Man Repeats Wife’s Painful Symptoms To Doctors, They Finally Believe What She’s Saying

Our society is centered around men; that’s no secret to anyone. Unless someone is really oblivious. But there are plenty of ways to prove it. 

Today’s story is one of them — in it, a woman who suffers from debilitating pain didn’t manage to get any help because… Well, doctors simply didn’t believe her. Until she found a way to make them believe, but it was rather humiliating.

More info: Reddit

Our society is centered around men — it’s no secret, but that doesn’t mean it makes it any easier for women

Young woman sitting on a couch holding her knee in pain, illustrating chronic pain dismissed by doctors until validated by husband.

Image credits: stefamerpik / Freepik (not the actual photo)

Today’s story of medical neglect just proves how hard women have it

Alt text: Woman’s chronic pain dismissed by doctors until her husband advocates, highlighting struggles with complex regional pain syndrome.

Chronic pain after knee dislocation dismissed by doctors until believed due to husband's validation.

Text on a white background reads a woman describing how doctors dismiss her chronic pain and do not believe her experience.

Woman in a medical consultation expressing chronic pain, doctor listening skeptically in a clinical setting.

Image credits: Freepik / Freepik (not the actual photo)

In it, a woman, suffering from chronic pain for a long time, can’t get help, because doctors simply don’t believe her

Text from a woman describing chronic pain dismissed by doctors as dramatic and not believed until her husband confirms it.

Alt text: Text describing a woman’s chronic pain being dismissed until her husband confirms the symptoms to doctors

Text discussing chronic pain dismissal, highlighting woman’s experience of being seen as unreliable until validated by husband.

Woman discussing chronic pain with doctor while man supports her in a medical office, highlighting pain dismissal issues.

Image credits: gpointstudio / Freepik (not the actual photo)

So, she decides to bring her husband along and suddenly doctors are all ears

Text on white background about chronic pain dismissal, describing the struggle of women defending symptoms and emotions in medical care.

Text excerpt describing a woman’s chronic pain, highlighting guilt, loss of mobility, and being dismissed by doctors.

Text about writing a book on chronic pain and CRPS, focusing on women’s pain being dismissed until it’s too late.

Image credits: RockMoss

This infuriates the woman — why does she have to have a narrator? Why is her voice not enough?

The OP has complex regional pain syndrome or CRPS. Essentially, it’s a form of chronic pain, usually in an arm or a leg. It typically develops after some kind of injury, illness, or surgery and can grow out of proportion to the severity of the initial injury.

The post’s author started after her knee dislocation. The injury, instead of healing, turned into constant, burning nerve pain spreading through her body. She has been suffering for over a year, and most of the time, she is bedridden.

Besides physical pain, chronic pain also damages a person’s mental health. It changes the levels of stress hormones and neurochemicals found in the brain and nervous system. Thus, it affects a person’s mood, thinking, and behavior, and can even bring on depression and other mental illnesses. 

While there’s no cure for CRPS, there are ways to relieve the debilitating pain, from physical rehabilitation to medicine. And so, the OP went to many doctors to hopefully get some of that. 

She encountered a problem — none of the doctors believed her. They wrote her pain off to anxiety, depression, excessive focus, and many other things. 

Doctors not taking women’s health problems seriously isn’t a one-off case — it’s a recurring problem. Just read the comments under the post — many women share how their problems were said to be their weight, mental problems, their imagination, you get the gist. Some even dub it as medical gaslighting. 

Woman lying in bed grimacing in pain, holding her head and stomach, illustrating chronic pain and medical dismissal.

Image credits: Max4e / Freepik (not the actual photo)

The problem is that it leads to women not being diagnosed with serious conditions on time, making them suffer more than needed and sometimes even losing their lives. 

The OP was sick of medical professionals not hearing her out, so she came up with a plan — she started bringing her husband. And suddenly, they believe her pain when the descriptions came from his lips. 

What’s most infuriating is that they not only believed him, but they started completely ignoring her. Like making him the narrator of her body. So, you get why the woman is beyond mad here — she was basically made fun of describing her pain, but when the man said the same things out loud, it became a normal description. 

The silver lining here is that she might finally get some treatment for her pain. Still, the whole process seems humiliating. Maybe her body will be better off, but her emotions are hurt even more.

After the story was shared online, many other women flocked to the comments to share their experiences too

Screenshot of online comments describing a woman's chronic pain dismissed by doctors until her husband advocates for her.

Reddit conversation highlighting frustration over chronic pain dismissal, focusing on woman’s pain and doctors only believing her husband.

Online discussion about women’s chronic pain often being dismissed as dramatic until validated by their husbands.

Comment text about chronic pain dismissal and doctors believing it only when the husband advocates for the woman.

Comment discussing woman’s chronic pain dismissed by doctors until her husband’s confirmation, highlighting medical disbelief and diagnosis struggle.

Reddit comments expressing frustration about chronic pain being dismissed and mention of a specialty CRPS clinic in a big city.

Online discussion showing a woman’s chronic pain dismissed as dramatic until her husband confirms it to doctors.

Alt text: Online forum discussing woman's chronic pain dismissed by doctors until her husband advocates for her care

Screenshot of an online conversation where a woman’s chronic pain is dismissed and only believed when her husband confirms it

Screenshot of an online discussion about a woman’s chronic pain being dismissed by doctors until her husband intervenes.

Text conversation about a woman’s chronic pain being dismissed by doctors until her husband supports her claims.

Text conversation showing a woman’s chronic pain dismissed by doctors until her husband advocates for her care.

Text conversation showing a woman describing chronic pain dismissal by doctors until her husband advocates for her symptoms.

Screenshot of an online conversation where a woman’s chronic pain is dismissed as dramatic until her husband confirms it.

Reddit comments discussing chronic pain being dismissed by doctors until believed when supported by a spouse.

Woman’s chronic pain dismissed by doctors until her husband confirms it, highlighting issues with medical disbelief of women’s symptoms.

Comment expressing support for a woman’s chronic pain being dismissed by doctors until her husband validates it.

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