Why We Must End Medical Gaslighting

Medical gaslighting has recently been thrown into the forefront of discussion by a New York Times article, “Women Are Calling Out ‘Medical Gaslighting.’” 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. We experience this so often having hemiplegic migraine that it is a regular discussion in our posts.

Just yesterday, one of the women in our group posted that she told a friend of hers, who is a doctor, that she may have hemiplegic migraine. He replied, “well it’s annoying, but nothing serious or dangerous.” The women in our group have experienced seizures, stroke, depression, anxiety, PTSD, vestibular migraine, occipital migraine, neck and back problems and a myriad of other health issues because we have this disease. Hemiplegic migraine IS serious and dangerous. Any medical professional who thinks otherwise is is misinformed and uneducated.

Unfortunately, most times when we need to go to the ER to receive treatment for a hemiplegic migraine attack, the doctors and medical staff do not know what a hemiplegic migraine is!! They will dismiss our symptoms, test our urine to see if we are taking drugs, or treat for a migraine (which is very different from a hemiplegic migraine). This puts our health at risk because using triptans is contraindicated for hemiplegic migraine. We also have doctors who will treat the hemiplegia symptoms as though you are having a stroke and start tPA treatment.

This happened to me several years ago after telling both doctors at the ER I was having a hemiplegic migraine. Neither the ER on-call doctor nor the ER neurologist they called on video chat believed me. My neurologist wrote a letter after this which I carried with me to give to the ER staff. The letter stated I had hemiplegic migraine and not to treat me for stroke. My neurologist listed the protocol for treating hemiplegic migraine because so few doctors know what to do.

Medical gaslighting must stop. The ignorance we have experienced from the medical community is unacceptable. Doctors and medical staff need to listen to what their patients are saying to them. We are vulnerable and in need of their help.

We need changes to be made and our voices to be heard.