Aa
Why are women often diagnosed with anxiety & stress?
This is a long question. Sorry.
I am a 53yo female who led an extremely active life until April fool's day of this year when I starting feeling achy like I had the flu and having severe abdominal pain. By active, I mean active. I work(ed) full time, shoe my own horses, work in the hay field, run, swim, canoe, etc., etc., etc. I rode a horse every evening after work, even if it was only for 10 minutes. and for hours on the weekend. There wasn't enough time on weekends to get in all the fun but that came to a screeching halt 5-1/2 months ago. I can't even go to the barn now.
I was diagnosed with diverticulitis 3 years ago. Took antibiotics and everything went away. I went to my primary care doctor when I got sick this year and he immediately had me admitted to the hospital thinking it was diverticulitis again and fearing that I had an abcess. CT scan did show perforation which was assumed to be caused by diverticulitis, although no diverticulitis was actually seen (now I know that bowel perforations can be caused by MS symptoms). I was put on a powerful antibiotic and pain medication. The first night, I noticed that my lips were burning as if I had menthol chap stick on. Within a few days my WBC came down and CT scan revealed that the perforation had healed, but I was starting to actually feel worse and I had slurred speech and vocal fatigue. Went home after a week and tried to go right back to work. The next week, I got up feeling okay and then the worst fatigue I've ever had in my life came over me suddenly. Went back to primary care dr several times and he thought I just went back to work too soon. At follow up with colon surgeon the next week, I told him I felt horrible, my lips were burning and I was very light-headed. He put me back in hospital thinking I had another perforation, but CT scan looked OK. He called in a team of doctors, including a neurologist, and I had what seemed like every test known to man during the next three days but everything was normal. Still had burning lips, slurred speech and vocal fatigue along with severe headache and dangerously low blood pressure (82/52), but drs couldn't diagnose anything. I honestly thought I was dying.
After going home, I went back to the neurologist I saw in the hospital because I started having tremors in my hands and feet, weakness in my legs and tingling in pinky and ring finger on left side. He did a nerve conduction test on my left arm only and said that I must have bumped my elbow and injured my ulnar nerve and he saw nothing else of concern. I tried to get another appointment with him two weeks later because the neurological symptoms were getting worse, including very poor balance, but he was out of town and no one ever called me back.
I finally got so scared that I went to the ER at Vanderbilt and had an MRI there which they said was normal. A guy who called himself a neurologist came in and told me that, based on his conversation with my husband (not based on his examination of me or even a conversation with me) and the MRI, there was NOTHING wrong with me and that they were not going to make an appointment for me to follow up with any doctor. He said that usually when someone has "vague symptoms" like mine, they lump them together and call it "something like fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome." He said there was nothing physically wrong with me and that it was probably just "stress and anxiety" and asked if I wanted to talk to a psychiatrist.
I've been going a rheumatolgoist (who seems to be the only doctor who cares) and he ordered another MRI of my brain (which cost $2,000 instead of the $14,000 charged by Vanderbilt) and I've seen another local neurologist who said that the MRI's were not normal and he doesn't know how Vanderbilt could have missed it. He said it looks like MS or stroke but is reluctant to give me a diagnosis, even after I've had every test he suggested including a VEP clearly showing damage to the optic nerve in my right eye and corrected vision of only "20/200" (I had to have surgery 4 years ago to lift my lid and muscles on right side of face because of drooping and my eye wasn't opening). I asked for a copy of my records from the local neurologist who said he didn't know how Vanderbilt could have missed something that he clearly saw and read that he thought I may have a "conversion-type disorder" so I looked it up. My understanding of it is that it is something that is almost exclusively a female diagnosis and is a type of hysteria.
My rheumatologist put me on Cymbalt to see if that would help, but I can't tell that it has made any difference. My symptoms are too numerous to remember all of them, but they wax and wane and include, in addition to what I mentioned above, burning sensations and creepy crawling feelings that run all over my body, muscle tremors, twitches and spasms (severe in my back) , difficulty writing, clumsiness, gait disorder, brain fog and poor memory (I look at a medicine bottle and can't remember if I just took it or if I need to take it), numbness in my face and right ear pain.
My mother had MS which affected her vision and caused paralysis in her face. She died in March of this year after having a stroke. I have finally stopped telling doctors that my mother died recently because I think it makes them jump to the conclusion that I'm depressed because my mother died. I am sad that my mother died but I am not depressed and I am not anxious or stressed about anything except not being able to get a diagnosis.
I am going to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville on September 17 and surely, surely, surely I will come home with a diagnosis, a prognosis and a treatment plan and can get my life back, even if I'm not able to be as active as before. Whatever the prognosis is, I will adjust to it.
I've been amazed to read how many others have difficulty getting a diagnosis. I don't understand the reluctance of neurologists to diagnose MS. Can anyone explain?
This website has been an amazing source of information and makes me see that I am not alone.
I am a 53yo female who led an extremely active life until April fool's day of this year when I starting feeling achy like I had the flu and having severe abdominal pain. By active, I mean active. I work(ed) full time, shoe my own horses, work in the hay field, run, swim, canoe, etc., etc., etc. I rode a horse every evening after work, even if it was only for 10 minutes. and for hours on the weekend. There wasn't enough time on weekends to get in all the fun but that came to a screeching halt 5-1/2 months ago. I can't even go to the barn now.
I was diagnosed with diverticulitis 3 years ago. Took antibiotics and everything went away. I went to my primary care doctor when I got sick this year and he immediately had me admitted to the hospital thinking it was diverticulitis again and fearing that I had an abcess. CT scan did show perforation which was assumed to be caused by diverticulitis, although no diverticulitis was actually seen (now I know that bowel perforations can be caused by MS symptoms). I was put on a powerful antibiotic and pain medication. The first night, I noticed that my lips were burning as if I had menthol chap stick on. Within a few days my WBC came down and CT scan revealed that the perforation had healed, but I was starting to actually feel worse and I had slurred speech and vocal fatigue. Went home after a week and tried to go right back to work. The next week, I got up feeling okay and then the worst fatigue I've ever had in my life came over me suddenly. Went back to primary care dr several times and he thought I just went back to work too soon. At follow up with colon surgeon the next week, I told him I felt horrible, my lips were burning and I was very light-headed. He put me back in hospital thinking I had another perforation, but CT scan looked OK. He called in a team of doctors, including a neurologist, and I had what seemed like every test known to man during the next three days but everything was normal. Still had burning lips, slurred speech and vocal fatigue along with severe headache and dangerously low blood pressure (82/52), but drs couldn't diagnose anything. I honestly thought I was dying.
After going home, I went back to the neurologist I saw in the hospital because I started having tremors in my hands and feet, weakness in my legs and tingling in pinky and ring finger on left side. He did a nerve conduction test on my left arm only and said that I must have bumped my elbow and injured my ulnar nerve and he saw nothing else of concern. I tried to get another appointment with him two weeks later because the neurological symptoms were getting worse, including very poor balance, but he was out of town and no one ever called me back.
I finally got so scared that I went to the ER at Vanderbilt and had an MRI there which they said was normal. A guy who called himself a neurologist came in and told me that, based on his conversation with my husband (not based on his examination of me or even a conversation with me) and the MRI, there was NOTHING wrong with me and that they were not going to make an appointment for me to follow up with any doctor. He said that usually when someone has "vague symptoms" like mine, they lump them together and call it "something like fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue syndrome." He said there was nothing physically wrong with me and that it was probably just "stress and anxiety" and asked if I wanted to talk to a psychiatrist.
I've been going a rheumatolgoist (who seems to be the only doctor who cares) and he ordered another MRI of my brain (which cost $2,000 instead of the $14,000 charged by Vanderbilt) and I've seen another local neurologist who said that the MRI's were not normal and he doesn't know how Vanderbilt could have missed it. He said it looks like MS or stroke but is reluctant to give me a diagnosis, even after I've had every test he suggested including a VEP clearly showing damage to the optic nerve in my right eye and corrected vision of only "20/200" (I had to have surgery 4 years ago to lift my lid and muscles on right side of face because of drooping and my eye wasn't opening). I asked for a copy of my records from the local neurologist who said he didn't know how Vanderbilt could have missed something that he clearly saw and read that he thought I may have a "conversion-type disorder" so I looked it up. My understanding of it is that it is something that is almost exclusively a female diagnosis and is a type of hysteria.
My rheumatologist put me on Cymbalt to see if that would help, but I can't tell that it has made any difference. My symptoms are too numerous to remember all of them, but they wax and wane and include, in addition to what I mentioned above, burning sensations and creepy crawling feelings that run all over my body, muscle tremors, twitches and spasms (severe in my back) , difficulty writing, clumsiness, gait disorder, brain fog and poor memory (I look at a medicine bottle and can't remember if I just took it or if I need to take it), numbness in my face and right ear pain.
My mother had MS which affected her vision and caused paralysis in her face. She died in March of this year after having a stroke. I have finally stopped telling doctors that my mother died recently because I think it makes them jump to the conclusion that I'm depressed because my mother died. I am sad that my mother died but I am not depressed and I am not anxious or stressed about anything except not being able to get a diagnosis.
I am going to Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville on September 17 and surely, surely, surely I will come home with a diagnosis, a prognosis and a treatment plan and can get my life back, even if I'm not able to be as active as before. Whatever the prognosis is, I will adjust to it.
I've been amazed to read how many others have difficulty getting a diagnosis. I don't understand the reluctance of neurologists to diagnose MS. Can anyone explain?
This website has been an amazing source of information and makes me see that I am not alone.
Hi. Sorry your search for answers has brought you here, but glad you have found a place where you can discuss this and hopefully get a lot of support and maybe some direction.
I take issue with a doctor who is too willing to explain your symptoms off as something psychological. No one should not have been treated as you were...and with your background it really ticks me off! I was once treated that way by an ER doctor and it just irritates the c-r-a-p out of me when I hear of that happening to someone else.
All other possibilities need to be ruled out before a psychological type diagnosis is given. I knew what it was like to be a healthy, active person and I was not willing to accept that it was all in my head! (And testing eventually proved it was not, I am now in treatment, and back to being a very active person.)
There are answers out there, but sometimes it takes persistence and the right doctor to figure it out.
You know how you are supposed to feel. You know what has been taken away from you. You have every right on this earth to get the right answers and perhaps get your normal life back.
Please keep trying. I am proof that sometimes life can be as good as it once was.
Also, have you looked at the Health Pages? There are many helpful and informational articles there. You can find them by clicking on "Health Pages" on the upper right hand corner of this page.
Good luck to you. You have landed in a nice place, and there are many here who are willing to help.
Wishing you health,
Wanna :o)
I take issue with a doctor who is too willing to explain your symptoms off as something psychological. No one should not have been treated as you were...and with your background it really ticks me off! I was once treated that way by an ER doctor and it just irritates the c-r-a-p out of me when I hear of that happening to someone else.
All other possibilities need to be ruled out before a psychological type diagnosis is given. I knew what it was like to be a healthy, active person and I was not willing to accept that it was all in my head! (And testing eventually proved it was not, I am now in treatment, and back to being a very active person.)
There are answers out there, but sometimes it takes persistence and the right doctor to figure it out.
You know how you are supposed to feel. You know what has been taken away from you. You have every right on this earth to get the right answers and perhaps get your normal life back.
Please keep trying. I am proof that sometimes life can be as good as it once was.
Also, have you looked at the Health Pages? There are many helpful and informational articles there. You can find them by clicking on "Health Pages" on the upper right hand corner of this page.
Good luck to you. You have landed in a nice place, and there are many here who are willing to help.
Wishing you health,
Wanna :o)
I am the greatest one for generalizing negatively about doctors, so I am going to surprise myself with some of what I am going to say. Probably early symptoms of my impending coronary..
All things considered, you have a reasonable amount of the time been taken very seriously, which is not a common experience. The worst that happened was with the ER guy. Now I don't know how it is in other parts of the world, but here in the UK ER doctors are the least experienced generally. They tend to plunge all the new or not succeeding well doctors into this field as those who are succeeding on their career path generarally won't touch the emergency rooms, unless it is their speciality, which is rare. So you were unlikely to have seen a top neurologist.
Right, back to the real me. Again, only speaking from our laws and guidelines, this man was breaking your confidentiality by talking to your husband BEFORE he spoke to you. He did it because he knew he could get away with it, but the fact is your medical concerns are between you and your doctor, relatives are included ONLY with your consent. Also there was no way he could make a diagnosis on such a conversation, unless your husband is a doctor currently working there, in which case he could not be involved in your care, as this is against personal interest guidelines. The man was behaving unprofessionally, potentially dangerously, and as a complete t o s s e r, to be polite.
The history of medicine is one of men treating men, to enable them to remain in the workplace. Women for a long time did not even have access to medical care. Before women worked doctors were uninterested in our health, and then found it convenient to attribute everything to the strange effects of our mysterious reproductive organs, which made us hysterical and irrational. Doctors having difficult relationships with their wives could take our their insecurities on the helpless female public. The legacy lives on, even with more female doctors, as they learn the culture from their male forefathers as teachers.
We don't help ourselves often. Stressed as mothers and workers and wives and dealing with complex physiologies, we are also blessed with open mindedness. When a doctor suggests something is psychosomatic, often we will give it serious consideration, as we are not scared of admiting our own mental limitations. Men as patients are more demanding of answers, treatments, doctors who act like car mechanics. Women have the courage to face the unknown in a diagnosis. Our lives are filled with unknown processes and emotions from our physiology, so we allow doctors to utilize our understanding.
The sad fact is though that this leaves the door wide open for incompetent doctors to lump us all together as hysterics. I am in the medical field and have witnessed women with conditions which are rendering them paralyzed, close to death, still being treated like grumbling hysterics by their doctors when they break down in tears or scream helplessly at their condition. They would not dare talk to a man in such a manner.
I suppose the only way forward is for us to be less accommodating as patients, less forgiving. I am such a patient and have been personally and professionally ostracized and despised for my open mouth. But I will not stop. Like us all here, I have had the 'all in your head' treatment, for a condition long ago, now diagnosed fully. I spent over a decade with a ruined life, thinking myself insane, with no confidence, never bringing my symptoms to a doctor again. Now I am back, with my new problems, and I have the worst reputation, possibly in the nation, as a patient. I don't care. I will never allow any medic to belittle me again, and hound those who do. That is my hysterical irrational behaviour, as created by the prejudices I faced.
Few of us have my type of personality, thankfully, but a little of the fighting spirit will take you a long way. If you really want, you can even put in a complaint about the breach of your confidentiality by this neurologist who spoke to your husband. May make him think twice before dismissing another woman.
I hope you feel better soon. Thanks for letting me rant.
All things considered, you have a reasonable amount of the time been taken very seriously, which is not a common experience. The worst that happened was with the ER guy. Now I don't know how it is in other parts of the world, but here in the UK ER doctors are the least experienced generally. They tend to plunge all the new or not succeeding well doctors into this field as those who are succeeding on their career path generarally won't touch the emergency rooms, unless it is their speciality, which is rare. So you were unlikely to have seen a top neurologist.
Right, back to the real me. Again, only speaking from our laws and guidelines, this man was breaking your confidentiality by talking to your husband BEFORE he spoke to you. He did it because he knew he could get away with it, but the fact is your medical concerns are between you and your doctor, relatives are included ONLY with your consent. Also there was no way he could make a diagnosis on such a conversation, unless your husband is a doctor currently working there, in which case he could not be involved in your care, as this is against personal interest guidelines. The man was behaving unprofessionally, potentially dangerously, and as a complete t o s s e r, to be polite.
The history of medicine is one of men treating men, to enable them to remain in the workplace. Women for a long time did not even have access to medical care. Before women worked doctors were uninterested in our health, and then found it convenient to attribute everything to the strange effects of our mysterious reproductive organs, which made us hysterical and irrational. Doctors having difficult relationships with their wives could take our their insecurities on the helpless female public. The legacy lives on, even with more female doctors, as they learn the culture from their male forefathers as teachers.
We don't help ourselves often. Stressed as mothers and workers and wives and dealing with complex physiologies, we are also blessed with open mindedness. When a doctor suggests something is psychosomatic, often we will give it serious consideration, as we are not scared of admiting our own mental limitations. Men as patients are more demanding of answers, treatments, doctors who act like car mechanics. Women have the courage to face the unknown in a diagnosis. Our lives are filled with unknown processes and emotions from our physiology, so we allow doctors to utilize our understanding.
The sad fact is though that this leaves the door wide open for incompetent doctors to lump us all together as hysterics. I am in the medical field and have witnessed women with conditions which are rendering them paralyzed, close to death, still being treated like grumbling hysterics by their doctors when they break down in tears or scream helplessly at their condition. They would not dare talk to a man in such a manner.
I suppose the only way forward is for us to be less accommodating as patients, less forgiving. I am such a patient and have been personally and professionally ostracized and despised for my open mouth. But I will not stop. Like us all here, I have had the 'all in your head' treatment, for a condition long ago, now diagnosed fully. I spent over a decade with a ruined life, thinking myself insane, with no confidence, never bringing my symptoms to a doctor again. Now I am back, with my new problems, and I have the worst reputation, possibly in the nation, as a patient. I don't care. I will never allow any medic to belittle me again, and hound those who do. That is my hysterical irrational behaviour, as created by the prejudices I faced.
Few of us have my type of personality, thankfully, but a little of the fighting spirit will take you a long way. If you really want, you can even put in a complaint about the breach of your confidentiality by this neurologist who spoke to your husband. May make him think twice before dismissing another woman.
I hope you feel better soon. Thanks for letting me rant.
Thank you for sharing your story. I hope you get good care at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.
I've been through a lot this year, including 3 different neurologists and many, many trips to my physician and have been told "stress," "something in the spectrum of fiboromyalgia," "wait and see," and more, depedning on who you ask, and on what day. So I can relate.
I think the above comment are right on.
On the doctor's end, I completely understand that doctors can not diagnose a disease or condition if the clinical/laboratory evidence is lacking. On our end, who wants a premature diagnosis that could them compromise their future?
What I do not understand is why a lack of clear evidence then turns into the opportunity for doctors to blame vague emotional sources for such problems.
I would much prefer an honest "we don't know at this time," and then be offered a reasonable schedule of following up and re-testing. That would be frustrating and confusing, but would spare me the burden of second guessng myself and the concern that no doctor will take me seriously or try to help me.
I think in some cases, they just want us out the door. Attacking patients by throwing around "stress" and "anxiety" in the absense of proper psych. evaluations is a crude, but effective way to keep those of us with mysterious conditions and vague test results from coming back.
Again, best of luck at the clinic. Please let us know how it goes.
I've been through a lot this year, including 3 different neurologists and many, many trips to my physician and have been told "stress," "something in the spectrum of fiboromyalgia," "wait and see," and more, depedning on who you ask, and on what day. So I can relate.
I think the above comment are right on.
On the doctor's end, I completely understand that doctors can not diagnose a disease or condition if the clinical/laboratory evidence is lacking. On our end, who wants a premature diagnosis that could them compromise their future?
What I do not understand is why a lack of clear evidence then turns into the opportunity for doctors to blame vague emotional sources for such problems.
I would much prefer an honest "we don't know at this time," and then be offered a reasonable schedule of following up and re-testing. That would be frustrating and confusing, but would spare me the burden of second guessng myself and the concern that no doctor will take me seriously or try to help me.
I think in some cases, they just want us out the door. Attacking patients by throwing around "stress" and "anxiety" in the absense of proper psych. evaluations is a crude, but effective way to keep those of us with mysterious conditions and vague test results from coming back.
Again, best of luck at the clinic. Please let us know how it goes.
You ask - "I don't understand the reluctance of neurologists to diagnose MS. Can anyone explain?"
I have asked that same question - here's some random thoughts----
-they're afraid to be wrong
- they want to impress their colleagues with their thoroughness
-giant egos that require their patients to be humbled, humiliated and desperate for their wisdom and rulings - its a god thing
- there's money in them 'thar tests
-don't want to cause insurance companies to audit their patient records by calling too many MS diagnosis- its an expansive disease.
-their gonads aren't big enough to allow them to venture out unless they are 110% sure
I'm sure some others here can add to this list!
Be well,
Laura
I have asked that same question - here's some random thoughts----
-they're afraid to be wrong
- they want to impress their colleagues with their thoroughness
-giant egos that require their patients to be humbled, humiliated and desperate for their wisdom and rulings - its a god thing
- there's money in them 'thar tests
-don't want to cause insurance companies to audit their patient records by calling too many MS diagnosis- its an expansive disease.
-their gonads aren't big enough to allow them to venture out unless they are 110% sure
I'm sure some others here can add to this list!
Be well,
Laura
Hi and welcome! I just read your post and can really relate to a lot of things you said. To answer your question about why they put our symptoms off on stress/anxiety, fibromialgia or chronic fatigue syndrome.. I am not sure, except they are out of test to run and have no answers thus far. I am under the understanding that diagnosing MS is a process of elimination among other things. I'm currently one of the 'undiagnosed' limbo landers here, and I cal really relate to how you spoke of being so active to having this 'thing' rob you of your life. You'll find a lot of helpful information in the health pages up on the right hand corner of this page.
Hope you get the answers you seek!! : )
Shelley
Hope you get the answers you seek!! : )
Shelley
Have an Answer?
You are reading content posted in the Multiple Sclerosis Community
Top Neurology Answerers
Australia
ON
Queensland, Australia
Queen Creek, AZ
Find out how beta-blocker eye drops show promising results for acute migraine relief.
In this special Missouri Medicine report, doctors examine advances in diagnosis and treatment of this devastating and costly neurodegenerative disease.
Here are 12 simple – and fun! – ways to boost your brainpower.
Discover some of the causes of dizziness and how to treat it.
Discover the common causes of headaches and how to treat headache pain.
Two of the largest studies on Alzheimer’s have yielded new clues about the disease
