The Problem With ‘Medical Gaslighting’
Amid the rampant Covid-19 pandemic and the newly declared monkeypox global health emergency, it is more important than ever that people–regardless of their race, gender, sexuality, and age–get proper medical diagnosis and treatment. Just when I thought this equal treatment in the medical setting was not an issue, New York Times writer Melinda Wenner Moyer wrote an article about women’s experience with ‘Medical Gaslighting’ which caught my attention and proved me wrong.
‘Medical Gaslighting’, when a patient is dismissed of their medical concerns and misdiagnosed, is disproportionately experienced by women, people of color, geriatric patients, and LGBTQ people, and Moyer’s article shines a light on some of the experiences of people in the group above such as Ms. Cho, a woman who was initially diagnosed with allergies but was later discovered, by a different doctor, to have systemic lupus erythematosus, a disease in which the body slowly attacks its own tissues. Reading about such a severe misdiagnosis struck within me not only fear for my beloved mother and grandmother, but a strong want to make this issue known to a broader audience.
As an Asian teenage boy, I now realize how my identity has made this issue unapparent to me but prevalent to many others, an enlightenment that I believe, if rung true to those who are reading this, may empower us to advocate more for ourselves and our beloved ones who may fall victim to the ever so harmful case of medical gaslighting.
