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.
Research suggests women are often much more likely to be misdiagnosed than men. A 2009 study of patients with heart disease symptoms found 31.3 per cent of middle-aged women “received a mental health condition as the most certain diagnosis”, compared to just 15.6 per cent of their male counterparts. Additionally, a 2020 study found that as many as 75.2 per cent of patients with endometriosis—a painful disorder that affects the tissue of the uterus—had been misdiagnosed after they started experiencing endometriosis symptoms. Among those women, nearly 50 per cent were told they had a “mental health problem”.
I got covid March 2020 and it was basically just a bad cough when I was positive, but like two days after my cough went away I developed some issues with feeling dizzy and weak, but sometimes those feelings were a lot stronger than other times. When it was really bad it would feel like I was about to pass out soon. The fact that my symptoms weren’t visible to others and that the tests showed I should be healthy made it easy for doctors to dismiss, and it was absolutely miserable. On my better days I would feel like a crazy person and ask myself if I’d been imagining the whole thing.
I’ve almost entirely recovered from the long covid, but mentally I’m still messed up from that experience. I feel pretty confident that I was not a hypochondriac in February 2020, but now I freak out over every stupid thing. If I feel some sort of pain and the cause isn’t outwardly visible, I go through an extensive mental dialogue over whether I’m imagining it. At one point I had a reaction to a new medicine and I waited months to tell the doctor because I couldn’t tell if it was in my head, while I was freaking out a little every time I thought about it. I really believe that I didn’t used to be like this.
Being treated like this can add a lot on top of already existing misery. I know doctors are people too, and they don’t have to believe me, but I wish they would have had the respect to pretend that they do.