Doctorsare supposed to be the experts we turn to when we need help, right? But sometimes, even the pros say things that make us raise an eyebrow—or two.So when a curiousQuorauser asked, “What is the most ignorant thing you’ve ever heard from a medical doctor?” people jumped in with their stories. From surprisingly judgmental remarks to outdated advice, these responses will likely leave you shaking your head in disbelief.This post may includeaffiliate links.
Doctorsare supposed to be the experts we turn to when we need help, right? But sometimes, even the pros say things that make us raise an eyebrow—or two.
So when a curiousQuorauser asked, “What is the most ignorant thing you’ve ever heard from a medical doctor?” people jumped in with their stories. From surprisingly judgmental remarks to outdated advice, these responses will likely leave you shaking your head in disbelief.
This post may includeaffiliate links.
RELATED:
That my mammogram showed no signs of tumor. I read the report, and each breast had the exact same description. The doctor had written the same report about both sides of my breasts. I got a sonogram and my right had three malignant tumors that had spread to my lymph system. I was in stage 3. After chemo, surgery, radiation, and nightly meds, I’m going strong.
Not me but my cousin. “Your period can’t hurt that badly”. She then went on to years and years of painful almost debilitating periods. They were so bad and she thought it was normal…well almost normal. She knew it was not as bad for other girls but was convinced it was just a bad case of cramps every month. Finally as an adult a friend convinced her to see their gynecologist and that one ordered an ultrasound. This doctor sent her to HER doctor who performed the ultrasound and said you’re not going home today we’re performing surgery ASAP.Turns out she had 8 pounds of dermoids in her uterus and some even had teeth and hair. If they had kept growing her uterus could have burst and k**led her. But because one doctor brushed off her symptoms and never really did anything about it she almost died. If they had been discovered earlier there were things they would have known to look out for and she would have had less health issues related to uterine health. Eventually she had an hysterectomy at 28 and that stemmed partially from this doctor ignoring her initial complaint.Unfortunately it seems epidemic that doctors more frequently brush off women’s complaints about their pain and isn’t that a sad medical fact.
I probably could write a book on the failings of the medical community in my care. I will stick with this: while fighting breast cancer, and simultaneously suffering with fibromyalgia, I had kidney stones for good measure. Imagine the pain you would be in? I was given toradol.Not treating patient’s pain has been the most ignorant abuse of power I have seen, and I have seen it over and over in my care. 3 oncologists refused pain meds for me after my chemo regimen changed. I was still getting bags of drgs, but these weren’t the kind that your hair falls out anymore. It caused sores all over my arms. It caused pain in my joints and hands.I woke up from my cancer surgeries screaming, shaking from inadequate pain meds. Choosing to treat all humans like drg addicts is the most ignorant s**t I have seen.
My Baba’s, (Ukrainian grandmother), doctor told her on a routine check-up to stop eating sour cream; stick to white chicken meat, not thighs; switch from rye bread to whole wheat and avoid anything pickled like herring and beets because they were all bad for her health.She was 87 years old and told him she’d already buried 3 doctors, she’d bury him too but promised to switch to light sour cream.
My daughter was just at that age where she had begun menstruationand she wasn’t doing well. She was very pale, bruised easily, was tired all of the time; classic anemia. I took her to the doctor at the local Air Force base (my husband was army worth a local posting). The brilliant doctor that saw her, after getting a lost off symptoms, and without a single blood test, pronounced her to be a “troubled teen”. He tried unconscionably hard to pressure me into having her committed to an institution. I was dumb founded!After seeing a second doctor, out of pocket, he actually tested her, but before the results were in, he said that it was a “classic severe case” of anemia and that she would have been in great danger had she remained untreated. The results proved that to be true. He prescribed a certain kind of iron and as long as she took it she was as good as new.And for those that wonder why I didn’t just buy iron supplements and call it a day, her symptoms seemed very extreme to me, though classic. Better to check and be sure.
When my daughter was 4 I took her for her yearly check-up. I stated she was still peeing at night so I was putting her in pull-ups. The doctor said the reason she was still peeing at night was because of the pull-ups and that I should immediately stop using them. I felt like I was a horrible mom so for the next year, multiple times a week she would wake me up because of a wet bed, I would help her change, strip her bed and remake it. Some nights I would just make her a bed on the floor. I was exhausted and cranky because I also had a newborn waking me up at night and I was not always patient with her. A year later I went to a different doctor and told her of our dilemma, she simply stated why aren’t you just using pull-ups? ARGGG After that we all slept through the night and life was so much sweeter. She did thankfully grow out of it at age 8.
I had just changed primary care doctors several years ago and had to see this new doctor for the first time, can’t remember what for but probably a sinus infection or something equally simple and treatable. Since it was my first time meeting him, he was making conversation and asked if I had any children. I said not yet, and that my husband and I were looking at possibly adopting. He asked if there were medical issues that made adoption necessary. I said no, it was just something that I knew would always be an option for us. He told me, “If you can have your own biological children, don’t adopt. You won’t form the same kind of bonds with an adopted child that you will with your own.” A nurse was in the room at the time and she jumped in before I could even begin to respond. She more or less chewed out this doctor! I was in 100% agreement with her… she said something like, “Why would you assume that? I know lots of people who have both adopted and had biological children.” He actually tried to argue with her. He said, “But I bet if you got them to be totally honest, they would tell you that they are closer to their biological children.” I was witnessing a heated exchange between nurse and doctor, and completely siding with the nurse who put him in his place for expressing his opinions about something I had not asked him about. Neither one of them backed down. I suspect they continued to have words after I left; thankfully I had already gotten what I needed from the appointment. And, thankfully I didn’t listen to him. My husband and I went on to have two biological children and we adopted one child. And I can very confidently say that we love all three of them with all our hearts. Each one is very different. And for that, I am thrilled and grateful.
It was actually three different Gynecologist. I was in my late 20s, I hadn’t a period in years, I had morning sickness everyday and hot flashes. I had other symptoms, that could’ve just past off as no big deal, but still they were symptoms. Each Gynecologist said, “…there is nothing wrong with you, it is all in your head.”Finally I went to an Endocrinologist that told me WHAT WAS IN MY HEAD! I had a pituitary tumor (benign). These little buggers create a lot of havoc in your body, throughout your life.I got a copy of one of the Gynecologist’s notes on me. He had blood work that proved I had a tumor and he did nothing. Didn’t refer me, or even tell me that something was wrong.
When my son was two going on three years old, I noticed that he was having a lot of nosebleeds for no apparent reason. It was to the point where at any moment throughout the day, I would look at him and he would have blood trickling out of his nose. I also noticed that he had an extreme amount of bruises, including bruises up and down both sides of his spinal column on his back, to the point where I could actually distinguish the location of each vertebrae from the bruises emanating from them. This went on for several months and I became quite alarmed.At his three-year well-child exam, I brought it up to the pediatrician and asked that he have some blood work done. I was, of course, concerned about leukemia. The pediatrician chuckled condescendingly at me and said, “He’s in daycare and he’s three. He’s going to have bruises. I would be worried if he DIDN’T have bruises!” I again mentioned the strange pattern of bruising along his spinal column. She said he was probably crawling under tables and chairs at daycare and getting the bruises from that. Then she said, “He’s probably fine, but if it will make you happy, I will humor you and do some testing. But I am sure it will come back negative.” Humor me?? I couldn’t believe she used that tone with me, a concerned parent. I was beyond infuriated.The blood work was obtained, and that doctor personally called me with the results rather than having a nurse call me, so I knew something was wrong. The doctor still did not apologize to me, though! Thankfully, it wasn’t leukemia. It turned out my son has a bleeding disorder (not hemophilia, but along those lines). He was referred to a pediatric hematologist for treatment . He is now a healthy 18-year-old in his first year of college.I have never forgiven that doctor for her condescending tone that day, and I strongly feel that as a pediatrician, she should know better than to question a mother’s instinct like that. I never questioned my motherly instincts again!! If you are a parent, you know when something is not right with your kid. Trust your gut!! And don’t let any doctor tell you otherwise. They don’t know your child like you do.
I have severe neurological diseases. I was having difficulty opening my mouth. I asked the neurologist if the symptom was the result of my disease. He asked me how far I could open my mouth and commented that it was severely compromised. His next follow up statement was “at least you’ll lose weight”. I was not overweight. He made no further recommendations. Eventually when this progressed a week later it was discovered to be a life threatening reaction to a medication. Wish it was my only bad encounter with the medical profession.
When I was five years old, I developed migraine headaches. My parents took me to a doctor because they were afraid I had a brain tumor, which was a logical concern on their part—most little kids don’t have headaches at all, and I was having attacks once or twice a week where I would vomit and scream and be unable to bear light. Anyway, the doctor looked me over and explained that the problem was that I was an only child, and that if I had a little brother or sister, my headaches would disappear. And he sent me home, where I kept suffering.To this day I’m still not sure what the basis for this “diagnosis” was, although since it was the 1970s and there were still a lot of myths around only children (which weren’t as common then as they are now) he may have thought I was either spoiled and faking for attention, or just neurotic because of my lack of a sibling. I did end up with a younger brother a few years after that, and a younger half-sister much later, but I kept having migraines throughout the rest of my childhood and well into adulthood—I still get them occasionally now in my late 40s.
Went to see a doctor for a persistent sore throat. She looked at my throat, with the little light, and little wooden stick, and ended up her examination with a satisfied “Well, your tonsils aren’t swollen.”I had my tonsils removed when I was 7.
I went to the doctor with a friend of mine who had been diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer. Unfortunately, she had discovered a large lump far too late to do to much about it, at least in the minds of conventional medical circles. She asked the doctor what her chance of survival were and he answered, “I wouldn’t bet a bucketful of bolts on you.”We were both stunned. What a horrible way to tell a patient that they were unlikely to live very long.Only thing that made a difference was the bottle of wine we drank afterwards. We spent lunch maniacally stating, “Not a bucketful of bolts! Not a bucketful of bolts!”Well, Doc, I wouldn’t bet a bucketful of bolts that any of your patients liked you.
My husband suffered from severe stomach pains, light-headedness, and chronic nausea. Went to the E.R. and Dr. Alsaadi immediately prepped him for surgery and removed his gallbladder. The next morning a different Dr came in to check up on him in recovery but my husband was still having the same symptoms. When the new Dr checked the charts he didn’t understand why Alsaadi decided to take the gallbladder when all the tests showed there was nothing wrong with it. Before he was discharged he was diagnosed with diabetes and now that it’s under control all the symptoms went away.
I’ve told this story before. An elderly but very active woman was found to have a lung mass. Biopsy confirmed an aggressive type of lung cancer and she opted for chemotherapy (this was back in the 80s). She was hospitalized for the initial round of chemotherapy. I was in her room when the oncologist, who had a reputation for being hard on patients, came in to discuss the treatment, its side effects and so on. The elderly woman became quite upset and began to cry, saying “I don’t want to die” to which the oncologist replied “We all have to die sometime” instead of keeping his mouth shut. I consider this sort of response to be worse than ignorant.There was only one oncology group available to me - otherwise I would not have used this person.
See Also on Bored Panda
Several things come to mind.A young GP in Israel told me that cats cannot carry rabies and that rabies is a disease of dogs. This is of course not true. Rabies can infect any mammal whatsoever, from mice to elephants. The same piece of human ignorance has cost the life of a young Israeli soldier back in 1997 when his military doctor assured him that rat bites do not pose a risk of rabies. The guy didn’t get a vaccine and died of rabies a month later.I had an infected tooth that ultimately required a root canal, but prompted a display of dentist ignorance along the way. One doc told me that my aching tooth requires plaque removal. Another told me it ached because … 3 months ago I had done a filling on the same jaw without anesthesia. Only the third doc in my doctor-shopping experience understood it’s an infected tooth, prescribed antibiotics (which helped A LOT) and ultimately performed a root canal. In total this parade of stupid dentists cost me about 4 months of horrible tooth pain.The third ignorant doc I met was a US orthopedic surgeon. This guy prescribed me Percocet and Aspirin despite the fact that I am taking citalopram. Percocet with citalopram is not a good idea because of obvious possible psychiatric effects. Also citalopram has some very mild blood-thinning effects and pairing it with a strong blood thinner like aspirin will cause a synergy and bring about blood vessel rupture and internal bleeding. This fact is stated boldly in both citalopram and aspirin dr*g sheets. Needless to say, I refused both prescriptions. This same doc told me you can’t use self-dissolving sutures on feet. This is bulls**t of course: that’s how my first foot surgery was ended — with self-dissolving sutures, saving me another trip to the clinic to remove the threads.
I was having slight vision issues, and with a family history of high blood pressure and glaucoma my primary care doctor referred me to an ophthalmologist to have pictures taken of my retinas for a baseline image for future comparison.Since I was only in my early 30s, the ophthalmologist was curious about what had brought me in. I said that I’d been on a kick to address any and all health issues before they got worse down the road. We had some more chit chat, and the subject of dietary changes came up.Me: … and eventually, I’d like to have another allergy panel done. The one I had as a kid didn’t cover foods, and I’ve grown into issues.Him: Oh really, like what?Me: Well, it turns out I’m allergic to avocados. I’d love a medical evaluation to see if I should carry an EpiPen.Him: Oh, don’t even bother. You don’t want to eat avocados anyway. They’re just full of fat. Terrible for you.o_OThis was around 2010 in the SF Bay Area, arguably the heart of Latest Food Trends, USA. Luckily, I was just there for pics of my eyes. Not sure if I would’ve trusted any other advice he may have given me.
That the biggest problem for our 2.5 year old daughter was her overly worrisome parents. She had bacterial pneumonia.
My answer is not about anything extremely, life-threateningly serious but it does point out the absolute ignorance of a medical doctor in a field in which he was, supposedly, an expert. I am a diabetic whose kidneys are failing and I am, therefore, in dialysis. My access for the blood-cleansing machine is called a fistula. It is where a vein and an artery are grafted together in my left arm and, after a period of time, the fistula requires a fistulagram wherein the fistula is, essentially, roto-rooted and, in my case, a stent is inserted. About 4–5 weeks after the stent was placed I came down with a fever and thought I had the flu. One day, at the end of a dialysis run, I was standing for a blood pressure count when I passed out. At the time I was quite ill and had a fever of 102 but, when you are in dialysis, there are no days off. I collapsed in a heap and wound up in the hospital where it was determined that I was septicemic (bacteria in the blood) with a streptococcus bacterium, a slow growing one that is usually harmlessly found on the skin surface. Now the hospital I was in is in the city of Aberdeen, SD, population roughly 30,000 with a hospital that is somewhat limited in services that it can provide. Therefore I had 4 video teleconferences with a, so called, “expert” in infectious diseases who was located in Sioux Falls, SD. During the 4th of my rather useless teleconferences, the doctor that I was communicating with stated that he was still wondering how the bacteria got into my blood. Then he said, “You know, I think I know how it happened. I think it happened when you fell.” I then told him that at the time I fell I already had a 102 fever and had been sick for about a week. The bacteria were ALREADY in my blood and he should have known that. All he could say was “Oh”. And he was supposedly an expert in infectious diseases. What an absolute waste of time that was! In my opinion it was rather obvious how the bacteria got in my blood BUT the hospital doesn’t want to hear anything about that. I think I received a nosocomial (hospital-sourced) infection when the stent was inserted. The bacteria was of a rather slow-growing variety, would have been introduced at about the time I got the stent and after 4–5 weeks of growth (incubation) they would have started asserting themselves. I got sick 4–5 weeks after the operation and the timing is perfect.
Continue reading with Bored Panda PremiumUnlimited contentAd-free browsingDark modeSubscribe nowAlready a subscriber?Sign In
Continue reading with Bored Panda Premium
Unlimited contentAd-free browsingDark mode
Unlimited content
Ad-free browsing
Dark mode
Subscribe nowAlready a subscriber?Sign In
There was a group of doctors trying to decide if I needed a hysterectomy, since all my symptoms had vanished and perhaps the problem had disappeared and I was fine.I explained to them that I had undergone three months, living abroad, of enormous stress, misery and a traumatic experience after which the symptoms appeared, and then I came home and there had been several months of recovery and healing.The head doctor said dismissively “Your mental state has no relation to the pathology of your uterus.”I assume every woman who has suffered PMS would snort at that.
I had an appointment with a nutritionist. After telling me a bunch of stuff I already knew didn’t work for me, and ignoring the reflex hypoglycemia symptoms I was asking her how to manage, she told me to try dressing up nice for when my husband comes home from work so I’d feel better about myself. Just what I needed from a nutritionist in 2016, marriage advice from 1950. Btw, my husband is a disabled veteran who can’t work and he’d rather see me naked than dressed up when he comes home.
I started getting gran mal seizures (the big ones where you pass out and start shaking) when I was 10. The first doctor we went to told us I started getting seizures because I read to much. He actually wanted me to stop reading. It wasn’t like I was staying up all night reading. I read during the day when I had time and went to bed at 8pm. We never went back.
A friend of mine had a bilateral mastectomy after her DCIS diagnosis. She lives 65 miles southwest of me, so she couldn’t use the hospital system where my breast cancer care team is. At my urging, after my own lumpectomy for IDC (invasive ductal), she went to the hospital in the county seat for a mammogram—it came back abnormal, so she was referred for further imaging to the local gyne center in her exurb. When the radiologist’s P.A. walked in she said, “Sooo…flunked your mammogram, eh?” My friend was so aghast that she walked out and went to the hospital where my husband is on staff and is her cardiologist—halfway between her town and ours. That hospital has an excellent and skillful breast surgeon, to whom my husband referred her.Fast forward to surgery day. In the pre-op roomette, where she was awaiting being rolled in to the E.R., the nurse-navigator asked if either of us had any questions. My friend didn’t, but I did. “I had a lumpectomy and sentinel node biopsy on only one breast, but I’ve been advised that puts me at lifelong risk for lymphedema,” I said, and went on. “I’ve been warned not to use the arm on that side for needles, I.V.s or blood pressure cuffs—even wear a medical ID bracelet that says so. My friend is having a bilateral, including sentinel node biopsies on both sides. So what is she supposed to do when she needs blood drawn, a shot, or her blood pressure taken?”By then, the surgeon had walked in during the Q&A session. “Blood pressure?” she snorted, “Don’t you know they treat lymphedema with compression sleeves, so how could a blood pressure cuff for a few seconds cause it? Don’t worry about it.”When I later told my own lymphedema specialist, he rolled his eyes in disbelief. But then he added, “stands to reason. Guess how much time the average medical school curriculum devotes to the lymphatic system?” I shrugged. “An hour at most. Over the course of four years!” he replied.So sometimes, even among physicians, ignorance is the default.
Back in July I fell, breaking off the radial bone, dislocating the radial bone and breaking my humorous bone. After 6 weeks with metal external fixators , placement of a titanium elbow, casts, and currently a brace, I still have stiffness, and radial hand palsy. The P.A. told me not to worry, they would be able to get me back to work because ‘ As a nurse, all you need is for your thumb and first finger to work,’ I shudder to think that MD’s actually have so little knowledge of the nursing profession.
Here’s a good one.My grandmother went to see a doctor who called her anorexic (she’s not) and the following year a doctor told me to watch my weight because I was a pound overweight (this is glorious because they weighed me in my full winter regalia including the boots, winter coat, and two layers of sweaters). People freak out because I’m actually in danger of being underweight.
When I was 13, I had what is called Ganglion Cysts. It is a round nodule that for me, formed on the joint of my wrists. They were slightly painful to have and occurred from time to time. I had many Doctors call it a “Bible Bump,” because Doctors would just tell you to smash it with a Bible. We had Doctor after Doctor tell us to do this. We tried, but each time the Cysts came back more painful and bigger.Now as it turns out, there’s research from the 70’s that shows that smashing the Cyst might actually make it worse and in fact they go away on their own in most cases or can be operated on.I finally said to the last Doctor we ever went to about this: “We’re not going to keep doing that. Can’t you just drain it?”The Doctor then quickly said, “No. That wouldn’t work.”I said, “Well, why not?”The Doctor then said, “It just doesn’t work that way, you have to smash it with a bible and it will go away.”Then I said, “Well, that doesn’t work. It just comes back worse. Where’s your diploma? I don’t see one anywhere on these walls.”After that, he explained what should have been explained the first time I got the cysts. You can drain it, you can smash it, it will go away and may or not come back. It may even just go away on its own. There really was no point to smash a heavy book on my wrists, but it is one way to treat the problem.I don’t want to put doubt on Doctors. The moral of the story here is clearly that if you are receiving treatment and it isn’t working, focus on communicating your problems better to your Doctor. If that doesn’t help, go to another Doctor.Guess what, those cysts went away on their own. Smashing them with a Bible does one thing, and one thing only, it makes kids fear and hate Doctors and Christianity. Nobody wins.
When my daughter was 13 she would have terrible cramps during her menstrual cycle. I decided to talk to our Primary Care Physician about it. He suggested birth control as the estrogen would relive the cramps. I agreed to try.Well she was on them 2 weeks and turned into a little monster. I took her off them. The physician said that they was “NO WAY” the birth control pill could have that effect on her so quickly. Hmmmm.A couple of months later when we addressed the issue again ( with an OBGYN), we found that my daughter had an ovarian cyst and was put on a very low dose of estrogen. All worked out fine.Apparently the first physician put my 85 pound teenager on a high dose of estrogen.
I live in Ohio but was working in Indiana, only home weekends. I had some emergency female trouble. Got it taken care of in the ER and then had an office appt with a GYN. He was making sure I was up-to-date on my tests and asked me if we have mammograms in Ohio.
Most of the doctors replied that it was Gastritis and gave medicine for gastritis, but actually, they were Gallstones, Kidney stones, Ulcers, etc. That happened about 4–5 times to my close friends.
Modal closeAdd Your Answer!Not your original work?Add sourcePublish
Modal close
Add Your Answer!Not your original work?Add sourcePublish
Not your original work?Add sourcePublish
Not your original work?Add source
Modal closeModal closeOoops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.UploadUploadError occurred when generating embed. Please check link and try again.TwitterRender conversationUse html versionGenerate not embedded versionAdd watermarkInstagramShow Image OnlyHide CaptionCropAdd watermarkFacebookShow Image OnlyAdd watermarkChangeSourceTitleUpdateAdd Image
Modal closeOoops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.UploadUploadError occurred when generating embed. Please check link and try again.TwitterRender conversationUse html versionGenerate not embedded versionAdd watermarkInstagramShow Image OnlyHide CaptionCropAdd watermarkFacebookShow Image OnlyAdd watermarkChangeSourceTitleUpdateAdd Image
Ooops! Your image is too large, maximum file size is 8 MB.
Upload
UploadError occurred when generating embed. Please check link and try again.TwitterRender conversationUse html versionGenerate not embedded versionAdd watermarkInstagramShow Image OnlyHide CaptionCropAdd watermarkFacebookShow Image OnlyAdd watermark
Error occurred when generating embed. Please check link and try again.
TwitterRender conversationUse html versionGenerate not embedded versionAdd watermark
InstagramShow Image OnlyHide CaptionCropAdd watermark
FacebookShow Image OnlyAdd watermark
ChangeSourceTitle
Health
