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Found 62 results
  1. News Article
    Mass layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) portend a future with more infectious disease outbreaks, chronic conditions, and a widening gulf in health between the most affluent and vulnerable, experts told the Guardian. Further, they said, the Trump administration’s multipronged attacks on American science represent a generation-defining experience, a new chapter in the “boom and bust” cycle of health funding, and a masterclass in branding, as Donald Trump and the secretary of health and human services, Robert F Kennedy Jr, dismantle institutions in the name of improving them. “I fear for the country,” said Dr Steven Woolf, a population health researcher at Virginia Commonwealth University and a family physician. “Many people not too fond of bureaucracy may feel this big shakeup in Washington DC is well overdue. But I don’t know that people appreciate what’s coming their way – much like a far-off tsunami warning.” Experts said they see the chaos, confusion and upheaval – from the ideological purge of basic research grants early in Trump’s tenure to more expected layoffs at the National Institutes of Health – as leading to shorter, sicker American lives. “These are cuts that are not driven by a rational strategy to improve population health,” said Woolf. “This is all being done in the name of ‘making America healthy again’ – that’s the incredibly bizarre gaslighting that’s going on.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 9 April 2025
  2. News Article
    On 20 March 2020, Rowan Brown started to feel a tickle at the back of her throat. Over the next few days, new symptoms began to emerge: difficulty breathing, some tiredness. By the following week, the UK had been put under lockdown in a last-minute attempt to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2, or Covid-19. Brown didn’t know then she was at the beginning of a condition that did not yet have a name, but which has since become known as Long Covid. After two weeks, she had a Zoom with a friend, and at the end of the conversation it was as if all life force had drained out of her body. Her doctor advised her to stay in bed for two weeks. Those two weeks turned into three and a half months of extended Covid symptoms: nausea, fevers, night sweats, intense muscle and joint pain, allodynia (a heightened sensitivity to pain), hallucinations, visual disturbances. By the end of the three months, she had noted 32 different symptoms. “I didn’t recognise the way my body felt at all: my skin, my hair,” she remembers now. “It was like being taken over by a weird alien virus, which I guess is what happened.” Brown, 48, is one of 2 million people in the UK thought to be experiencing long Covid symptoms; according to a study published last summer, roughly 400 million people worldwide have been affected. Often, long Covid patients experience mild primary infections, are never admitted to hospital and only realise there is a problem later, when the symptoms persist well beyond the usual two weeks. Some make a full recovery, some see improvements over time; others, like Brown, have seen little progress since being infected five years ago. One of the main challenges in diagnosing and treating long Covid is its unpredictability: research studies have linked it to more than 200 symptoms affecting every part of the body. Many patients go on to develop complications such as postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and fibromyalgia, a chronic pain disorder; 59% of patients show signs of organ damage. The unwillingness to discuss chronic illness is especially concerning when combined with the scepticism faced by Long Covid patients, who have to advocate for themselves so that medical professionals, employers and loved ones understand the gravity of their illness. All of this conspires to make Long Covid patients feel invisible, voiceless and forgotten. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 2 March 2025 Further reading on the hub: Exploring the barriers that impact access to NHS care for people with ME and Long Covid Building an NHS that’s there for Long Covid and ME Top picks: 12 research papers on Long Covid It's time to confront Long Covid: An interview with Clare Rayner on why we must keep pushing for research, treatment and prevention Healthcare workers with Long Covid: Group litigation – a blog from David Osborn
  3. News Article
    Women and girls are enduring years of pain because their reproductive conditions are being dismissed due to “medical misogyny”, according to a damning parliamentary report. The report, by the Women and Equalities committee, found that gynaecological conditions such as endometriosis and adenomyosis are treated with inadequate care due to a “pervasive stigma”, a lack of education by healthcare professionals and “medical misogyny”. The Commons select committee, which set out to examine the experiences of care women with reproductive conditions get in England, found that symptoms are often “normalised” and it can take years for women to get a diagnosis and treatment. The substandard gynaecological care cited by the report also includes routine IUD contraceptive fittings, cervical screenings, and hysteroscopies. The report said women were being left in pain and discomfort that “interferes with every aspect of their daily lives”, including their education, careers, relationships and fertility, while their conditions worsen. It also found there to be a “clear lack of awareness and understanding of women’s reproductive health conditions among primary healthcare practitioners” and concluded that gynaecological care is not being treated as a priority. Pervasive stigma associated with gynaecological and urogynaecological health, a lack of education and “medical misogyny” has contributed to poor awareness of these conditions. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 11 December 2024
  4. Content Article
    Women’s reproductive health conditions, such as endometriosis, adenomyosis and heavy menstrual bleeding are highly prevalent in the UK. This report looks at the experiences of care women with reproductive conditions get in England. It states that many women find their symptoms dismissed and normalised by those they turn to for help. For some conditions, it highlights that accessing diagnosis and treatment can take years, leaving patients to endure pain that interferes with every aspect of their daily lives, while their conditions worsen. Key issues highlighted in this report include: Pervasive stigma associated with gynaecological and urogynaecological health, a lack of education and “medical misogyny” has contributed to poor awareness of these conditions. Diagnosis is slow not only because reproductive health conditions often have non-specific symptoms, but because of a lack of expertise and resource. Women continue to undergo harrowing experiences of painful procedures such as hysteroscopy and having a contraceptive coil fitted. This includes not being informed of the potential pain, feeling they cannot stop procedures and not having access to sufficient pain relief. This is against medical best practice and guidelines. Women’s health hubs are being established across integrated care boards as part of the previous Government’s Women’s Health Strategy for England. The model has the potential to be a positive step towards providing the joined-up care and commissioning needed to support women with reproductive health conditions but it requires funding to do so effectively. Research into women’s reproductive health conditions lags behind other, similarly prevalent conditions. It is not adequately prioritised by funders or commissioners and is not incentivised enough in clinical academia. Although there are patches of progress since the Women’s Health Strategy for England published in 2022, it has been too slow. The strategy lacks an implementation plan and resource, yet studies show that increases in funding for gynaecology services for early diagnosis and treatment provide a significant return on investment, reduces the burden on primary and secondary care settings and helps reduce sick leave and unemployment. The report makes a wide range of recommendations relating to the following areas: Public understanding of reproductive health conditions. Accessing diagnosis. Accessing treatment and support. Training and standards. Research into women’s reproductive health conditions. In relation to the Women’s Health Strategy for England, it recommends that: This should be updated to include priorities for specific, common conditions. The Government commits to reducing waiting times for an endometriosis diagnosis to less than two years by the end of this Parliament and to improved understanding, diagnosis and treatment of heavy menstrual bleeding over the same period. The Government should allocate increased, ringfenced funding to support research into the causes, diagnosis and treatment of women’s reproductive health conditions. While increased funding will in itself attract more researchers to this area, NHS England and research bodies should also consider what steps they can take to increase interest among clinical academia. The Government should publish an implementation plan for the Women’s Health Strategy for England detailing timelines, costs and resource. Related reading Failures of informed consent and the impact on women’s health: a Patient Safety Learning blog Hysteroscopy: 6 calls for action to prevent avoidable harm Medicines, research and female hormones: a dangerous knowledge gap One hour with a women's health expert and finally I felt seen The normalisation of women’s pain Sex bias in pain management decisions Misogyny is a safety issue: a blog by Saira Sundar Dangerous exclusions: The risk to patient safety of sex and gender bias Unconscious bias: gynaecological pain, the elephant in the womb! Pain bias: The health inequality rarely discussed
  5. News Article
    On the morning of 30 November 2022, Keri-Sue McManus sat down with her three-year-old son, Micah, to watch the TV series Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood. She was sensitive to his mood because it wasn’t the first time Micah had visited the emergency room in recent weeks. In fact, it was the third time Keri-Sue had taken her toddler to hospital, and the sixth time that month she had contacted various doctors about his deterioration: he had a lack of appetite, weakness, fatigue and severe dizziness, and these symptoms were getting worse. Each time, she was reassured he would get better. One medic even implied that their frequent visits to the hospital were giving her son anxiety. It was suggested the mother should think twice about taking him in again, for his own sake – hence the cartoon. In the Daniel Tiger episode, the cub, nervously approaching his appointment, is told: “The hospital is a place where doctors and nurses work together to help you get better.” But that’s not the way it worked out for Micah, who died just hours after he arrived on this third visit, after a series of clinicians failed to take his condition seriously. I’ve relived all those moments a thousand times. What if I’d gone to this doctor; what if I’d said it this way instead of that way “Daniel goes to hospital and the doctors fix him and everybody’s so nice. And then he gets to go home,” Keri-Sue remembers of the cartoon. “It’s like a fairytale that we didn’t get to live out.” Micah’s story casts light on how parents, especially mothers, are frequently patronised and dismissed by the medical profession. “I can’t think of any other way to describe it besides gaslighting,” Keri-Sue says when we speak. “It’s your own child, so you get a feeling or you notice something. You know your child’s normal state better than anybody else and you’re paying attention more than anybody else. I’ve relived all those moments a thousand times. What if I’d gone to this doctor; what if I’d said it this way instead of that way. But the reality is that they weren’t paying attention and doing their job. “Part of my grief has been trying to wrap my head around how it all happened.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 26 October 2024
  6. Content Article
    Chloe Bremner describes the pain she experiences from endometriosis as akin to having someone stuck inside you desperately trying to claw their way out. The 24-year-old has contended with pain from the chronic inflammatory condition since she was 14 but it was minimised, downplayed and misdiagnosed for nine years - with doctors mistaking her endometriosis for irritable bowel system and a tummy bug. Ms Bremner, who lives in Scotland, says she would routinely wake up in the middle of the night in excruciating pain. “There were countless nights and days spent in this state,” she tells The Independent. “And then throughout the years, that progressively got worse, and then it started to impact my nerves - down my legs and my hips.” “It's excruciating, and to the point where I was on morphine every day, and it didn't do anything,” Ms Bremner says. “I was still in absolute agony.” She explains that for years, nobody ever explained to her what endometriosis was, not even when she was diagnosed. “Endometriosis is a constant battle for validation and relief in a healthcare system that often fails its patients,” she says.
  7. Content Article
    Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) was recognised as a neurological disease by the World Health Organization in 1969. However, in the 1970s some researchers labelled it as hysteria, leading to the US Centers for Disease Control to rename it as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). The name was changed to ME in 2015 to help legitimise the symptoms and experiences of patients. Still, the medical stigma persists. Conditions such as ME disproportionately affect women, whose symptoms and concerns are often ignored by doctors. Many patients with Long Covid face similar challenges. Since 2020, an estimated 1.8 million people in the UK have developed Long Covid after a Covid-19 infection. The debilitating condition is known to cause more than 200 symptoms. Coincidentally, Long Covid shares many symptoms with ME/CFS, including chronic pain, exhaustion, brain fog and exercise intolerance. Many patients with complex chronic illnesses are dismissed by doctors who don’t believe in their symptoms or disease even when it leaves patients bedridden. Now, people with complex illnesses such as ME and Long Covid are taking the hunt for treatments into their own hands
  8. Content Article
    Davina McCall’s documentary Pill Revolution missed an opportunity to validate painful experiences of intrauterine devices and promote better practice, writes Stephanie O'Donohue, Patient Safety Learning's Content and Engagement Manager, in an opinion piece for the BMJ.
  9. Content Article
    Gaslighting at work can take many forms and is often subtle, causing the victim to question their perception. This blog gives some examples of gaslighting at work and suggests ways to deal with it if you believe you are experiencing gaslighting from a colleague.
  10. Content Article
    During a fellowship rotation in gynaecology, Rebekah Fenton, asked the attending physicians what pain management options they could offer patients for insertion of an intrauterine device (IUD). Their answer surprised her: none.  The research on the effectiveness of pain management techniques during the procedure were not strong enough to warrant providing potential relief.  But Fenton knew the attending physician was wrong: she'd received the drug lidocaine during a recent visit to her own ob/gyn to get an IUD placed. The local anesthetic enabled her to avoid the experiences of many patients who often withstand debilitating cramping and pain during insertion, side effects that can last for hours after the procedure has ended.  By not teaching her how to administer pain treatment options such as lidocaine gel or injection, "they made the decision for me, whether I could give patients this option," said Fenton, now an adolescent medicine specialist at Alivio Medical Center in Chicago. Related hub content: See our Pain during IUD fitting community thread.
  11. News Article
    Naga Munchetty has said she spent decades being failed, gaslit and “never taken seriously” by doctors, despite suffering debilitatingly heavy periods, repeated vomiting and pain so severe that she would lose consciousness. The BBC presenter, newsreader and journalist told the Commons women and equalities committee on Wednesday that she was “deemed normal” and told to “suck it up” by NHS GPs and doctors during the 35 years she sought help for her symptoms. Munchetty was finally diagnosed with adenomyosis, a condition where the lining of the womb starts growing into the muscle in its walls, in November last year. She said she was consistently told by doctors that “everyone goes through this”. “I was especially told this by male doctors who have never experienced a period but also by female doctors who hadn’t experienced period pain,” said Munchetty. Munchetty’s diagnosis came after she had bled heavily for two weeks and experienced pain so severe she asked her husband to call an ambulance. Only then was she taken seriously, seeing a GP who specialised in women’s reproductive health. That GP advised her to use private healthcare to avoid lengthy NHS waiting lists. Munchetty and Vicky Pattison, a television and media personality, were giving evidence as part of the committee’s inquiry into the challenges that women face being diagnosed and treated for gynaecological and reproductive conditions. The committee is also considering any disparities that exist in diagnosis and treatment, and the impact of women’s experiences on their health and lives. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 19 October 2023
  12. News Article
    Women are being "failed at every stage" when it comes to maternity care, say campaigners, as they call for more support for those experiencing traumatic births. Mumsnet found 79% of the 1,000 women who answered their questionnaire had experienced some form of birth trauma, with 53% saying it had put them off from having more children. And according to the snapshot of UK mothers, 44% also said healthcare professionals had used language implying they were "a failure or to blame" for what happened. Conservative MP Theo Clarke is leading calls for more action after her own experience, where she thought she was "going to die" after suffering a third degree tear and needing emergency surgery. Now, she has set up an all party parliamentary group on birth trauma. She said: "[It is] clear that more compassion, education and better after-care for mothers who suffer birth trauma are desperately needed if we are to see an improvement in mums' physical wellbeing and mental health. "It is vitally important women receive the help and support they deserve." Chief executive of Mumsnet, Justine Roberts, said the trauma had "long-lasting effects", adding: "It's clear that women are being failed at every stage of the maternity care process - with too little information provided beforehand, a lack of compassion from staff during birth, and substandard postnatal care for mothers' physical and mental health." Read full story Source: Sky News, 15 September 2023
  13. News Article
    Millions of women and girls experience debilitating periods, yet nearly one-third never seek medical help, and more than half say their symptoms are not taken seriously, according to research. A survey of 3,000 women and girls for the Wellbeing of Women charity found that they are often dismissed as “just having a period”, despite experiencing severe pain, heavy bleeding and irregular cycles that can lead to mental health problems. Almost all of those surveyed, who were between 16 and 40 years old and based in the UK, had experienced period pain (96%), with 59% saying their pain was severe. 91% had experienced heavy periods, with 49% saying their bleeding was severe. Prof Dame Lesley Regan, the chair of Wellbeing of Women, said: “It’s simply unacceptable that anyone is expected to suffer with period symptoms that disrupt their lives, including taking time off school, work, or their caring responsibilities, all of which may result in avoidable mental health problems. “Periods should not affect women’s lives in this way. If they do, it can be a sign of a gynaecological condition that requires attention and ongoing support – not dismissal.” Wellbeing of Women has launched its “Just a Period” campaign, which Regan said aims to address “the many years of medical bias, neglect and stigma in women’s health”. This includes tips on how to get the most out of seeing your GP and what women should do if they feel they have been dismissed. Read full story Source: The Guardian, 14 September 2023
  14. News Article
    A 33-year-old New Zealand woman who was accused of faking debilitating symptoms has died of Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS). Stephanie Aston became an advocate for patients' rights after doctors refused to take her EDS symptoms seriously and blamed them on mental illness. She was just 25 when those symptoms began in October 2015. At the time, she did not know she had inherited the health condition. EDS refers to a group of inherited disorders caused by gene mutations that weaken the connective tissues. There are at least 13 different types of EDS, and the conditions range from mild to life-threatening. EDS is extremely rare. Aston sought medical help after her symptoms—which included severe migraines, abdominal pain, joint dislocations, easy bruising, iron deficiency, fainting, tachycardia, and multiple injuries—began in 2015, per the New Zealand Herald. She was referred to Auckland Hospital, where a doctor accused her of causing her own illness. Because of his accusations, Aston was placed on psychiatric watch. She had to undergo rectal examinations and was accused of practising self-harming behaviours. She was suspected of faking fainting spells, fevers, and coughing fits, and there were also suggestions that her mother was physically harming her. There was no basis for the doctor’s accusations that her illness was caused by psychiatric issues, Aston told the New Zealand Herald. “There was no evaluation prior to this, no psych consultation, nothing,” she said. She eventually complained to the Auckland District Health Board and the Health and Disability Commissioner of New Zealand. “I feel like I have had my dignity stripped and my rights seriously breached,” she said. Read full story Source: The Independent, 6 September 2023
  15. Content Article
    This KevinMD podcast discusses with family physician Lisa Baron the pervasive issue of medical gaslighting, particularly in women seeking care for chronic illnesses. We’ll delve into the consequences of dismissing symptoms and the importance of validating patient concerns. We’ll also explore the role of social media in connecting patients with support and treatment options, as well as steps doctors can take to improve their bedside manner and rebuild trust with patients who have been gaslit in the past.
  16. Content Article
    This article* is an update from Dr Henrietta Hughes, Patient Safety Commissioner for England. Slow, siloed, disjointed, dismissive. The Cumberlege review heard from patients who had been campaigning for years or decades without being heard, or their concerns acted upon. InFact raised concerns about sodium valproate being dispensed in plain white packaging without warning labels in 2013. Ten years later, the Government has just published the response to a consultation on white boxes. The plans will improve information and safety for patients taking sodium valproate, but also enable pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to use their discretion when there is a mismatch of 10% between the prescription (often in multiples of 28) and the pack size. Good news, but also a stark reminder of how slow the response is to the very people who are impacted by harm. What will it take for the evidence that patients raise to be seen as important as other sources in the hierarchy as evidence? Why is it that when thousands of patients are all saying the same thing, that the system is so slow to react? It’s clear that participants in clinical trials do not mirror the intended population whether for medicines or medical devices, so post marketing surveillance is particularly important, and we all have a responsibility to keep our minds open when patients give feedback or raise concerns. Patients describe being ignored, dismissed and ‘gas lighted’ when describing symptoms and signs, being told it’s all in their head, that they are hysterical, not to believe everything they read on social media. And yes, they are mainly women. We need to hear the early signals of harm and to act on these swiftly and in a co-ordinated way. This is particularly important with the recent Budget announcement that the MHRA will be able to rely on licensing of medicines and medical devices in trusted jurisdictions. We need a listening culture that values the voices of patients and families and that can translate the feedback into action. Patients should not have to push this information to providers and regulators – we need a system that draws the feedback into the centre. Instead of relying on the traditional hierarchy of evidence when identifying harm, we need a feedback loop as exists when we introduce quality improvements and for this feedback to be escalated directly to MHRA using the yellow card system. Without this the same problems will persist and we will look back in a further ten years and say: we were responsible – what did we do to stop harm? @InFactUK @KathSansom @meshcampaign @carlheneghan @MHRA #patientvoice This article was first published on LinkedIn.
  17. News Article
    The wait to be diagnosed with endometriosis has increased to almost ten years, a "devastating" milestone say women with the condition. It now takes almost a year more than before 2020 to be diagnosed, according to research published by Endometriosis UK, which is setting up new volunteer-led support groups in Wales. The wait in Wales is also the longest in the UK, the research found. The Welsh government said it knew there was "room for improvement". "Nobody listened to me, and to feel like women are still going through that 20 years after my diagnosis is horrific," said Michelle Bates. The 48-year old from Cardiff was diagnosed aged 25 after suffering with "harrowing" pain from age 13 onwards - a 12-year wait. "I went back and forth to the GP with my mum, who was the only one who believed in my pain," she said. The study by Endometriosis UK, which is based on a survey of 4,371 people who received a diagnosis of endometriosis, showed almost half of all respondents (47%) had visited their GP 10 or more times with symptoms prior to receiving a diagnosis, and 70% had visited five times or more. It also found 78% of people who later went on to receive a diagnosis of endometriosis - up from 69% in 2020 - were told by doctors they were making a "fuss about nothing", or comments to that effect. Read full story Source: BBC News, 18 March 2024
  18. News Article
    Women are waiting nearly nine years for an endometriosis diagnosis in the UK, according to research that found health professionals often minimise or dismiss symptoms. The study by the charity Endometriosis UK suggests waiting times for a diagnosis have significantly deteriorated in the past three years, increasing to an average of eight years and 10 months, up 10 months since 2020. In Scotland, the average diagnosis time has increased by four months. The report, based on a survey of 4,371 people who have received a diagnosis, shows that 47% of respondents had visited their GP 10 or more times with symptoms before being diagnosed, and 70% had visited five times or more. The chief executive of Endometriosis UK, Emma Cox, said: “Taking almost nine years to get a diagnosis of endometriosis is unacceptable. Our finding that it now takes even longer to get a diagnosis of endometriosis must be a wake-up call to decision-makers to stop minimising or ignoring the significant impact endometriosis can have on both physical and mental health.” The report includes examples of patients’ experiences, with many being told that their pain was “normal”. One said: “I was constantly dismissed, ignored and belittled by medical professionals telling me that my symptoms were simply due to stress and tiredness. I persevered for over 10 years desperate for help.” Another said she had been told she was “being dramatic” after going to her GP as a teenager with painful periods. Another said: “A&E nurses told me that everyone has period pain so take paracetamol and go home.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 4 March 2024
  19. News Article
    Women with endometriosis who have endured years of excruciating pain are being “fobbed off” by doctors and told their symptoms are “all in their head”, leading them to give up seeking NHS treatment, new research has found. A study carried out by academics at Manchester Metropolitan University found women with the disease felt “gaslit” by doctors due to their lack of understanding of the condition. The paper, due to be published in the Journal of Health Communication later this month, also found that treatment was subject to a postcode lottery. Patients in rural areas reported travelling for hours to access a specialist with full training in the complex gynaecological condition. Endometriosis is a painful condition in which tissue similar to the lining of the womb grows around other organs inside the abdomen. It affects 1.5 million women in the UK. The study looked at the experiences of treatment and diagnosis of 33 patients and revealed how doctors’ lack of understanding of the symptoms meant women often spent years in pain before their condition was diagnosed. During this period participants were told they were exaggerating their symptoms, or their pain was dismissed as psychological. As one 27-year-old participant reported: “I feel a lot of mistrust towards the healthcare system in general, simply because I have been told that the pain was in my head, that I must have a low pain threshold or that I was in pain because I was fat.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 21 January 2024 Share your experience of endometriosis: The Guardian newspaper would like to hear how you have been affected by endometriosis and your experience of being diagnosed and treated.
  20. News Article
    Health experts say more attention should be given to patients’ experiences after research found multiple examples of their insights being undervalued. A study led by the University of Cambridge and King’s College London found clinicians ranked patient self-assessments as the least important when making diagnostic decisions. Ethnicity and gender were felt to influence diagnosis, particularly a perception that women were more likely to be told their symptoms were psychosomatic. Male clinicians were more likely to say that patients overplay symptoms. The findings prompted calls for clinicians to move away from the “doctor knows best attitude” when caring for patients. One patient shared the feeling of being disbelieved as “degrading and dehumanising”, and added: “I’ll tell them my symptoms and they’ll tell me that symptom is wrong, or I can’t feel pain there, or in that way.” Read full story Source: The Guardian, 18 December 2023
  21. News Article
    New official guidance on treating menopause will harm women’s health, experts, MPs and campaigners have warned. Last month, new draft guidelines to GPs from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) said that women experiencing hot flushes, night sweats, depression and sleep problems could be offered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) “alongside or as an alternative to” hormone replacement therapy (HRT) to help reduce their menopause symptoms. But critics have castigated the guidance, saying it belittled symptoms through misogynistic language, and women’s health would suffer as a result of failing to emphasise the benefits of HRT on bone and cardiovascular health as opposed to CBT. In its response to the guidance, Mumsnet said NICE's recommendations used “patronising” and “offensive” language and would be “detrimental” to women’s health. Justine Roberts, the founder and chief executive of Mumsnet, said: “Women already struggle to access the HRT they are entitled to. We hear daily from women in perimenopause and menopause who are battling against a toxic combination of entrenched misogyny, misinformation and lack of knowledge among GPs. “Too often they are fobbed off or told they simply need to put up with severe physical and mental symptoms – often with life-changing effects. “By emphasising the negative over the positive, failing to include information about the safest forms of HRT and placing CBT on a par with hormone replacement therapy, this guidance will worsen that struggle. It will make doctors more reluctant to prescribe HRT and women more fearful about asking for or accepting it.” Carolyn Harris, the MP for Swansea East and the chair of the all-party parliamentary group on menopause, said the new guidance was “antiquated”, “naive” and “ill thought-out”. ”Talking can make you feel better, but it’s not going to take away the aches in your joints and it’s not going to change how you live your life,” she said. “Whatever a woman feels is what she needs to support her through the menopause should be readily and immediately available, and that’s not true currently [of HRT or CBT]." Read full story Source: The Guardian, 11 December 2023
  22. Content Article
    This article, published by Forbes, is written by Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Jody Michael Associates, a company that specialises in executive coaching, leadership development and career coaching. It looks at 'gaslighting' in the workplace, outlining what it is, what it means and how to counter it. When gaslighting happens, by its very nature, it can be hard to spot. This can lead to good staff being lost, and in healthcare it can be a major patient safety issue. The article covers: the history of gaslighting signs of gaslighting an example of gaslighting how to move and and how to counter gaslighting in the workplace.
  23. Content Article
    Chronic pain patients are often dismissed and told the pain is in their head. For World Mental Health Day, Glasgow Live reporter Sophie Buchan shares her first-hand experience of gaslighting. Gaslighting refers to a form of emotional abuse which involves "manipulating someone by psychological means into doubting their own sanity". This can also happen in medical settings - referred to as medical gaslighting. This is used to describe medical practitioners who blame a patient's symptoms on psychological factors, or deny a patient's illness, for example, doubting their pain because they "don't look sick".
  24. Content Article
    This is a guest post for the Hysterical Women website, by Kath Sansom, founder of the Sling the Mesh campaign. Content warning: mention of self-harm.
  25. Content Article
    Women experience varied levels of pain during gynaecological procedures. More research is needed if we want to reduce the risk of severe pain and improve understanding among medical professionals, writes Stephanie O’Donohue in this BMJ opinion piece.

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