Now topping over 226 million views on TikTok, the social media tag #medicalgaslighting offers an outlet for patients to voice their concern about not feeling heard by today’s health care professionals.
“Medical gaslighting by health care providers can have a devastating impact on women,” Shawana S. Moore, a board-certified women’s health nurse practitioner who specializes in women’s health in Atlanta, told Fox News Digital. “These experiences can erode trust in medical professionals, create feelings of self-doubt and lead to delays in receiving proper care.”
Medical gaslighting, when patients feel their symptoms are dismissed by their health care professionals, is most often experienced by young people, women and minorities.
“When it comes to our personal health, we should all feel confident and empowered to be our own advocates,” CEO and founder of conception aid and fertility tracker company Mira, Sylvia Kang, told Fox News Digital.
According to a medically reviewed Mira study, 72% of millennial females feel dismissed by doctors.
“When asked specifically about whether or not they had experienced medical gaslighting, one out of every two respondents (50%) felt that they had experienced medical gaslighting,” Mira reported. “The majority of gaslighting occurred either with a GP (50%) or in an emergency room (30%), and experiences of gaslighting were reported nationwide.”
Nearly 66% of women surveyed said they were told by their doctor that their symptoms were due to stress or anxiety. Another 53% reported that their doctors told them they needed to lose or gain weight.
“As a result of symptoms being dismissed, 58% of respondents reported that they struggled to get a proper diagnosis or even the opportunity to undergo further testing,” Mira reported. “44% of respondents also felt like their medical professional was blaming them for their symptoms or illness, with one patient admitting, ‘Instead of feeling seen, I feel like a nuisance.’”
