Different Country, Different Doctor, Different Treatment, Different Attitude
I have lived in several states (never any other country) : California, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Hawaii, let me say this, doctors in different states don’t treat you the same.
How about living in a different country? How do different country’s doctors address Menopause?
Now I have not had menopause in every state, just Florida and Hawaii but this is an example of the different ways I have been treated by doctors in my life for various ailments, as well as, menopause. This is the short version.
Our health is a business.
Our well-being is a business.
You know this but how far do doctors go? Do they cross lines they should not? Prescribing pills because they get paid for it. Not performing procedures because they get paid not to do them. How far do they go?
There are federal requirements to be a doctor but do different states and countries teach different things? Do individual states, and countries and states within those countries, have unique requirements? If they didn’t, then a license would be valid from state to state, country to country, and it is not. Do some states and countries push doctors too hard to get a license or do they take the time to teach them to be kind and follow that oath they take?
So, what are the differences? Schooling, costs, what else? Do the differences make them better doctors, or does it impose so much stress on them that they question their life choices?
Does this make them treat us differently? Or is it simply the drug companies paying them so much money to push pills we don’t need that makes them treat us like cattle in a chute? Many times treatments that don’t work. Expensive treatments.
Are other countries subject to the deluge of medication commercials on the TV?
My history:
California: Why didn’t anyone do more to diagnose my SVT when I was 13. Why a doctor in 1984 working at UCLA Medical Center did not tell me my “cancer” was HPV related. In 2004, the mark on my ass was called a mole and not biopsied.
Pennsylvania: When my mole was removed and it was cancer, why wasn’t I told it was HPV? Why was I subjected to awful, painful tests in order to get a hysterectomy at 46? I needed a shrink, they just wanted to prescribe anti-depressants.
Florida: We are driving to Sears, I have some kindof menopause related heart rate elevation that I cannot stop. Having had SVT, we went to urgent care where I asked for an EKG and was immediately told they couldn’t prescribe pills there. Um. Duh. I didn’t want pills, I needed to slow my heart rate down. It took 30 minutes but I finally got my EKG but the episode was over.
Crowded, unpleasant waiting rooms. Five patients on the phone playing games, talking, listening to music. No one cared. Months to get appointments with uncaring doctors who kept trying to sell me chemical facials or some other “health” plan they created for a side hustle. Not a caring doctor in the bunch. I broke a toe during covid and couldn’t get an x-ray anywhere. The insurance there sucks too.
And let’s talk about how I got treated during my menopause in Florida. The young male doctor I saw first didn’t understand my symptoms at all. The twenty-four hour morning sickness caused by elevated HCG, elevated heart rate, waves of exhaustion were all ignored. He handed me a packet of stuff that may or may not have worked for the first three months.
The second, young female doctor I saw also knew nothing about menopause except that she watched her grandmother go through it.
Hawaii: I have a doctor who cares. It took them a minute to get me, but I think they do now. Happier state, happier doctors?
What kind of treatment do you get from your doctors? Have you lives in multiple states and/or countries and experienced different treatment? Do you feel like the doctors listened and paid attention? Let me know!