Medical gaslighting is an issue that has affected Canadians from coast to coast.
It can be described as the experience of being disbelieved, not taken seriously, and dismissed by medical providers – with many health issues being reduced to weight, hormones or mental health problems.
Studies have shown this issue affects woman and minorities the most, but is not limited to those groups.
We talked to people across the country to showcase how widespread this issue is and what sort of impacts it has.
British Columbia:
Eileen Davidson, from Burnaby, B.C., has experienced medical gaslighting many times in her life, with it preventing her accessing a proper diagnosis for years causing damage to her body from her untreated Rheumatoid arthritis.
“I don’t think there is any patient with a chronic condition who has not experienced medical gaslighting in one degree to another.”
She added her experiences have affected her outlook on herself.
“It creates a lot of internal ableism,” said Davidson, adding the experiences she has had have “made (her) very unconfident on how to speak to doctors or how to take their advice or how to communicate with them, or especially how to advocate for (herself).”
Alberta:
Angela and Dion Tarkowski from St. Albert Alberta shared Angela’s story with a brain bleed that was ignored and almost killed her.
The Tarkowskis went into the hospital for four days in a row for Angela’s debilitating head pain – where she was labelled a drug seeker and was refused proper treatment or testing.
Dion decided to take matters into his own hands to try and prevent the worst.
“I made the decision that (the hospital was) not going to kill my wife.”
He took Angela to a different hospital in the area — where he was told he did save her life.
“They told me that had I waited 24 more hours, my wife would have been dead.”
The situation has caused a lot of distrust in the medical system for the Tarkowskis.
“It really made me, you know, doubt the medical system,” said Angela.
She added that she often will refuse to seek treatment.
“I’ll just sort of dismiss it and push it down until it’s to a point where I have to like, it’s really, really serious.”
Another woman, Jocelyn Ivanauskas from Calgary, shares a similar story in which she had to go through years of pain and lack of mobility in her jaw because doctors refused to believe the issue was more than muscular.
“I felt like I was drowning. I couldn’t breathe. No one was believing me,” said Ivanauskas.
“I was gaslighting myself at times. Like maybe I’m just crazy. Maybe this is just normal and it’s not a problem.”
She added that she often didn’t know where to turn.
“I went a big period of time where I just didn’t know what to do, didn’t know who to talk to, because everybody was just saying, I don’t know, nothing’s wrong with you.”
Once she finally got her diagnosis and treatment plan after three years, she and her boyfriend “just started bawling” because she finally felt heard.
Saskatchewan:
Morgana Scully, from Saskatoon, has experienced medical gaslighting for most of her life.
Examples have included “being told that it’s just anxiety, it’s just menstrual symptoms. It’s just something to do with us being female.”
She added that “every single thing I’ve been told [by doctors], I’ve had to fight against.”
She started to question how she can put her trust in a medical system that has failed her so many times.
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“How do I trust my own doctors? How do I trust my surgeons?”
Scully even went around with a broken spine as she was refused testing.
“Doctors need to listen to the patients.”
Scully has started on a path to work in medicine so she can help prevent issues like medical gaslighting.
“If one person has this type of mentality — she’s just a woman, it’s anxiety or it’s just menstrual cramps or pain — that is basically a poison itself. It’s basically a virus in our medical system,” said Scully.
“Where is the critical thought from our doctors and why are they not practicing active care?”
Manitoba:
Monique Curci from Winnipeg shares how she has experienced medical gaslighting more than once – adding that she believes her gender and race to play a part in her being dismissed.
“I’m visibly native. And I get treated very differently when I’m in the medical system,” said Curci. “I feel the color of my skin when I go into appointments.”
Her experiences cause her to avoid medical care to avoid being gaslit.
“You don’t even want to go in. You lose all trust and faith in the medical system”
She adds that she struggles to understand why incidents of medical gaslighting keep occurring when doctors are supposed to have compassion for their patients.
“They’re supposed to be care providers. So, start caring for us.”
Curci adds that collaboration between doctors and patients needs to happen more, and doctors need to be aware of their biases when practicing medicine.
“We could probably get better health care if they would leave their biases and everything at the door.”
Ontario:
Shieron Phillips from Kingston, Ont., says, “It can be anyone. It doesn’t matter about your age or your ethnicity — although ethnicity does play a part in it.”
Phillips says she has experienced medical gaslighting many times in her life.
“I’ve been forced to think about myself and realize that no one else is going to take care of my health but me. I have to be my own advocate.”
Phillips adds that medical gaslighting has caused her to feel “insignificant” and that she “could not believe that someone would speak to (her) that way.”
She added that sometimes, because of her experiences with medical professionals, she gaslights herself.
“I don’t always trust myself. I don’t. To be honest. Because it’s happened to me so many times that I often don’t trust the doctors.”
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Justine Lindsay has a similar story to share from Kitchener, Ont.
“I have experienced so much gaslighting about my own experiences, my own physical body experiences that every time I experience something, I will leave it to the last minute to be able to go see someone, to talk to someone,” she said.
Lindsay adds that “[the doctors] accuse [her] of just lying,” making her scared to seek further treatment.
Lindsay adds that her experience is very common.
“Mostly everybody I know has experienced medical gaslighting at least once in their lives.”
Quebec:
Julie Elliott has experienced medical gaslighting many times in her life, which has caused her to become an advocate for others like her.
“It’s hundreds and thousands of women,” said Elliott. “When you seek medical care, you should be listened to. You should be properly evaluated. You should be cared for properly.”
Elliott is surprised that these issues continue to happen.
“I thought that were in 2024 or 2025. It’s not supposed to happen anymore,” said Elliott. “[Doctors] cannot explain everything with the fact that you’re a woman.”
She adds that medical gaslighting can lead to death.
“[A doctor] can gaslight someone to death,” said Elliott.
“[If doctors are] not going to supply proper health care [they’re] going to miss some very, you know, deadly diseases because of that gaslighting.”
New Brunswick:
Michelle McLean, from Fredericton, says that in her experience medical gaslighting is “more common than it’s not.”
McLean lost her balance one day and has been unable to get it back with doctors implying that it is her fault she is not getting better, even though they are not providing diagnostics or treatment options.
“I was being accused of kind of like, why can’t you just get over yourself? Or it’s like you’re doing something that’s causing this.”
She said these experiences have caused her to feel like she doesn’t “have a right to find out what’s going on,” which prevents her from actively seeking out further care.
Nova Scotia:
Casandra Huntley, from Aylesford, N.S., has a cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) leak that has been going untreated for almost a year due to the refusal of proper testing for her from her doctors.
“The doctors don’t actually know and don’t actually want to believe in a patient.”
The CSF leak causes her to have to be laying horizontally at every moment she can to prevent extreme pain.
Huntley doesn’t want to keep trying to get proper care because of this experience.
“I feel like there’s no point because they’re not even going to look at me.”
Prince Edward Island, Nunavut, Northwest Territories:
Angela Broughton shares her stories of medical gaslighting from three different places in Canada –Fort Smith, N.W.T., Baker Lake, Nunavut and Charlottetown, P.E.I.
“My health problems started when I was a small child. So, (my experience with medical gaslighting) has gone on for many, many years.”
She added that medical gaslighting is, “a very dangerous, a very dangerous thing.”
Broughton says that getting medical treatment should not be an uphill battle.
“We shouldn’t have to be putting on the boxing gloves before we go to our doctor’s appointment and preparing ourselves for a fight.” Said Broughton.
“[Patients are] up against this great big medical monster, almost.”
Broughton says doctors need to be open to a patient’s experience as they are the experts in what they are going through.
“I think it’s important for a patient to be listened to and not told how they feel.”
Many people we talked to shared it is important for people to advocate for themselves and to listen to their bodies when they feel something is wrong.
Others, meanwhile, remind people that there is a provincial college of physicians and surgeons that patients can reach out to if they feel like the medical gaslighting they are experiencing needs to be addressed.