A couple weeks ago I went to see a new GP. I thought it would be another brusque appointment where I would tell them my symptoms and walk out five minutes later with a script. Except this turned out to be not like my other appointments. The GP listened to me and planned for how we could deal with some of the symptoms I was suffering. She wrote referrals for blood tests and told me to come back next week for a longer appointment.
When I returned a week later, the whole appointment was another eye-opening experience. She asked about my parents’ health, wrote down any family history of illnesses, and created a plan to make sure that I was covered in the coming years. She talked about prevention of illnesses I may have a predisposition for, based on my background, rather than leaving it to a point where we were managing acute symptoms.
What was especially important was how she spoke not only about my physical symptoms but discussed my mental health and what I was feeling. “Mental health is often harder to talk about because it’s not like physical symptoms – we cannot see them. But they are just as important,” she said. I nodded enthusiastically, agreeing with her wholeheartedly.
I walked out of this appointment thinking I felt so cared for
I walked out of this appointment thinking I felt so cared for. And the best part, my appointments were all bulk-billed. As I made my way home I couldn’t help but think about how I appreciated this woman for seeing me not just as another patient, but as a person, with my own unique history and physical and mental traits.
It brought home to me how important it was to have this kind of health care. I could count on one hand the number of health practitioners I’d seen who made me feel truly listened to. The last time I found a GP who had given me a similar level of care, she went on maternity leave and never returned. For a couple years afterwards I even Googled her name in the vain hope that she would somehow pop up practising somewhere else. But no, my search results turned up with nothing.
It's no secret that women can have a hard time finding the right medical care. As pointed out in a recent article in The New York Times: “Research suggests that diagnostic errors occur in up to one out of every seven encounters between a doctor and patient, and that most of these mistakes are driven by the physician’s lack of knowledge. Women are more likely to be misdiagnosed than men in a variety of situations.”
The article continues by mentioning how “Studies have shown that compared with men, women face longer waits to be diagnosed with cancer and heart disease, are treated less aggressively for traumatic brain injury, and are less likely to be offered pain medications.”
Last year, a survey found that more than one in three women in Australia said they had their health concerns dismissed by a GP
Last year, a survey found that more than one in three women in Australia said they had their health concerns dismissed by a GP. As Dr Amy Vasallo told the ABC, one of the reasons there’s a ‘gender gap’ in healthcare for men and women is because “historically across the world, data has been collected from men and generalised to women. It was not until the 1990s that it became mandatory for women to be included in clinical trials in the United States, and many funding bodies and research institutes still do not have dedicated policies on the collection, analysis or reporting of gender‐specific health data.”
The last thing you want to worry about when you’re not feeling well is to have your symptoms misdiagnosed or dismissed. It’s why when I found a GP who not only took me seriously but showed concern for my overall mental and physical well-being, I felt like I’d hit the jackpot. Now that I’ve discovered her I thought, 'She better not leave this surgery,' or rather, 'She better not leave me!' I do not want to be Googling her name in vain in years to come.
Saman Shad is a freelance writer.
