My husband, after recently starting with the same symptoms, went to our GP. My Hubby presented to him with the EXACT same symptoms as me. Joint aches, major fatigue, heart palps, tight/squeezing chest, shortness of breath, dry cough, etc.

The GP, even after knowing my history, diagnosed him with pleurisy. Chest x-ray everything ok! Perfect specimin, if I do say so myself!

1. He did however get doxy - I think the GP is catching on. Along with an inhaler and prednisone, which now I KNOW he should not take.

2. I think maybe I focused more on heart palps and hubby focused more on chest pains? And the doctor took that cue?

3. In a way this might be good that I was the "depressed" one first because my H could have been on prednisone and getting worse.

Not only are we fighting against proper treatment for lyme, but as women, against the pre-disposed opinions of the medical world, who want to fit us neatly into the mental health category; depression.

Though I tend to see it even with my children - the boy may have the same symptoms as the girl and the boy gets much more of a work up than the girl. Hers are somatic or she is copying her mom.

Kara: Funny, not! I am the one who researched all this and made all the mistakes; dealt with drs., etc. Pay and organize all the medical bills to those doctors.

My husbands like "erlicky what" "babooneoisis what"? I basically have to tell him how to go about getting treated - which he is happy to relinquish to me.

Doctors should take better care of the "caregivers of the world"

Seriously, ladies and germs, women are much more in tune with their own bodies. Probably stems from hauling the little papooses around for 9 months.

Men, on the other hand................would sever their leg in a chainsaw accident, and grudgingly go to get a couple of stitches to fix er' up............and then would fantasize about doing the female paramedic on the way to the hospital.

What can I say, we're nutso ! I think the old stereotype holds, that men only go as a last resort, if they can't "shake it". Sooooo, they must "really" be sick ! We are.

Psychologically.

Women of course, will go at the drop of a hat, because they go in the early stages, before they sever all the way through with the chainsaw...........and of course they want to check out the doc to see if he's "marrying" material, for their daughters.

Societally (sp)?:

A woman is always expecting that she needs to be better than she may be, so physically understand when they dont feel well and know/care enough to do something about it.

A man thinks he's pretty good already and doesn't aspire to be any better. When they feel sick, then their life is over, they're dying... wah, wah, wah.

I also feel that the man can't accept the female partner's weakness. It's like driving a used car with square tires. They want you to be there to take care of them like mom used to.

Wish I could remember where I read this...

Just goes to show...You guys shouldn't just try to "tough it out", that isn't always the smartest thing to do....but then again...that brings us back to the fact that...(what cave76 added)...They also would probably get lost on the way to the hospital because "they wouldn't ask for directions". !

For so many years, medical research was also done primarily on white men. That means that doctors simply know more about the male body and the impact of drugs on the male body. And, it's even limited by race.

Women react differant to medications, so do people of differant races.

Here is an excellent new article just out, dealing with medical misogyny, by ILADS Dr Virginia Sherr:

Med Hypotheses. 2005 May 27; [Epub ahead of print] Related Articles, Links

Munchausen's syndrome by proxy and Lyme disease: Medical misogyny or diagnostic mystery?

Sherr VT.

47 Crescent Drive, Holland, PA 18966-2105, USA.

Chronic, tertiary Lyme disease, a vector-borne infection most accurately designated neuroborreliosis, is often misdiagnosed.

Infectors of the human brain, Lyme borrelial spirochetes are neurotropic, similar to the spirochetes of syphilis. Symptoms of either disease may be stable and persistent, transient and inconsistent or severe yet fleeting.

Characteristics may be incompatible with established knowledge of neurological dermatomes, appearing to conventional medical eyes as anatomically impossible, thus creating confusion for doctors, parents and child patients.

Physicians unfamiliar with Lyme patients' shifting, seemingly vague, emotional, and/or bizarre-sounding complaints, frequently know little about late-stage spirochetal disease. Consequently, they may accuse mothers of fabricating their children's symptoms - the so-called Munchausen's by proxy (MBP) "diagnoses."

Women, following ancient losses of feminine authority in provinces of religion, ethics, and healing - disciplines comprising known fields of early medicine, have been scapegoated throughout history. In the Middle Ages, women considered potentially weak-minded devil's apprentices became victims of witch-hunts throughout Europe and America. Millions of women were burned alive at the stake.

Modern medicine's tendency to trivialize women's "offbeat" concerns and the fact that today's hurried physicians of both genders tend to seek easy panaceas, frequently result in the misogyny of mother-devaluation, especially by doctors who are spirochetally naive. These factors, when involving cases of cryptic neuroborreliosis, may lead to accusations of MBP.

Thousands of children, sick from complex diseases, have been forcibly removed from mothers who insist, contrary to customary evaluations, that their children are ill.

The charges against these mothers relate to the idea they believe their children sick to satisfy warped internal agendas of their own. "MBP mothers" are then vilified, frequently jailed and publicly shamed for the "sins" of advocating for their children.

In actuality, many such cases involve an unrecognized Lyme borreliosis causation that mothers may insist is valid despite negative tests.

Doctors who have utilized MBP tactics against mothers are likely to be unaware that in advanced borreliosis, seronegativity is often the rule, a principle disagreed upon by its two extant, published, peer-reviewed, Standards of Care. These are guidelines for Lyme disease management - the older system questioning the existence of persistent Lyme and the newer system relying on established clinical criteria.

Mothers must be free to obtain the family's preferred medical care by choosing between physicians practicing within either system without fear of reprisal. Doctors and mothers together may then explore medical options with renewed mutual respect toward the best interest of children's health.

PMID: 15925450 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

He wants me to see a nutritionist he works with.

My husband needs to lose at least as much weight as me.

The same LLMD will not bring up my husband's weight at all. Does not tell him to lose weight, does not ask him if he's lost any weight, does not tell him that he needs to see the nutritionist...

Why, OF COURSE IT IS, darling!

hahahahaha!

I know it's not really a laughing matter, but I'd rather laugh hysterically and inappropriately than to cry - because if I CRY -that just means my hormones are messed up because I'm an overly-sensitive WOMAN! Gag)

The only time I generally have penis envy is when I see a doc for the first time, and right after Thanksgiving dinner when the 'boys' retire in front of the TV with their hands down their pants - and the 'women' get to clean up!

When I had five teeth surgically removed, the dentist told me to take Tylenol for the pain.
Several years later, my husband went to the SAME oral surgeon to have wisdom teeth removed, and the doc gave him a prescription for narcotics for pain relief.
Sheesh.....