of example, a journalist in Seattle told a story of excruciating knee pain and swelling following the birth of her son. The first doctor she saw told her she had postpartum depression; the next told her to do squats and lose weight. They were effectively telling her that this condition was just something women go through and she was going to have to live with it. She was finally diagnosed with severe hip dysplasia bad enough that she had surgery to realign her leg bones and hips. Another patient described Lupus being diagnosed initially as allergies, and later as likely pregnancy; and another woman complained that her symptoms of developing Grave’s disease, an autoimmune disorder, were chalked up to her being young and “lazy.” 

Our office speaks to frustrated folks like these several times a week. These delays in treatment can affect a patient’s mental, physical, or economic well being. Occasionally these errors lead to delays in treating conditions like cauda equina syndrome, or emergent heart conditions, for example. These result in very real, very difficult, and sometimes life shortening conditions for these patients.