Getting a diagnosis after two decades of searching for answers is a huge relief, but for KP, it also became a source of deep frustration. After years of being told by doctors that her health issues were simply a result of her weight or the stresses of motherhood, she finally received answers. The catch, however, is that she only secured those answers after bringing her male partner to an appointment. KP, who shares stories of her life on Instagram and TikTok under the handle lifeaccordingtokp, posted about this experience, and the video has since racked up over 880K views. In her post, she captured the intensity of her experience with the caption, “Sure, Im glad to have answers now but if ANYONE had believed me at any point I could have gotten help 20 years ago!!! The rage I feel when I stop and think about it.” During the video, KP explains that she has been dealing with strange symptoms for as long as she can remember. She mentions “crazy ringing in my ears, trouble with my vision, falling down, falling asleep. But not like asleep, like comatose, like while at a stoplight, like crazy things.” Despite constantly bringing it up during medical visits, she claims she was consistently dismissed. “The whole time I’m told, well, yeah, of course that’s happening to you. ‘You’re fat.’” A systemic issue KP noted that when she pushed back, she was dismissed in other ways. It was allegedly attributed to her being tired because she was a mom, or that she was doing too much. She claimed it was “excuse after excuse after excuse to somehow gaslight me into me thinking it’s my problem.” She said it got bad enough that she eventually complained to her husband who didn’t understand it. View this post on Instagram KP told Instagram, “So, my husband’s like, ‘What if I come to the appointment?’ I was like, ‘Okay, whatever. Like you’ll see. You’ll see.’” At the appointment, she claimed that the doctor made an “asinine” comment, which prompted her husband to speak up for her and support her symptoms. Suddenly, the doctor’s attitude changed. In a different case, a doctor ignored a patient to talk to her husband instead. KP alleged, “The doctor looks and goes, ‘Really? Well, what’s been going on?’” Her husband relayed her symptoms. It then allegedly prompted the doctor to say, “‘We should run some tests. We should do some blood work. We should get an MRI.’ Then KP fumed. “All of a sudden, because this person, who has not been with me on this whole journey has not been, does not know what’s going on, does not know, chimes in. And now,” she said, “Now we know something’s wrong.” It should be noted that this is her perspective and shouldn’t be treated as verifiable fact. The comments section was flooded with women who agreed with her. One user shared, “Every single woman has this experience. Every d*mned one of us.” Others noted the absurdity of the situation, with one writing, “I bring my husband to every single appointment. H*ll, I tell him what I want him to say. I have a medical background. My husband doesn’t. It’s f**king absurd.” Interestingly, a few weeks later, Family Nurse Practitioner Alec Bradbury addressed the same topic, noting “bringing a male to your appointments as a female can actually lead to better care.” In a video that garnered over 2.5 million views, he described a patient who was “wicked smart” and “on top of her care,” yet still struggled to be heard. @alecbradburyfnp Always threading the impossible needle (on top of brain fog, fatigue, pain, etc.) How do you try to present at your appointments? #chronicpain #chronicillness #bias #stigma ♬ original sound – Alec Bradbury, FNP He admitted that advising patients to bring a male partner “felt really gross.” However, he felt it was necessary to be honest about the reality of the healthcare system. Bradbury emphasized the need for providers to recognize their own biases. He stated, “It’s not an issue that exists out there, it exists in here.” Bradbury had a message for the healthcare industry. He noted. “We need to take patient concerns seriously so that we can unmask these biases, help providers grow and provide equitable care for our patients.” The data supports these personal accounts. As noted by Dr. Thaïs Aliabadi, historically, the medical field has relied on flawed stereotypes, such as the archaic concept of “hysteria,” which once attributed women’s symptoms to their uterus. Even today, the American Autoimmune Related Disease Association reports that 40% of women with autoimmune conditions are told they are simply complainers or hypochondriacs. She also noted that the exclusion of women from clinical trials until relatively recently has left a gap in our understanding of female biology. As a result, it can take years longer for women to receive accurate diagnoses for conditions like cancer or diabetes compared to men.