homeosapphic:

one time, I went to the ER with abdominal pain so severe that I had been vomiting for 12 hours straight. a doctor told me to sit in the emergency room for a while and see if it went away on its own, because I didn’t “look like I was in enough pain” to warrant urgent care. he literally ran to get me morphine after an ultrasound showed that I had a burst ovarian cyst.

one time, I told a doctor at a walk-in clinic that I was 100% sure I had mono. four of my friends had it, we all shared drinks daily, and I was exhibiting every symptom. he laughed and told me that since so many of my friends had it, I was probably just getting sympathy pains. after the tests came back, he sheepishly prescribed me antibiotics for a severe mono/strep combo that kept me bedbound for a week and in so much pain that I was unable to even drink water.

one time, a sports injury made my knee swell up to five times its normal size. a nurse at the athletic clinic didn’t even give me an exam– he just told me to ice my leg and wait for the swelling to go down. it turns out I ruptured the bursa sac, and the lack of treatment caused chronic bursitis. almost a decade later I still often struggle with severe knee pain and have to wear a thick brace when I exercise.

I was going to wrap this up with some big lesson about cis men in the medical field not taking womens’ pain seriously, but that’s the whole gist. cis men in the medical field don’t take womens’ pain seriously. at best, it’s unbelievably frustrating. at worst, it’s literally physically dangerous.