My wife is black and I'm white. Having me come along with her just so the doctors take her seriously is literally a thing we have to deal with firsthand.

At almost five weeks pregnant, I enthusiastically went to my first OB appointment, and received disgusting treatment. She had an obvious racial bias and asked things like “how are you keeping yourself off the street?” instead of “where do you work?” Then she wrote “UNPLANNED” in huge letters across the top of her notes even though I JUST told her we had tried for over a year. I mean we planned down to taking daily prenatals and even having the nursery paint picked out. We’d been married almost five years, had good jobs, owned our house etc. Could hardly have been a more ideal situation and she still still treated me with intense disdain and disrespect. Needless to say, I changed doctors.

"Bring a White Man" is actually legit good advice for this situation.

There's also discrimination on patients that are obese or overweight. There are doctors out there that think every complain of pain from a heavy person is related to their weight and just sends them home without looking for a different possible cause.

That poor man lost his wife and he's tortured by whether she might still be alive if only he had lost his temper with medical staff. That's absolutely heartbreaking.

Black Twitter said that if the doctor refuses to treat you, make them write that refusal down. They change their minds really quick.

When I was 8 years old I was having severe abdominal pain, a fever, and I had vomitted (only once) for about a day. My mom worked in a hospital for many years at the front desk, so she had no medical degree but she picked up a lot of information over the years. She took me in at 2 am because I was just getting worse (she had to carry me in because I was in too much pain to walk). She told the male doctor my symptoms and what she thought was happening..... Appendicitis. He refused to take any blood tests on me or whatever they do to test my appendix, and told her she was just an over protective mother and all I had was the flu so she was to just take me home. My was furious and stood up for me. He finally agreed to do some tests. When they came back he was really concerned because they didn't look good. Yep, I had appendicitis. Surgeon said that it had been leaking and I was only a few hours away from it rupturing. I can only imagine what would have happened if my mom had just listened to the doctor

My horror story started when I was about 12/13 years old. Went to the doc for a normal check-up and my pulse was a bit high. The nurse asked me if I was nervous about something and I didn't think I was, so I told her so. She insisted I had to be nervous because my pulse shouldn't have been that high. So I literally had to wrack my brain for something I was maybe nervous about and didn't realize I was nervous about. No further questioning done. I was just a nervous 12/13 year old girl. Couple years later at another doctor check-up, when I was about 16/17 years old, the nurse noticed I had a higher than normal pulse. She asked if I was okay, if I was experiencing any pain anywhere. I said no, but sometimes I felt a bit faint if I stood up too fast and that I couldn't handle the heat. She asked me to go into more detail, so I did. I explained how when my dad or brother or stepmom could be outside in the heat for hours at a time no problem, I felt I couldn't last more than 30 minutes before needing to go inside. I explained sometimes it felt like my heart was fluttering when I moved too quickly and that I couldn't get a proper breath in. She relayed this to the doctor, who promptly told my father that I was being a hypochondriac and trying to get out of manual labor around the house by being lazy. This lead to multiple screaming matches with my dad when trying to get me to do manual labor outside and my refusal do work more than 30 minute stints before taking breaks because I felt like I would faint. His argument was always "The doctor said there is literally nothing wrong with you." When I moved from down south up north after graduation to live with my aunt and uncle, my aunt asked me to be her volunteer at her medical school (She needed a volunteer to practice blood work and other injections on) and I agreed. Both she and her teacher noticed my extremely high pulse (Because at this point the problem continued to escalate). Both discussed how odd that was and I just said "I've always had a high pulse." My aunt urged me to see a doctor, but I refused because my experience with doctors was always "There's nothing wrong with you." A year later when she started working in a medical office, I finally agreed to see the Nurse Practitioner because my aunt had told me stories on how this woman was a fantastic NP and she would at the least run some basic tests. My aunt expressed that she wouldn't stop pushing until testing proved nothing was wrong. I went to see the NP and the NP did an EKG my first visit. According to the EKG, I had an enlarged heart. She printed me out a copy of the EKG upon my request and immediately referred me for blood work. While I was waiting in line to get my blood drawn, I texted a picture of the EKG to my dad that said "Welp, I guess something was wrong lol." I think I was in shock and trying to find humor in the situation. My dad immediately called me and asked what he was looking at. I explained what the NP said and what the EKG showed and he started apologizing to me. He sounded like he was on the brink of tears. I was confused because it wasn't his fault, he's not a medical professional. He's a nuclear engineer. A doctor told him consistently that there was nothing medically wrong with me. That I was just trying to get out of working around the house. Thankfully, the blood work results showed that it wasn't an enlarged heart. I had hyperthyroidism, more specifically, Graves Disease. Now, there are multiple ways to treat this. A) Medication. B) Single injection of radioactive iodine. C) Surgery. The specialist I saw wanted me to take option B. I explained to said specialist that option B was not an option for me because I am *highly* allergic to iodine. I go into anaphylactic shock when I am exposed to iodine. (For those who don't know, that means the throat swells and I can't breathe). He was frustrated that I didn't even want to consider that a solution, but grudgingly decided to put me on medication instead. I was placed on a beta-blocker and a thyroid medication. Well, every time I took the beta-blocker I felt like my chest was burning and going to explode. It hurt, severely. I reported this to him and he refused to changed the medication. The NP, who had become my primary care physician, told me to stop taking the medication if it hurt that badly because that is a sign that the body is rejecting the medication. So I did and the specialist was suddenly unable to assist me further because "I refused his medical treatment and advise." My PCP gave me a choice: Try a different specialist or she would prescribe what she could. I chose to just let her handle my prescriptions because frankly, the specialist only furthered my own personal bias against the medical industry as a whole. This Nurse Practioner had become, in my eyes, the only trust-worthy medical professional who could help. The only one (My aunt obviously excluded) who took me seriously. At this point I was 20. I had so many tests done. I had a stress test, which I couldn't fully complete because they had to take me off the treadmill at two minutes due to my heart rate spiking up to 200 bpm (These are heart attack levels). I had multiple MRIs done. And all the while my PCP and I were playing a game of medication because my body would get used to the medication I was on and my bpm would spike again. She would raise the medication dosage, it would work for a bit, so she'd try to lower it slightly to find that sweet spot, my bpm would jump to worse than previously, so she'd raise it again. She kept insisting I needed to see a specialist, but I always responded with "I don't trust them with my body." I was going to the ER regularly because I was told that I needed to take each and every aspect of chest pain lasting longer than five minutes as a potential heart attack due to my high bpm. Then the worst thing happened. My PCP moved to a different field of medicine and couldn't see me anymore. She recommended other docs who could help me, but I was skeptical. I didn't want a new PCP, I didn't trust anyone else. My aunt started working with the new doctor who had replaced her and my aunt asked me to give him a try, because at the very least I needed someone to prescribe my medication. (Actually, the convo went more like "You're going to see him for your meds or you will die of a heart attack [Insert my full name here].") So I saw him and, to my surprise, he took my 22 years old self seriously. He told me that he looked through my chart and saw the issues I had with the specialist. He'd taken the time before I even walked in that office to go over ALL my files so he was up-to-date, as he was the "new person in this medical struggle and needed to do the proper homework." He told me, flat-faced, I needed surgery. The medication wasn't cutting it and I couldn't do the iodine treatment. He explained to me that he couldn't refer me to a general surgeon because he wasn't a specialist. A specialist had to do that. So he took the time to find a well-liked female specialist that wouldn't be too out of the way for me. He did all this... BEFORE I EVEN MET HIM. I was blown away by how in-depth and seriously he took me. So I saw the specialist and she agreed with him. I needed surgery. She referred me to a general surgeon she said she worked with numerous times before. She also told me that I needed to stop any form of drinking (Not that I was an alcoholic, but I enjoyed a glass or two of wine every now and then). She also advised that I quit smoking. I managed to stop the drinking, but smoking was proving to be a struggle. So I saw the surgeon and when the nurse took my levels, she asked me if I took the stairs. I said no, I had parked on the correct level so I didn't have to take the stairs. When I asked why, she silently showed me my bpm. 199 bpm. Let that sink in. At 22 years of age, my resting heart rate was 199 bpm. She then calmly stated that if I had taken the stairs, I likely would not have made it into the office. I instead would've been sent downstairs to the ER for a heart attack. I think it was her way of making sure I knew how serious this was. Apparently, my old prescription of meds wasn't working anymore. The surgeon saw me and was nervous about the surgery because it was a risk, a lot could go wrong. Usually, they place patients on iodine pills to lessen the risk of complications, but I have that pesky allergy. We scheduled the surgery and after a few more hiccups (Including one where I almost didn't get the surgery due to complications that would've delayed the surgery until after I was 23, lost my insurance, and couldn't pay for it) I finally did get surgery. My thyroid fully removed. He said my thyroid was actually stuck to my vocal chords, so it took a bit longer than expected as he had to pry my thyroid off my vocal chords without permanent damage. I don't know how he managed it, but other than my voice being a hiccup higher now, everything went as smoothly as possible. I tell this story like this because I was showing symptoms of hyperthyroidism at the age of fucking TWELVE and NO ONE took me seriously. I started showing advanced symptoms around the age of SIXTEEN and no one took me seriously. If my aunt hadn't pushed me to see someone, I would likely not be alive today. It only got so bad because it took me until I was NINETEEN for someone to do even the most basic of testing. TL;DR The American medical industry is fucking jacked up beyond belief that they would rather call a child a nervous hypochondriac rather than take the time, money, and effort to double-check whether or not she's telling a story for attention or if there really is something wrong. They'd rather a young woman die than be proven wrong. And it's sickening.

Real talk tho, as a women w chronic pain, if a doctor refuses to run tests for whatever the problem is, request that they write in your file the date you requested the tests, his refusal, and then ask for a copy. Watch how fast their tune changes when there's documentation

"My girlfriend missed her curse and told me the Happening is happening. I'm not ready to raise the Babadook."

When my gallbladder ruptured, I drove myself to the hospital, while vomiting blood, and was told that it was constipation and to go home. The attending said that I was being a crybaby.

Also transgender people experience lots of bias from doctors, I once had a pregnancy misdiagnosed because the doctor thought I had my uterus removed despite there were no notes about it in my file....

There is also bias against young people who have issues that "won't affect them at their age"

Also worth noting the bias against poor people in medicine. I've lived in a pretty poor area, and they think everyone here are junkies and addicts. My mom went to a clinic with paperwork *from a rheumatologist* saying that she has A.S. They couldn't refuse to treat her, but they drove her to tears, and one doctor actually asked her if she was just there for drugs. She didn't go back. So, no. Not all broke people are addicts. We need fair medical treatment too.

This is so sad and true. I remember one doctor I had briefly who straight up told me (as an 17-18 year old young woman) to “Stop being so over-emotional.” when I came to him in horrible PAIN. Yet he just kept telling me I needed to try to control myself. To calm down. To stop being so hysterical. That was when I decided to leave, so I just asked him where the nearest ER was so I could find a medical professional willing to take this seriously. He rolled his eyes and said, “Really? Why do YOU need to go to the ER? Do you want to waste their time with this pointless drama as well? They have real people in need of help.” It was absolutely disgusting and insanely unprofessional conduct. Just because I happen to have ovaries doesn’t mean I am not a human being and deserving to be treated as such.

When I was 4, I couldn’t eat, drink, or talk. My mom was obviously terrified, took me to the doctor because she knew it was my tonsils. Me doctor said it was an ear infection. She tried to fight it, but he wouldn’t let up. Eventually she took me to a different doctor, who instantly checked my tonsils, and saw they were the size of ping pong balls. I had surgery that day. She ended up becoming my primary, and my family was super bummed when she moved to a different state a decade later. Dr. Opal was the best and most compassionate doctor I had as a kid. My primary now is amazing though, she gets me any test I need, and sometimes will consult over the phone for advice/a question because then I don’t have to pay hospital fees.

Black woman here, I had mind-blowingly painful abdominal pain every few months, I thought I was dying, I begged the doctors to give me something or cut me open. The doctors said there was nothing wrong and sent me to a gastroenterologist who, I swear to God, told me to eat less broccoli. At a dinner party with friends, I described my symptoms and a woman at the table that was a registered nurse, told me I had an ulcer. I went to the hospital and was told the untreated ulcer was near rupture and would have killed me. So screw every doctor at UPMC medical clinic in Pittsburgh, PA for almost killing me because they thought I was some histrionic black junkie looking for attention or drugs.

"The simple fact that you have to ask that question is a problem." That's god damned right.

I started experiencing intermittent chest pains in the end of 2016, and went to the Drs one night to have them tell me it was probably due to anxiety or stress, and at the most it was costochondritis (an inflammation of the cartilage in your chest). They said to just relax. A few months later, the chest pains got more regular and I started developing breathing problems. Back to the doctor, this one said that it was probably costo (not that they’d done any tests to confirm) and suggested I take up swimming because it’s great for stretching out your muscles. Over the next couple of months, I went back to the doctors three or four times, one suggested asthma, others kept saying anxiety (despite my mother being a clinical psychologist and thus would have recognised anxiety). Then it got to the point where I could barely talk for more than 30 seconds and my partner couldn’t hug me without causing a coughing fit. I had lost heaps of weight and was regularly experiencing night sweats and other symptoms but just kept shrugging them off because I didn’t want yet another doctor to insinuate I was a hypochondriac. One week it got so bad that I took myself to the emergency room. After a simple chest x-ray, they found a giant tumour in my chest that was taking up where my left lung should have been and pressing on my heart. Three days later, they diagnosed me with Hodgkin lymphoma. That was about six months after that first doctor’s visit. Would have been nice to be taken seriously the first time I went. Luckily all good now but still pretty pissed about all of doctors I saw previously. Just adding my story to the growing collection of people not being taken seriously by doctors.

A good example of bias in medecine, though unrelated to gender or race, is a doctor who asked me on my first visit if I was smoking, drinking alcohol or doing drugs. When I answered no to him, he looked at me and told me "sure, I believe you" with a very condescend tone. All of this because I was a college student. I never came to his office again.

When you ask for a test and the doctor refuses. Tell them to document both your request and their refusal on your chart and make sure they do it.

White Female here. I am paralyzed completely on my right side and literally had a physical therapist come in my hospital room and demand I get out of bed on my right side. After 20 minutes of telling at him that I LITERALLY couldn't move, he stormed out, marked my chart "Hysterical and Uncooperative". I was denied physical therapy because of it and sent home.

This kind of thing happens in mental health too. Young girls are far less likely to get diagnosed with autism then boys are because a lot of what autism portrays as are also female stereo types. It wasn't until I was 20 years old that I got diagnosed with autism and ADHD even though I got a 'maybe' when I was a kid for ADHD but it all went untreated until I was struggling through college on a social level.

I started my period at 14, and immediately it was extremely heavy, I had terrible cramps, awful mood swings, and they lasted for over a week (the average period lasts 3-5 days). I thought that maybe it was just because it was the first one, and sometimes they can be heavier. But no, they just kept being like that, and lasting anywhere from 7-12 days with all of the same symptoms. I had to change my tampon every hour or so, and I would still bleed onto chairs at school. It was a mess. I finally went on birth control to try and regulate them, but they were still pretty bad, so I went on continuous birth control so I don’t get them at all, and that changed my life. But from the beginning I was just told by my mom that “yeah, this is how bad my periods were too” and same for her mom, my sister, and my dad’s mom. We all just accepted it because we were told by doctors that our periods are just bad and that’s that. I only found out last year, when I started seeing a different gynecologist, that the reason they’re so severe is because I have a bleeding disorder, Von Willebrand disease, and PMDD (though we had known that part before seeing this new gynecologist). Literally no other doctor besides this one had thought to run tests on me even though my periods were very abnormal and indicated further health problems. In fact, most women with Von Willebrand disease don’t find out they have it until they start having periods which are almost always very severe. Luckily, the best treatment for it is birth control, which I was coincidentally already on. Birth control already comes with the risk of blood clots, because it raises your Von Willebrand factor in your blood, which is coincidentally the factor I don’t have enough of. But it’s still baffling to me that no one ever thought to try and figure out the cause of the terrible periods that literally every woman in my family had, because it’s just assumed that periods suck and you have to deal with it.

This should be covered in this episode... but for anyone encountering a doctor who’s being less than adequate tell them you want the medical notes to state that you’re being denied treatment along with the name of the doctor in the notes so there will be a record of their negligence especially if you’re discharged. Also keep that copy in a safe place and any needed lawyer will thank you.

The older I get the more I find out just how odd our country is. We seem to spend more time telling everyone how great we are rather than actually helping the people who live here.

When I was dealing with crippling abdominal pain for months, doctors just kept telling me it was cramps and tell me to take some Ibuprofen, despite my telling them that I was taking ibuprofen it wasn't helping. Finally I'd had enough and got my good friend James to go in with me and basically just pretend to be my boyfriend and repeat everything I said in slightly different words. They still essentially rolled their eyes whenever I spoke but when the words came from him, suddenly it was a serious issue and I got the tests I needed. It's worth noting that while I love James like a brother...He is not a clever man. He once almost blinded himself accidentally spraying febreeze directly into his eyes- if anything his dumb ass should have hurt my case lol

mad respect for Oliver, droppin' "assigned male at birth" in a video with 6 million views.

I love that John Oliver does so many pieces about problems that don't affect him personally. It gives me hope.

A year ago I had really bad abdominal pain. The nurses asked me like 30 times if I was sure I wasn’t pregnant as my pain reminded them of labour pain. The doctor asked me if I was on my period. I told him no (it wasn’t about to start for another week). He dismissed my pain and told me that it was just my uterus preparing for my period. One of his assistants (a male medical student) asked if he could do an echo for training purposes and because he wanted to look more into it. This medical student took me seriously and found out that my intestines formed abnormally, they are to bendy and have spots where water can stay behind. My cramps where the result of my body wanting to expel the water. So thank you medical student. 🙏 Edit: With echo I mean ultrasound. Thanks everyone for bringing that to my attention. English isn’t my first language and in my first language an ‘echo’ refers to an ultrasound.

I had a friend (latinx) whose mom went to the ER feeling very poorly, and was told she had the flu and sent home. She went back a few hours later because she knew something was wrong. She was told again that she had just the flu and to go sleep it off. Truth was she was having a heart attack and died that night.

I guess it's good that "a white man" adressed these problems... looking at the comments (or rather the comment threads) I can only imagine how toxic some of them would be, if "a black woman" had moderated this (or any woman, seeing as most toxic comments seem to be from sexists and not racists)

She says "bring a white man" and its supposed to be funny, but I'm a 31 year old black man and was hospitalized for pancreatitis. The first couple days there the staff was slow to bring medication for pain and to attend to me, but the third day my manager came by to check on me and i told him what was going on. He went on his white man tantrum and everything got turned around that day, got all my medications on time and they would even start to check in on me. It's racist, but its real.

During my PhD we used male mice for drug testing because female hormones sometime cause anomalies in data. We care more about publishing “sound data” than producing good drugs that work well for both sexes. This wasn’t mentioned in the episode, but this sort of bias happens very early at the drug discovery stage.

I'm a heavier white woman. I went to the doctor a couple years ago because I was going to class, coming home, taking a nap, waking up long enough to eat and MAYBE do homework and then going to bed and sleeping through my first class, every day (I ended up getting taught my morning class by a friend rather than attending it bc I physically could not wake up for it). I was sleeping up to 18 hours a day. I told them about my mothers entire side of the family (my mom, her mom, my aunt, my uncle, all of them) having thyroid problems, and was made to feel stupid for asking to get my thyroid levels tested. They told me it might be a mold allergy, but didn't even attempt to test for that. They said me it might be depression, and ignored that I've been depressed since 14/15, the over-sleeping had been happening for about 3 months. They also didn't try to refer me to a therapist at all, just 'maybe depression'. They ran the tests I insisted on, and then basically sent me a notice saying I was fine (I fucking wasn't). I didn't bother going back. Luckily the problem went away eventually and I was back to my standard 6-8 hours of sleep. I try to believe the mono test was a false negative, just so I have an answer, but I really have no idea. Going to the doctor should result in answers, not exhaustion because no one will listen

I have a new appreciation for this episode after what my black fiance has to go through when he was having a raging tooth infection. His extraction was a week out and they would not prescribe him an opioid even though he was in such extreme pain he just slept all day to avoid it.

I used to dream about moving to the US. The more I watch this show I become more and more convinced not to. My nordic ass is staying in Finland.

As a Hispanic person, I can tell you that I don't like any kind of pain nor do I consider it noble or sacrificial.

It's not only US issue... I gained 20kg in 6 months despite not changing anything in my life and when I told him that and the fact that I go to the gym 4-5 days a week, he just smirked and said "what's the point of lying to a doctor?" Basically just saying that the only reason that's possible for my weigth gain is laziness :) I just walked out and for next few years I just didn't go to any other doctor so I don't have to hear some bs like that again. Turned out I have Hashimoto, I have proper meds now (that I will have to take forever) and my weight went almost back to my regular one.

One of the main reasons women's heart problems are missed so frequently is ERs is that most women present differently than men. Nausea and epigastric pain and more frequent than crushing chest pain which is normally the symptom associated with heart attacks. It's a major focus in medical school (in my experience) now so it is getting better.

Wait a minute... If a doctor believes black people have less nerve endings and thus feel less, that means it has to be WORSE for them if they go to the doctor and you should take it MORE seriously...

"I'd like to speak to your supervisor." I'm an Asian immigrant to this country, and learning those words from white people has changed my life!

I have chronic pain that started when I was 8 years old. I remember going to the doctors in third grade because for a couple of months I had episodes of stabbing pain in my chest that wasn’t help by pain meds and was bad enough that it made me lighted headed. I was ignored and I told I’d grew out of it. I still have these episodes years later. It’s the same story for the intense pain in my back and neck that started a little after the chest pain did. I told every doctor, nurse, and practitioner I saw that my pain felt like it started at my spine. But guess what they all did, ignored me and didn’t do anything to see if there was a problem with my spine. Turns out my spine is completely misaligned and is the cause of the pain in my chest, back and neck pain. I’ve also suffers for migraines for since I was 10. People didn’t believe me when I’d be curled up with my eyes shut, ears covered, and crying from the pain. I was a young female so I was obviously exaggerating when I said that I felt like my head was being repeatedly smashed by a rock. I’ve been told by medical goddamn professionals that I just had headache and was being dramatic. I’ve been in school countless times and gone to the nurse for a migraine and been told I was fine and to go back to class because I was being stupid. I was also in a situation a couple months ago where my body was eating itself alive and was told I was fine. My muscles weren’t absorbing nutrients and started eating themselves. I ended up going to the ER 10 times in a couple months because of intense pain. I couldn’t walk, it hurt to type, I would get tired by eating a proper meal, I passed out multiple times from pain. I was told I was being dramatic and that it was just hormones or some shit. When doctors finally fingered it out they think if it had taken longer (it’d been 5 months at this point) that it could have killed me. I was fucking dying and I was told I was being a drama queen. Sorry rant over. But seriously please believe people about their pain. A lot of people I know, especially females and POC don’t complain about pain until it gets really bad. I personally don’t start to complain until I start to get dizzy or lightheaded from the pain. Nothing hurts like being told you’re overreacting while inside you’re hoping that whatever this is kills you because it’s too much pain.

My coworkers assumed that our newest worker, a brilliant, beautiful, tri-lingual, kind lady with a sweet husband and two little kids, was faking when she claimed strokelike symptoms. Fortunately I was the highest ranked worker that day and called someone in so I could drive her to the hospital (she was worried about the cost of an ambulance). She never left the hospital and they never found what was wrong, despite her detailed family history and years of experience describing symptoms for professionals. The most disheartening thing was how my coworkers, who'd flocked to support white colleagues through minor ailments, subjected her to vicious rumors of drug seeking and malingering and didn't send a card when--at 28 years old, with hopes for a catering business and the devotion of a young family--she died. I broke ties with my coworkers that day and never renewed them. You can't be in a business like ours and only care about some people.

I have stage 4 endometriosis. I was having a particularly hard time with pain and knew there was something wrong. I called my gyn (who had already preformed 3 surgeries on me) I'll never forget his advice. "If you have to go to the hospital. Dont tell them it's a uturus issue. Just tell them you have stomach pain. Once they get you into a room, then tell them its endo related. You'll be seen sooner if they think its possibly the flu" I went to the hospital every day for a week. They refused to do anything meaningful at all. Not even an ultrasound. My gyn had to come in to do an ultrasound himself at 2am. Turns out my ovary was twisted and I was rushed into emergency surgery then and there. But even in the prep room, the surgeon was rude, told me I didn't look like I needed emergency surgery. I told him "make that decision when you see my insides"

Telling a woman she's hysterical when really she's having an emergency medical issue, is a good way to make her actually hysterical...

Funnily enough, that joke about "bring a white man" when you're going to the doctor's office can actually work in real life.

For my entire childhood and adolescence, I've been an atypical kid mentally. I hit most developmental benchmarks, but I was super sensitive to light, sound, textures, smells, tastes, etc., and highly anxious, I struggled socially and preferred to just keep to myself. I had really intense fascinations and obsessions, and some OCD-like tendencies and rituals. I was passed around to different therapists and doctors who all just said I was an anxious and sensitive kid and probably a hypochodriac. I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder and pretty much just ignored after that. When I went to university my struggles got a lot harder. I was having frequent panic attacks at least once every couple days that would last for hours on end, and I wouldn't remember much during or after them. I do know that these attacks felt like my senses and brain were just on fire with too much information. I would go mute during these episodes, and I didn't know how to quite describe them to the doctors as anything but panic attacks. When I was 23 I had a therapist who asked me if I was ever assessed for autism. I laughed at him and told him there was no way I was autistic, they would have figured that out when I was a kid. 2 years later, a new psychologist recommended that I be assessed for autism, "just for curiosity's sake", and so I scheduled for an assessment. Learning about autism became an obsession for me in the meantime, so I was learning a lot about the presentation of autism in boys vs girls and how girls could go undiagnosed until adulthood or were misdiagnosed with something else. Took the assessment, turns out that I AM autistic (high-functioning) with some ADHD tendencies and those panic attacks were actually meltdowns caused by overstimulation. 26 years of believing that I was just a really sensitive and anxious kid and recieving treatment that really wasn't working, and I finally have an answer. I've been doing a lot better, I've found the correct professional help I've been needing, and I've found that I'm easier on myself and not holding myself to other's 'normal' standards because my normal is not nuerotypical.

"It's not my job to tell you what's wrong with you." That's......that's *literally* your job.

A very effective way to get your doctor to rethink dismissing your claims is to demand they mark down their refusal for tests or declared symptoms in your file. This creates a malpractice paper trail in your record that they can't obfuscate later.

After 3 yrs of cancer treatment as a teen I was having a lot of pain and a myriad of physical issues. I was sent to a specialist who said it was all in my head, I didn't actually have any pain or issues it was just my body remembering pain from before and that they needed to "retrain" my brain, turns out it was bone disease and I had to have a bunch of joint replacements. And that's just one gem in my horror story of being a patient in this "system" where the onus is on the patient to know what they need and get it irrespective of their situation, capabilities and access. Word of advice, don't get sick as a minor.

I’m transgender, and if anything did happen to me that I needed to go to the emergency room, I’d be terrified about having to tell them that I have “female” anatomy. They’d probably not even know what to do with me. There is so little research related to trans people, that our healthcare is pretty much just a shot in the dark. For example, we still don’t know the long term effects on organs like the liver that taking testosterone has. Because nobody has bothered to research it! And don’t get me started about going to a gynecologist. I never have, but I’ll keep pushing it off as long as I possibly can!

*Let's not forget the stark differences in treatment when it comes to mental health, too.*

Usually Sunday night: Bed. Work in the morning. My Sunday night: 330AM, time to watch the parrot man.

I have PCOS and was not until I was 65 years old. I had asked my endocrinologist about the drops in my body temperature and after some discussion she told me I was PCOS. I looked at her blankly and she explained that it was poly cystic ovary syndrome. I had symptoms going back to my late teens, early 20's and no one ever even tried to diagnose what I was experiencing. Not only was I a woman but it also involved a condition that only affected women. I went through my life wondering why I had the problems I had. These problems affected my work. Also since I didn't know what the problem was I couldn't cope effectively. I muddled through but it would have been nice to know that I wasn't just crazy.

As a white man, if any of you feel you need me to come with you to get treatment, I will come along, free of charge, everyone should be treated equally!

For women and people of color one thing you can do if you are refused tests or treatments you think you need, you can ask the doctor or nurse to put that refusal in your chart and ask for a copy of the records. They don’t want to have it on record that they didn’t treat you for something and have that used against them later. It shouldn’t be something anyone has to do but it can be very important and helpful when seeking medical treatment

A professor taught me that if you listen, the patient will tell you what is wrong with them. I tell my students the same and to always keep an open mind when you step into a patient's room and treat them like you would want to be treated yourself. Thankfully this approach has always served me well.

I have legit felt relief and thanked my nurse practitioner for not thinking I was a hypochondriac. I have a lot of medical issues. I told her I was scared to tell her because I thought she'd think I was just making it up.

The first time my mom got kidney stones, a male doctor told her that it was "female problems" and told her to go to her gyno. We walked into the gyno's office and all 3 female nurses told my mom to go to the hospital just by looking at her. They knew just by looking at her this wasn't "female problems"

He joked about the analogy they used to portray 83,000 deaths saying it was unnecessary, but I think that was actually a great way to portray the gravity of it. when numbers get too big it's harder to really grasp it emotionally, though I think that jumbo jet metaphor was pretty effective.

Current 2nd year med student, I want some to know that this disparity and bias in health care was taught in my recent ethics module. Change is starting to happen, though it is late, it is happening.

my mom’s heart attack was missed in the hospital she had worked at for 30 yrs. no chest pains. nausea, mostly. fatigue that made her retire before she would have. 2 yrs later had another that was caught. had to have her chest cracked open to repair the incredible damage.

My aunt had a heart attack and got sent home because “she needed to lose weight“ complete disregard of pain and symptoms

I had serious eye pain and went to urgent care. Had a male doctor dunce my eye and say “stop wearing makeup you probably got eye makeup in your eye” and charged me 190$. Had to go to the ER the next day cause the pain got worse. Got a female doctor who flipped my lid inside out to check the spot I told her the pain was centralized and she found a massive, pointed stye. She was pissed I had my time and money wasted by someone who wouldn’t listen to me,

Doctor's using male patients to study the uterus: "Ah yes, I can see your lack of a uterus is very healthy and responding great to these medications"

You know, John's so right! He has been very brave! He deserves a wowwypop!

I had my GP dismiss my constant tiredness, weight gain and heavy migraines as "that's just because you're on the pill". I had been on it for 10 years without any problems at that point and the problems turned out to be a severe thyroid underfunction. Thanks GP -.-

My mom has hypothyroidism. Hashimoto's, to be exact. After she had me, her metabolism slowed down more and more. She began losing hair in clumps at 40. Her skin was dry and cracking. She was cold all the time. She slept 14-16 hours a day. She was exhausted, angry, and sore all the time. Four doctors told her it was a normal part of aging and that she was going thru menopause. She said that that wasn't it; she was still having her period and most women in our family kept having it until mid 40s. She finally went to a doctor that bothered to run a blood test, was prescribed the lowest dose of synthroid, and is fine now. She would have died of a heart attack if she hadn't seen a fifth doctor. Bias and under training is real.

Menstruation was called "The Curse" in the 50s, but that was still an improvement over the 30s, when it was called "Lower Gross Throat."

I’m aware how much work goes into these episodes but could we get a part two on medical bias against the LGBT community? Between the trans community and the MSM blood ban you’d have plenty of material

Wanda sitting behind a desk and talking to us feels very natural. She should have her own show.

35 years my mother was told by male doctors: "Of course, your periods hurt for over a week. You're bleeding. When there's blood, there's pain. Same for men, love. Get used to the pain, that's how women are built." Finally find a female gynecologist who tells her that's bollocks and agrees to run tests: myoma. Too late to cure so hysterectomy. Thank you, men and get bent!

Last week tonight with John Oliver, the most powerful powerpoint presentation known to modern civilization.

A key phrase that is polite but doesn't mince words: "This is interfering with my ability to live my life the way I want." I say that when I want my doctor to realize that the issue at hand isn't just something I'm noticing or want to discuss, it's a problem that needs solving. That being said, I've never been accused of looking for drugs so your mileage may vary.

Oh I just love how smart are your lawyer, producer and writers are John Oliver! "You don't need to put a disaster in scales of another disaster" and then..smart! Beautiful! Worth of respect!👍

Dr.-It’s definitely not your heart, go home. Patient- Ok, I’m glad- thanks Doc! Narrator- It was definitely her heart

it should be said that the guy from the interview about the "pesky hormones" was just a medical historian stating the facts of our shameful medical past.

I know two black women where they were told their severe back pain and vomiting was because of "stress", and were given opioids for it. Turns out both their gallbladders ruptured

I have sickle cell disease and I can't tell you how many times I've been to an ER and they tell me that my "numbers" indicate that I shouldn't be in pain or that I'm only there to get drugs. The best way to combat these racist, biased stereotype believers is to know your rights as a patient and to respectfully, intelligently and passionately stand up for yourself. If they aren't going to help you, might as well speak your mind and heart.

A mother dead, a father stricken with guilt and a mother-less child; it's a goddamn tragedy.

I immediately thought of Anna Brown in St. Louis. She was arrested at the 3rd hospital she went to complaining of pain in her legs & swelling after a sprained ankle. She couldn't walk but staff said she was fine & didnt give her so much as a tylenol. Police tossed her on the floor of a jail cell & her body was found cold on the floor 15 minutes later. No drugs in her system. She was 29. & black.

As a black woman, I am often confronted with the harsh truth that the color of my skin and my gender shape the way I am treated within the healthcare system. There have been times when I have walked into doctors' offices with obvious signs that I needed medical attention, only to be met with skepticism and dismissal. The subtle eye rolls, the condescending tones, and the implicit questioning of my pain have become all too familiar. My pleas for help have often been met with apathy or a rushed diagnosis without thorough examination. It is as though my voice is muted, my concerns diminished, and my experiences invalidated. The emotional toll of these encounters is immense, disheartening and demoralizing.

I have been going to the doctor multiple times a year with complaints about pain and fatigue since I was 15 (I am now 21) and it wasn't until last month that a doctor bothered to run my ANA and other antibodies. Turns out something is up with my antibodies and I might have lupus (I am seeing a specialist next week to figure out it) which has gone untreated for 6 years. I was told for years that my symptoms are probably just depression or stress

A friend's 22 year old daughter was on the track field when she had a stroke. Doctors assumed she was drunk because she was a college student. Sent her home. Family drove her back, went to the ER. Finally got the help she needed. Doctors are the last people on earth who should be making assumptions. It's terrifying to realize that the individuals who hold your life in their hands can assess you without knowing you.

I thought this was exaggerated until it happened to my sister. She went to a doctor complaining of severe headaches and difficulty concentrating and was told by the doctor that she was "just having woman problems." Turns out she had a rare type of hydrocephalus.

My husband just told me in a very excited manner that he could be more depressing than you are. And that is really sad. Frankly I enjoy watching your videos it makes me happy that you are addressing issues that really need to be discussed. However, the world is filled with horrible people and you bring that up many, many times over and that is what's depressing. However, please keep up your work thank you!!:):)

Wanda Sykes...what a classy lady! Glad to hear her comments. Thank you, John, for bringing her on the show.

Those weird beliefs about black people's skin and pain tolerance have a very specific historical cause. I'll give you a hint: it starts with 's' and ends with 'lavery'

I’m a rare disease patient, so I’ve been told for the last 25 years that I’m anxious, drug seeking and making things up. THANK YOU FOR HIGHLIGHTING THIS.

Thanking LWT Staff and You John for the tireless work that you do! 💯🎧♥️🙏✌️

Something jarring actually happened to me pretty recently that wasn’t surprising, but put things into perspective. Both me, (afab non-binary) and my close friend (cis male) are chronically ill. I got a new doctor recently and joked about how they’re gonna suggest losing weight even though none of my problems are weight related *and* I’m not nearly overweight. Despite having similar issues to me, he has never had this happen. But nearly every doctor I’ve been to has suggested I lose weight despite my weight being unrelated to my illness.

As a Jew, I just assume any pain is the result of guilt for not listening to my mother

This is so useful. I’m black and male. When we had our first child in the UK, my wife, after a lot of tearing and stitching, was sent home with no pain meds. We were asked to buy pain meds at pharmacy if need be. Turned out the pharmacy couldn’t give us strong pain meds without a prescription. We kept calling the hospital to complain about her increasing discomfort but they gave us nothing. Went back in 3 days later, at which point she was a mess, extremely sensitive to light, slurred speech, complete mess. Yet, nurses would constantly bring her medication late, causing her to start feeling debilitating pain and throw mad tantrums. They would insist on keeping lights on around her (despite her photo sensitivity), and wouldnt consider finding her a private room. Afraid of being the “angry black man”, I constantly had to contain myself at the mismanagement. To cut a long story short, as soon as we were sure we had the pain under control, we self-discharged and went home to lick our wounds. With the proper pain meds, she recovered fully in under a week! Now I understand what could have accounted for the obvious miss in giving her pain meds in the first place.

I cannot believe I MISSED this episode! I'm so mad, but I'm happy to find it now!

My dad is white, conservative, was born in 1955, and has been a surgeon in Texas for 40 years. He’s a kind guy, but he has most of the beliefs stereotypical of his demographic (minus conscious racism and bias). Recently I was talking about bias in medicine (I was taking a college class on it at the time) and my dad surprisingly sided with me against the rest of the conservative family. To my complete surprise, he casually let it drop that he’d been requiring all the doctors and professionals in his practice to take race training and bias seminars for the last few years. He didn’t really preach about what he does or doesn’t believe about the topic, but this gave me a lot of hope and pride. People CAN change. We have to keep informing and pushing for equality, even when it seems like the bar is moving at a snail’s pace.

AT&T: Is he always like this? HBO: Always asking for money for crazy things? AT&T: No, the baby thing HBO: Wait he does more than ask for money?

As a person who is forced to use AT&T and only gets ONE BAR SOMETIMES, I live vicariously through Jon

So this is a little story from my childhood: I was around 5-10 (sorry I can’t give you a set age, I have strong amnesia of most my childhood besides small periods of memories. ) I was in 4-5 grade and had severe Asthma but no doctors could help me because I was young and had trouble expressing my thoughts in to words (does that make sense? Like I struggle making my words clear?) I was told one time when I was struggling to stay conscious that I was being dramatic because my Vitals were fine (my vitals are always fine which makes it hard for me to be respected). Two days after that I was sent to the hospital for months, I experienced so much trauma from being in that hospital (not because of the staff specifically but because I just suffered a lot in the hospital) I was told to my face that I would die if I ‘didn’t start trying to breath better’. For a child to hear that was horrible. That’s one of the things that caused me to forget almost all my childhood except those bad memories. I just hate that some doctors don’t just try to help someone who is suffering.

I've been very fortunate and lucky to have one hell of a mom and good doctors. I've always been aware of how blessed I am. I've had a good gyno my whole life, the woman who delivered me actually, lol, but even I've had a bad experience. My right hip was almost dislocating from the socket when I was 9. Nine. I went to my pediatrician to have it checked out. I explained that I could do it with a certain motion intentionally. And it would sometimes just happen when I fell, stepped weird, when my ankle crippled, when I adjusted my leg while sitting, anytime. He then had me lay down, did the incredibly painful motion more than thirty times, and promptly looked me dead in my eye and said "That's your knee. They do that sometimes. You're fine." ...my mom had looked at the inside of my thigh and hip joint and could SEE THE BONE MOVING WRONG and he did too. Nope. My knee. He also ignored my shoulder which crunched and ground and rolled painfully. I continued to have issues and pain for years, and finally got a diagnosis when I was 16. Turns out I have hyper mobility joint syndrome. So my feet having a muscle pull? Part of that due to weak Achilles. My ankles literally giving out and crippling to a 90 degree angle and making me fall down stairs? That was a symptom. My shoulder? Symptom My hip? Symptom. My fingers bending weird? Symptom. It was the first time any doctor had actually listened to me about the issue, and it was so much better because I went to the Shriner's Children's Hospital and the nurse who treated me also has hyper mobility. For the first time I felt heard about my bones and the pain and the humiliation of always having issues, of being 16 and not being able to walk right. I actually cried because I was so emotional about being heard. So yeah. Mine is a lot less severe, more of an annoyance, but it can happen to anyone. Be supportive of one another. I wish everyone luck in finding a good doctor, especially people of color and women