“All those women should just exercise”
-My last GP, probably
In Ireland there’s such a strong emphasis on preserving fertility rather than addressing pain when it comes to gynaecological issues
I was in Bucharest last week. Incredible numbers of clinics, dentists, etc. Reminds me of Bangkok & Seoul where if you have the money you can get treated pretty much straight away.
We are outsourcing so much of our healthcare through the EU cross border directive, in 2020 nearly 9000 people had treatment in Europe reimbursed by the HSE, and that was the COVID year, I can’t imagine what it’s like now. There’s a backlog for reimbursement of over 1500 people. And this is the system that requires people at least be able to get a credit union loan. It’s really grim.
-hi doc, i have exteme pain, irregular periods, lots of spotting throughout the month. Some days, i have the heaviest period that i cant leave the bed and go through about 3 pads an hour. The pain makes me miss out in life. Sometimes, i feel like i can’t move. Sometimes, i actually scream in pain.
-You’re just overweight, lose the weight.
-Yeah but I’ve also got a bad cough.
-ahhhh yeah, that’s also because you’re fat.
-No, I really think I might have tonsillitis. Would antibiotics help?
-No. You’re just fat.
-okay. Guess I’ll just die then.
Fin.
This is what we get when we deal with doctors and it doesn’t matter if its a man or woman. It needs to change. Women need to be taken seriously.
Womens health MATTERS.
Shocking
Serious update needed here
Have an Irish/Ukrainian friend who had REALLY bad symptoms of endometriosis but she got dismissed by the doctor every single time when she went. She had to fly back to Ukraine (this was before the war) and got diagnosed with endo within a few days.
Is this another Catholic ethics type issue where they’re fixated on preserving fertility at all costs?
I had surgery in Bucharest for endometriosis last week and so glad I did! Nearly 2 decades without a diagnosis here and being dismissed as attention seeking or ‘just ibs’, and within 10 minutes of having an mri scan in the Bucharest clinic I was diagnosed. The quality of womens healthcare in Ireland is shocking.
Before I post this I just want to preface it by saying, women’s healthcare in Ireland is very poor and many many improvements and changes need to be made. My sister suffers badly with this and it’s a terrible disease but surgery, particularly this surgery, does not have positive benefits and a lot of surgeons advise against this in Ireland for good reasons. 1 in 10 women report no improvement in pain or other symptoms and over 1 in 3 require further surgery with minimal to no affect remaining after 5 years in over 2/3 of patients.
The other treatments have got to be more accessible, affordable and available to women of all ages and people exhibiting it need to be seen earlier (16 being the recommendation of initial review).
There is an ongoing trial to see if earlier surgical interventions will work better in the UK right now but for anyone thinking of this as an option please read the available studies before trying this. Every woman I know who has had it wishes they had not.
There is a reason it is available in a country with less surgical oversight than in Ireland.
Romania has really developed economically, and now I hear stories about many people from Western Europe coming to Romania for medical tourism.
I’m happy positive stories about my country are trickling to the West. For many years, only negative opinions could be heard.
Maybe I’m the minority here, but I’ve had amazing endo care and surgery here in Ireland. Happy to share Drs info if anyone is interested, PM me
As a female I don’t care about referendums around changing the construction or smth.
Give me finally affordable healthcare for women and gyno for me to access easily.
LIKE IN EVERY COUNTRY ON THE CONTINENT
GPs are not fucking gynecologists !
People will say I’ve got my tin foil hat on but…they want women in pain and held back in their daily lives.
Cue excuses why everything is great in Ireland, and if you think it’s better anywhere else, you are simply a moaner, complainer, or are making things up. Nothing will change in this country. Wait and watch how they privatize healthcare to hand it over to their corporate buddies as a cash cow. And why not; the country is full of morons who like to bury their head in the sand.
These numbers are bad but the only caveat I will add as a woman having lived in a few countries, this happens to women worldwide. Doctors and nurses don’t take women’s pain seriously and it is something we are meant to just deal with.
If you need your tubes tied, or pain medication, or any treatment, they ALWAYS think 1) You’re exaggerating and it isn’t that painful and 2) You should just suffer in pain as your future unborn children are more important than the pain you are currently suffering.
I wish women’s pain was taken more seriously worldwide, but with the additional problem of terrible healthcare in Ireland in general meted out to everyone, I don’t expect this to change much. In fact, HSE might be relieved they can outsource this to another country.
I don’t have endometriosis but used to suffer with heavy painful periods and when I went to my doctor because it was unbearable, the pain was really bad and I was feeling faint she literally started smiling into my face and laughed. I never went back to her again. I did my own research and looked into it myself. I never felt so stupid as I did trying to explain to my female doctor.
Was in hospital few weeks back due to pain, soon as the A&E doctor felt it was gynaecological I was sent on my way just told to take strong painkillers, had to go to another hospital to get sorted. Mind you my GP recommended me to go to A&E.
Well I’m not surprised my sister was thrown on the pill at 14, regularly collapsing from blood loss. Was told in her 20s she was constipated by a gynaecologist and to just eat some raisins. She only had surgery and was taken seriously in her 30s when she couldn’t get pregnant where they basically told her her internal organs were a mess as she was stage 4. Her ovary and bowel were fused together with scar tissue.
I also have endo and PCOS even with a burst cyst strongest pain killer I was given was paracetamol. Women’s pain is a fucking joke
I know should I ever get a blood clot from birth control, I’m fucked as GP would wave it off as anxiety.
I had many GPs just not equipped with the training or knowledge of endometriosis. At 15 years old I was given painkillers, the pill and medication for acne. At 18, I directly queried endometriosis and was told I was “too young”. I continued on concotions of painkillers and birth control pills. At 30, then severely symptomatic, I went to a private consultant who said “I wish I’d seen you ten years ago”. Endometriomas on both ovaries were severe and clearly visible on ultrasound. Luckily, I had private health insurance. I was referred to a specialist consultant who diagnosed me with Stage III endometriosis after surgery just three weeks later. Now 5 years on. Unfortunately the treatments for endometriosis as a whole are limited with varying success.
There is an improving focus on medical research for the condition which is promising. There is also a massive improvement on the advocacy and general awareness of the condition too. However, with the increased visibility, there are undoubtedly more people requesting diagnosis and treatment. It’s often said that 1 in 10 women suffer with the condition but I’d imagine that is much higher now.
Moral of the story…get private health insurance.
This sounds very odd
Not Endo related:
For the past few years my health has been terrible. Put it down to my IBS being worse. Puking easily. Can’t bend over or lift anything without puking. I presented at A&E twice. 1st time they gave me a shot of painkillers at least and the doctor said he wrote me a referral to get scopes done. Never got an appointment.
In the meantime, I related a bit too much to AuDHD posts online.
2nd time in A&E, I told mam not to mention the ADHD, as that causes dismissal straight away. Got nothing this time and mam mentions the ADHD. The nurse goes “you don’t have it, because you’re not like a little boy running around the room touching everything”. Meanwhile I was sitting there going ” I never was like that anyways, because AuDHD and I was medicated for ADHD.
Mam was complaining to a neighbour about it and she got me an appointment within weeks.
I had a hernia, ulcers, GERD and erosion of the oesaphagus. Got treatment and at the follow up a few weeks later, as I’m going out the door, the doctor goes “Are you aware you are low end deficient in Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid?” Eh no? Got shots and tablets.
Then I got bad acne for the 1st time at 29 and my hair started falling out. Vit B12 levels were normal.
Since then I’ve lost more than half my head of hair, I suffer from numbness and pains in my hands and feet. I cry in pain from that and the pain in my chest. Pain in my neck. Woozy. Sick nearly every day the last few years.
My GP was missing stuff. I can pinpoint symptoms of the deficiency back as far as 2021. He did one more blood test before he went off for his own cancer treatment. He promised we’d go through the results, but in the day, we were so busy sorting other stuff out, that he just told me my B12 was fine.
That blood test showed I had an abnormal thyroid and it took me specifically asking his replacement about thyroid for it to be spotted. She then did another test. That showed my thyroid as normal again.
She has referred me to a dermatologist and rheumatologist and now when I ask about my suffering the same symptoms, she just says “I referred you”.
I myself believe the VitB12 deficiency has caused nerve damage to my hands, feet and thryroid. I feel very angry about this, as some of those chronic conditions put me at risk of the deficiency anyways, nevermind having more than one that can cause it.
Whenever I ask the GP about my pain or hairloss, she is very dismissive and I do be so bewildered when in with her, that I end up out the door within minutes, with no help and having not gotten chance to explain more about why I actually need help.
I’m back in Tuesday, but this time with the nurse, who I asked to go through all my old blood tests, to see how far back it goes.
There’s rumours my old GP won’t be back, so I’m going to see how this appointment goes and will more than likely have to get a new GP.
Meanwhile:
Urologist – “So what brings you in?”
Me – “I want a vasectomy.”
Urologist – “You know it’s permanent, right?”
Me – “Yes.”
Urologist – “Okay. I do surgery on Thursdays. You can make an appointment at the desk. Let me take a look.”
1 minute exam, and an “everything is fine,” and I was out the door.
24 comments
“All those women should just exercise”
-My last GP, probably
In Ireland there’s such a strong emphasis on preserving fertility rather than addressing pain when it comes to gynaecological issues
I was in Bucharest last week. Incredible numbers of clinics, dentists, etc. Reminds me of Bangkok & Seoul where if you have the money you can get treated pretty much straight away.
We are outsourcing so much of our healthcare through the EU cross border directive, in 2020 nearly 9000 people had treatment in Europe reimbursed by the HSE, and that was the COVID year, I can’t imagine what it’s like now. There’s a backlog for reimbursement of over 1500 people. And this is the system that requires people at least be able to get a credit union loan. It’s really grim.
-hi doc, i have exteme pain, irregular periods, lots of spotting throughout the month. Some days, i have the heaviest period that i cant leave the bed and go through about 3 pads an hour. The pain makes me miss out in life. Sometimes, i feel like i can’t move. Sometimes, i actually scream in pain.
-You’re just overweight, lose the weight.
-Yeah but I’ve also got a bad cough.
-ahhhh yeah, that’s also because you’re fat.
-No, I really think I might have tonsillitis. Would antibiotics help?
-No. You’re just fat.
-okay. Guess I’ll just die then.
Fin.
This is what we get when we deal with doctors and it doesn’t matter if its a man or woman. It needs to change. Women need to be taken seriously.
Womens health MATTERS.
Shocking
Serious update needed here
Have an Irish/Ukrainian friend who had REALLY bad symptoms of endometriosis but she got dismissed by the doctor every single time when she went. She had to fly back to Ukraine (this was before the war) and got diagnosed with endo within a few days.
Is this another Catholic ethics type issue where they’re fixated on preserving fertility at all costs?
I had surgery in Bucharest for endometriosis last week and so glad I did! Nearly 2 decades without a diagnosis here and being dismissed as attention seeking or ‘just ibs’, and within 10 minutes of having an mri scan in the Bucharest clinic I was diagnosed. The quality of womens healthcare in Ireland is shocking.
Before I post this I just want to preface it by saying, women’s healthcare in Ireland is very poor and many many improvements and changes need to be made. My sister suffers badly with this and it’s a terrible disease but surgery, particularly this surgery, does not have positive benefits and a lot of surgeons advise against this in Ireland for good reasons. 1 in 10 women report no improvement in pain or other symptoms and over 1 in 3 require further surgery with minimal to no affect remaining after 5 years in over 2/3 of patients.
The other treatments have got to be more accessible, affordable and available to women of all ages and people exhibiting it need to be seen earlier (16 being the recommendation of initial review).
There is an ongoing trial to see if earlier surgical interventions will work better in the UK right now but for anyone thinking of this as an option please read the available studies before trying this. Every woman I know who has had it wishes they had not.
There is a reason it is available in a country with less surgical oversight than in Ireland.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31718952/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5635831/
https://academic.oup.com/humrep/article/18/9/1922/708089
https://endometriosis.org/news/clinical-trials/esprit-effectiveness-of-surgery-for-endometriosis/
https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-021-01545-5
Romania has really developed economically, and now I hear stories about many people from Western Europe coming to Romania for medical tourism.
I’m happy positive stories about my country are trickling to the West. For many years, only negative opinions could be heard.
Maybe I’m the minority here, but I’ve had amazing endo care and surgery here in Ireland. Happy to share Drs info if anyone is interested, PM me
As a female I don’t care about referendums around changing the construction or smth.
Give me finally affordable healthcare for women and gyno for me to access easily.
LIKE IN EVERY COUNTRY ON THE CONTINENT
GPs are not fucking gynecologists !
People will say I’ve got my tin foil hat on but…they want women in pain and held back in their daily lives.
Cue excuses why everything is great in Ireland, and if you think it’s better anywhere else, you are simply a moaner, complainer, or are making things up. Nothing will change in this country. Wait and watch how they privatize healthcare to hand it over to their corporate buddies as a cash cow. And why not; the country is full of morons who like to bury their head in the sand.
These numbers are bad but the only caveat I will add as a woman having lived in a few countries, this happens to women worldwide. Doctors and nurses don’t take women’s pain seriously and it is something we are meant to just deal with.
If you need your tubes tied, or pain medication, or any treatment, they ALWAYS think 1) You’re exaggerating and it isn’t that painful and 2) You should just suffer in pain as your future unborn children are more important than the pain you are currently suffering.
I wish women’s pain was taken more seriously worldwide, but with the additional problem of terrible healthcare in Ireland in general meted out to everyone, I don’t expect this to change much. In fact, HSE might be relieved they can outsource this to another country.
I don’t have endometriosis but used to suffer with heavy painful periods and when I went to my doctor because it was unbearable, the pain was really bad and I was feeling faint she literally started smiling into my face and laughed. I never went back to her again. I did my own research and looked into it myself. I never felt so stupid as I did trying to explain to my female doctor.
Was in hospital few weeks back due to pain, soon as the A&E doctor felt it was gynaecological I was sent on my way just told to take strong painkillers, had to go to another hospital to get sorted. Mind you my GP recommended me to go to A&E.
Well I’m not surprised my sister was thrown on the pill at 14, regularly collapsing from blood loss. Was told in her 20s she was constipated by a gynaecologist and to just eat some raisins. She only had surgery and was taken seriously in her 30s when she couldn’t get pregnant where they basically told her her internal organs were a mess as she was stage 4. Her ovary and bowel were fused together with scar tissue.
I also have endo and PCOS even with a burst cyst strongest pain killer I was given was paracetamol. Women’s pain is a fucking joke
I know should I ever get a blood clot from birth control, I’m fucked as GP would wave it off as anxiety.
I had many GPs just not equipped with the training or knowledge of endometriosis. At 15 years old I was given painkillers, the pill and medication for acne. At 18, I directly queried endometriosis and was told I was “too young”. I continued on concotions of painkillers and birth control pills. At 30, then severely symptomatic, I went to a private consultant who said “I wish I’d seen you ten years ago”. Endometriomas on both ovaries were severe and clearly visible on ultrasound. Luckily, I had private health insurance. I was referred to a specialist consultant who diagnosed me with Stage III endometriosis after surgery just three weeks later. Now 5 years on. Unfortunately the treatments for endometriosis as a whole are limited with varying success.
There is an improving focus on medical research for the condition which is promising. There is also a massive improvement on the advocacy and general awareness of the condition too. However, with the increased visibility, there are undoubtedly more people requesting diagnosis and treatment. It’s often said that 1 in 10 women suffer with the condition but I’d imagine that is much higher now.
Moral of the story…get private health insurance.
This sounds very odd
Not Endo related:
For the past few years my health has been terrible. Put it down to my IBS being worse. Puking easily. Can’t bend over or lift anything without puking. I presented at A&E twice. 1st time they gave me a shot of painkillers at least and the doctor said he wrote me a referral to get scopes done. Never got an appointment.
In the meantime, I related a bit too much to AuDHD posts online.
2nd time in A&E, I told mam not to mention the ADHD, as that causes dismissal straight away. Got nothing this time and mam mentions the ADHD. The nurse goes “you don’t have it, because you’re not like a little boy running around the room touching everything”. Meanwhile I was sitting there going ” I never was like that anyways, because AuDHD and I was medicated for ADHD.
Mam was complaining to a neighbour about it and she got me an appointment within weeks.
I had a hernia, ulcers, GERD and erosion of the oesaphagus. Got treatment and at the follow up a few weeks later, as I’m going out the door, the doctor goes “Are you aware you are low end deficient in Vitamin B12 and Folic Acid?” Eh no? Got shots and tablets.
Then I got bad acne for the 1st time at 29 and my hair started falling out. Vit B12 levels were normal.
Since then I’ve lost more than half my head of hair, I suffer from numbness and pains in my hands and feet. I cry in pain from that and the pain in my chest. Pain in my neck. Woozy. Sick nearly every day the last few years.
My GP was missing stuff. I can pinpoint symptoms of the deficiency back as far as 2021. He did one more blood test before he went off for his own cancer treatment. He promised we’d go through the results, but in the day, we were so busy sorting other stuff out, that he just told me my B12 was fine.
That blood test showed I had an abnormal thyroid and it took me specifically asking his replacement about thyroid for it to be spotted. She then did another test. That showed my thyroid as normal again.
She has referred me to a dermatologist and rheumatologist and now when I ask about my suffering the same symptoms, she just says “I referred you”.
I myself believe the VitB12 deficiency has caused nerve damage to my hands, feet and thryroid. I feel very angry about this, as some of those chronic conditions put me at risk of the deficiency anyways, nevermind having more than one that can cause it.
Whenever I ask the GP about my pain or hairloss, she is very dismissive and I do be so bewildered when in with her, that I end up out the door within minutes, with no help and having not gotten chance to explain more about why I actually need help.
I’m back in Tuesday, but this time with the nurse, who I asked to go through all my old blood tests, to see how far back it goes.
There’s rumours my old GP won’t be back, so I’m going to see how this appointment goes and will more than likely have to get a new GP.
Meanwhile:
Urologist – “So what brings you in?”
Me – “I want a vasectomy.”
Urologist – “You know it’s permanent, right?”
Me – “Yes.”
Urologist – “Okay. I do surgery on Thursdays. You can make an appointment at the desk. Let me take a look.”
1 minute exam, and an “everything is fine,” and I was out the door.
WTF with the paternalism?