Hi, I'm Stevie. And today I'm gonna diagnose healthcare.
So, this video is gonna have two parts.
First one, I'm going to give you examples
and prove to you that
doctors are in fact d*ckheads.
Do*che salads.
Murderers, what-have-you?
And then the second part of the video, I'm going to give you five things that you can do
as a person who has one or more marginalized identities to help you get
the health care that you are owed.
Here's the timestamp you can skip to if you're
just looking for advice on how to navigate an abusive healthcare system.
You're still here?
Great.
So, I'm not saying that all doctors are d*ckheads all of the time.
Just to be clear.
(#notalldoctors).
Not only is so much of what we know about medicine and healthcare
deeply rooted in white supremacy,
but unfortunately, growing up in the culture that we grow up in,
everyone is socially conditioned to believe certain things about themselves and others.
These conditioned beliefs are called implicit bias.
And because our society is
especially racist transphobic sexist homophobic and a bunch of other obics in
turn our doctors end up having those same implicit biases.
These beliefs are
dangerous for anyone in any profession. But in a profession where people's lives
are literally in your hands, it can be the difference between life and death.
So. exactly who is affected by all of this? Well, if you're one of the people
that are, you probably already know. But let's just go through it just for
funsies.
Discrimination against women in medicine.
Misogyny and medicine has
existed probably since before bloodletting was in style. in fact,
periods were called bloodletting until the early 90s. That's a joke.
I think.
The Romans thought female hysteria was caused by horniness.
Greeks thought the uterus would dry up and move around the body to get more moisture and
the supposed cure for what ails ya? Why marriage and motherhood of course!
After all, who needs penicillin when you have p*nis-illin....
Until the 1920s, hysteria was
treated by inserting vibrators into patients.
And in 1988, hysteria was renamed to conversion disorder.
So, conversion
disorder hypochondria functional neurological disorder and fibromyalgia,
those diagnoses are things that doctors use to avoid having to have a thorough
examination of their patients and their symptoms.
Particularly for women.
That is not to say that all of those are not legitimate and real diagnoses.
They are.
But they are also common diagnoses doctors just throw out a patient when
they don't actually know what's going on and don't want to press on any further.
Looking for the easy road out. But you know what's an even easier road out?
The doctor's listening, clutching your Penn State medical degree close to your heart
and saying,I don't know what's wrong.
Here's another person you can talk to
that is a specialist that might be able to help.
Discrimination against people of
color in medicine.
There is a long horrifying history of testing and
experimenting on people of color. Mutilation torture and violent body
horror has been done all in the name of medicine. I'll put a link down below to a
book called medical apartheid that you can read to educate yourself if you're
not aware. Because I'm not gonna go into detail because we're not gonna trigger
people of color today in this video. So an immense history of racism in this
country and particularly in healthcare has led to patients of color not being
believed when they are sick or in pain. In a survey in 2016,
40% of first and second-year medical students endorse racist beliefs such as
black people's nerve endings are less sensitive than white people's. Black
people's skin is thicker than white people's and that black people's blood
coagulates more quickly than white people's. Hopefully during the residency
students got to work in the don't be a f*ckin *sshole, *sshole unit.
But I'm not optimistic.
By the way the don't be an goddamn *sshole unit is called
this for short. So look into it. People of color are fetishized and hyper
sexualized based on the color of their skin and stereotypes that frame their
bodies as less than their white counterparts.
While these biases often go unspoken, there are videos of doctors readily at
that they don't take black women seriously when they're in pain or that
they prescribe fewer pain prescriptions to black people because they think that
they're lying or will abuse the pain meds or that they don't need them at all
people of color are often forced to learn how certain symptoms present on
their bodies because medical textbooks only show how symptoms present on white
bodies symptoms can and do present differently on dark skin than they do on
white skin if entire classes of future medical professionals are being taught
with racist ideas or even without people of color in mind the cycle of
mistreatment will inevitably continue there are so many recent textbooks and
seeing how recent they are really shows that the that racist ideals are going to
be reinforced and continued discrimination against queer people in
medicine considering that being gay or transgender was considered a disease
until terrifyingly recently it is no surprise that queer people are heavily
discriminated against in medicine the World Health Organization only declared
being transgender as not a mental illness in 2019 homosexuality was
removed as a disease from the DSM in 1973 and the ICD in 1992 but prejudices
are alive and well during the AIDS crisis in the 80s barely anything was
done to support those affected and this was directly because of the homophobia
ingrained in politicians medical professionals and the general public
people believed that aids only affected gay men and therefore it wasn't worth
their time repeat after me everyone Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan f*ck Ronald Reagan that felt good body would feel even better if
hundreds of thousands of people in my community weren't discriminated against
by skin bigoted do salads but I'll say Ronald Reagan over and over again in the
meantime even today many medical professionals have no idea how to
interact with queer people we're asked if we're s*xually active meaning do you
have a v*gina and are you a p*nis inside of it I don't know how
straight s*x works a doctor once wrote under form of birth control in my
medical chart LGBT I love being a lesbian and gay and bisexual and
transgender because it helps me prevent unwanted pregnancy trans people can
search for years or decades to find one doctor who doesn't just negate their
entire existence apparently it can be a lot to ask a medical professional to not
use damaging incorrect or harmful language or to understand your body
there's also the constant use of male and female as the only two options in
countless studies and textbooks and just even the conformed that you fill out to
go and see a doctor when questions could easily be rephrased to help foster an
environment where no one is left behind sweeping generalizations about gender
are not only triggering to trans people but also detrimental to the medical
process itself in 2015 80 % of first-year medical students expressed
implicit bias against gay and lesbian people and fifty percent expressed
explicit bias against them healthcare discrimination against lgbtq+ people can
result in people putting off going to the doctor or withholding important
information in fear of being treated differently I'm so mad alright let me
just repeat my daily affirmation really quick Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Ronald
Reagan discrimination against fat people in medicine the discrimination against
women's health issues is similar to people who have fat bodies instead of
I'm sorry your lady brain is making your organs have cat fights with each other
and it's making you think you feel like your appendix is bursting but I have a
gig he's game to go to at 7:00 so I'm pretty sure you just have a cold fat
people get um you to see to lose weight have you considered baseball I have a
game at 7:00 so get out of my office body mass index or BMI is calculated by
taking someone's height and someone's weight and then putting it into a thing
and then it gives you a number it's also an incredibly inaccurate measurement of
body fat content and it doesn't take into account muscle mass
bone density overall body composition and race and gender differences so not
only is BMI just getting wrong it's just it's just wrong people have a BMI of 30
or higher can expect to pay more each month for their health insurance and
their life insurance health insurance for obese people cost 25 to 50 percent
more than coverage for people with a BMI below 30 so even though it's again wrong
and inaccurate it is being used to discriminate against people it was even
used in the Wii Fit who is that we fit board to be judging me anyway all it
does is get stood on not trying to kink shame but find a new hobby with this in
mind the word obese doesn't actually make any sense a perfectly healthy
person could be considered obese according to their BMI but also not to
mention that unhealthy people deserve medical care too even if someone's BMI
means that they're unhealthy which we just found out it doesn't even if it did
why would that mean that they're not entitled to you actually investigating
their symptoms a lot of the time fat people are told that they need to change
their size before they're even examined for anything else weight bias is so
common in the medical industry and doctors have a tendency to miss diagnose
eating disorders because they have an idea of what people's bodies are
supposed to look like when someone has one eating disorders are the single most
deadly mental illness so while these biases are wildly emotionally and
psychologically damaging they also literally cost lives
and surprise doctors can actually pretend that telling you to lose weight
or gain weight to get to a healthy BMI in my experience is treatment and charge
your insurance for it hey you need to gain or lose weight here's your bill
people in health care have to unlearn this because this work is the difference
between life and death discrimination against mentally ill and
disabled people in health care some cite good news is that in
in years doctors are beginning to take mental health more seriously but with
that being said many many medical professionals do not understand how
mental health plays a role in physical health and vice versa for example
someone who weighs a certain amount or has a certain BMI might be told to lose
some weight like I just said earlier but if they have an eating disorder being
told to lose some weight only does psychological damage and does nothing to
get to addressing the actual problem those diagnosed with somewhat rarer
mental illnesses like BPD or bipolar or schizophrenia find it a lot harder to
get diagnosed or treated by a general practitioner or even referred to a
specialist that can help by the way rare doesn't necessarily mean bad rare
Pokemon are the best Pokemon just look at your brain as a pokemon your brain is
legendary people these are horrific and deadly stats if you are a person who
belongs to one of these identities but if you have intersections of them it can
be near impossible to get medical care also I kept getting diagnosed with
mental health diagnoses when I was going to doctors who do not special and mental
health they don't specialize in it oh you have
headaches every day you must have depression stamp like what the f*ck is
going on so the beginning of this video I said I was gonna diagnose healthcare
and I am diagnosing it with I'm not qualified to diagnose but neither were
most of the doctors that talked to me so I'm diagnosing healthcare with a serious
case of lethal implicit biases I'm afraid the only treatment option is
complete and total reform okay high five steps to help you take control over your
treatment and care now that we've gone over just some of the ways that
marginalized people are neglected in medicine here are five pieces of advice
from your resident queer disabled woman on how to get the care you actually need
so my number one absolute life changing changed everything for me tip is don't
go to the doctor alone bring a friend or family member not only is comforting if
you've had medical trauma but also they can provide backup if your doctor tries
to discredit you or doesn't believe your symptoms in those moments having someone
who has witnessed what you're talking about
and willing to stand up for you means everything and be
sure to talk to others about your symptoms why do I know that you may be
experiencing something you think is completely normal but it is something
that you should definitely be bringing up at your appointment
number two is keep track of your symptoms I can't remember some people
think that is due to trauma
so document your symptoms if you can make a cute little pocket notebook where
you document your poop anyone who steals your purse will be in for a fun surprise
three record your appointments or take notes for later
so that you can review it when you have more time or energy especially do this
if you think that they might be talking over you or they might be using
terminology that you don't understand which for me is both I don't know what
the hell they're talking about but I can google it later if I record it ask for
copies of your records ask for copies of your test results and ask for copies of
any imaging that they do whether that be an ultrasound or an x-ray if you feel
like something is off specifically look at the diagnosis codes on your chart to
make sure that the things they're actually diagnosing you with match what
they're saying to your face I have made that mistake in the past then compare
all of that to your insurance statement to see that that is what is actually
being billed for just saying you can find out all kinds of shit that way
number four I think this one is the most important I might have said that about
everything else but this one is the most important if you are struggling to get
them to take you seriously and this is like a last resort or just like just do
it all the time maybe I don't know maybe I should start doing this every single
appointment this is what actually got me my diagnosis or my referral to actually
get diagnosed ask them to write it in your file when you've brought some
concerns to them and they brush it off here's an example um hi doctor douchebag
I would like you to write it in my chart that I have come to you with the
sensation that my stomach is exploding and you have just told me it's a it's a
case of the owies could you give me a copy of that after you put it in my
chart oh also can you write that you haven't done any physical examinations
or testing or giving me any referrals to a to a stomach explosion specialist at
best they will feel challenged enough to should we do something about your
stomach exploding and at worst you will have some kind of record of how you've
been treated so far unfortunately sometimes to get adequate care doctors
need to feel like you're not gonna let them push you around it Kim sucks but
sometimes you have to be a pain to get doctors to acknowledge your pain
apparently you have to cause them pain for them to be like oh maybe maybe you
are having headaches so five if they're dismissing your concerns don't be afraid
to ask for someone else and I know that depending on where you are in the world
and what insurance you have you might not be able to go to someone else but
you may be able to find patient advocate services through your insurance the
internet is also a great resource the Internet is also a great resource before
you go and visit certain medical professionals I used something called
Zach dot-com back in the day I'm not sure if that still exists or is accurate
take online reviews with a grain of salt but if you're constantly seeing you know
slightly negative reviews on a doctor's review site or Google or whatever and
chances are you should avoid them there's no foolproof way to know if a
doctor is a good doctor before you go and see them obviously but I feel like
if you are able to see how many reviews they have developed by kind of my idea
of what they're like before you go in even if they are a doctor that has every
implicit bias under the Sun at least you'll be prepared because as someone
who is marginalized going to the doctor and asking for help could be something
that easily could reach Ramat eyes you I get it it's extremely vulnerable so it's
important to have plans and expectations and even if you've done all of those
things and you get frustrated just repeat my own mantra
Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan Ronald Reagan I don't know if that'll help you
get care but it might help you feel better on the inside so last time I made
a video about this we got a hashtag doctors or heads trending so this time
let's get hashtag doctors are douche salads so use that hashtag and tell me
your experience of being marginalized in a doctor's office I would love to hear
it and all the doctors that are watching this that don't believe me click all the
links in the description and go to that hashtag and see for yourself in the end
believe and what you're feeling know that your symptoms are real and
stand up for yourself a doctor can tell you a diagnosis but a
doctor cannot tell you what you're feeling they may have had a certain
amount of years of medical experience but they have had zero years of
experience living inside of your body and this one took me a really long time
to learn / believe but you are worthy of being cared for medicine isn't only for
the rich sometimes we have to fight for what we Road thank you so much for
watching this Prize season I will be donating my Adsense to the okra project
you can find info about them in the description if you would like to make an
additional donation and if you want to join my patreon family to help me
continue making videos like this click the description enjoy my patreon family
thanks to these wonderful babes for continuing to support me I love all of
you