A raised red rash suddenly appeared all over my abdomen when I was around 23 years old, and when I saw the dermatologist, he asked me if I had “sexual relations” with anyone but my husband (that was one of the quaint phrases people used back in the day)! “Of course not,” I said. “Why are you asking?”
“Because this rash looks like it could be syphilis,” he said, matter of factly, “and I wouldn’t want you giving it to someone else.” I couldn’t believe it. I actually worried until the lab results came back, even though I couldn’t possibly have had syphilis.
Here are some of your dreadful experiences with doctors, and one great experience!
“About 23 years ago a doctor noticed in my medical history that I’d recently had breast implants. He proceeded to ask me inappropriate, non-medical, questions about my reason for them,.and then grabbed and squeezed both of my breasts before I had a second to realize his intentions!”
GiGi Hall Rivera
“Being told I had stomach cancer. But the doctor was so kind and gentle with me and my husband, that I remember his kindness more than the dooming news! I’m cancer free now!!!”
Darlene Chavez Gonzalez
“Being told that I needed to be more careful and stop falling. Never broke a bone in my life until I was in my fifties. Toes, right shoulder, and both feet broken at the same time. Then I went to get a second opinion and found out I have osteopenia (vitamin deficiency causing bones to break) along with RA, fibromyalgia, and other multiple autoimmune disorders causing me to no longer work. It was very hard to wrap my head around it and I hate not having my income.”
Gwen Staley
“I went in for an ear infection. The Doctor insisted I get up on the table and put my feet in the stirrups. I looked at him and said boldly, ‘But my ears aren’t down there’.”
Kathee Gartmann-Taylor
“I had my left ‘lip’ caught in the twisty thing of the speculum in a pelvic exam. I was gasping and crying in pain while the WOMAN doctor told me to calm down while she figured out how to get my bruised and bleeding flesh out of the screw.”
Leighanne Malmin
“Wasn’t at doctors office, but emergency room. I was told I was fine and just had a ‘panic attack’ when, in fact, I had a mild stroke due to a heart defect. Should have sued but didn’t want the stress. If your gut tells you something is truly wrong, listen to it! Had I not insisted something was very wrong, they never would have done the appropriate heart tests. I had a second stroke before they found my heart defect. They don’t know everything, and will dismiss women more frequently than men. It’s just a fact.”
Colleen Antonelli Montgomery
“I went to my male internist because I had some pain in my breast. After a breast exam that took way too long the nurse told me to get dressed and she would show me to his office because he wanted to talk with me in private. After nervously waiting a few minutes he came in and closed the door. After talking about my visit and his diagnosis, he just bluntly said that he wanted to have an affair with me. Needless to say I was dumbfounded. A lecherous old, unattractive man. Hell no!
“I left, never to return.
“22 years later, who is the staff doctor at the nursing home where my mother is a resident? You guessed right! I could have vomited.”
Judith Foster Cooley
“I was really sick and burning up with a fever and was told to sit in the waiting room. Three hours later the office started to close up when they realized that they forgot me. The doctor told me i could only tell him about one thing that was bothering me.
No, I never went back.”
Jeanne Angelos
“Having a neurologist tell my daughter she needed to take her shirt off for an exam, because she was suffering from migraines. The #1 child neurologist in my state. I said no, and never left her alone with him. Ten years later we hear on the news that he’d been assaulting young girls. He went to prison. Glad I listened to my instincts!”
Carol Boudreau
“I had my last child 15 years ago. They prepped me for the c section and started slicing me open. Searing excruciating pain. I start yelling ‘stop, stop.’ The doctor says ‘what the hell is wrong with you?’ They did a quick check and discovered my epidural line was kinked and I felt everything.”
Annette Benoit
“Being told by a specialist that I had bowel cancer. Two weeks later, I had the operation to remove the section of the bowel, only to be told they got it wrong. It was endometriosis. Then my GP told me five weeks later that I had cancer. He had just found my results at the bottom of his pile of papers. I had to laugh cause I told him I had already had the operation and the info was wrong….lol. He was so embarrassed . And I never went back.”
Janet Berruex
“The doctor who suggested that I should seek psychological help for long-term common migraine!”
Sheila Foster
‘In my early 20’s I went to a new OB-GYN because of a non-stop period. After the exam the old coot came into the waiting room and announced ‘Well, you’re not pregnant!’ to a room of strangers and my father. Mortified.”
Tara Martin
“Dr. walked into my room, held up my chart and says, ‘So, you’re the lady that should be dead.’ I said a very bad word and told him to get out of my room! I was in CCU at the time trying to survive a massive blood clot! Clearly I did survive. He was wrong!”
Susan-Timothy Dyer
“Paying the bill.”
Kathy Trulove
“Being told by a pregnant ob-gyn that hot flashes were not a big deal! Hope she goes through menopause early. Let’s see if she feels differently?”
Robin Spindt
