Are You Being Heard By Your OBGYN

Are You Being Heard By Your OBGYN?

Have you ever felt like your conversations with your doctor are a little one-sided? Once you spill your heart about your symptoms, your doctor usually takes over and tells you what they think and what to do next. I know a lot of women who accept whatever their doctor says at face value. After all, they spent nine years in med school and tons more time in practice, so why would you dare to question their professional opinion?

I’ll tell you why: because your health depends on it.

Going Beyond Surface-Level Explanations

Most OBGYNs don’t have deeper level conversations with their patients. This is likely due to several reasons, but if I had to pick a number one, it’s because they’re conditioned to talk to patients in the patient’s language, not doctorspeak. They try to keep it simple so that patients can understand the basics and know what to do next.

Part of the problem also comes from patients not knowing the right questions to ask to initiate deeper-level conversations. You don’t consider yourself an expert in health, so you trust their expertise to tell you what you really need to know and don’t think to ask for more information.

Last but not least, and I feel this personally, we’ve been taught to respect doctors. They go through a lot of studying and training to get where they are. When we question their suggestions or expertise, it can feel like an insult. Even asking questions can sometimes feel like you’re questioning their authority. And truth be told, a lot of doctors just aren’t used to this. 

This is why I was too afraid to speak up with my doctor when I had endometriosis. I had questions I wanted to ask but I didn’t want to risk sounding like I thought I knew more than he did or offending him. I also wasn’t sure if I was asking the right questions because I didn’t feel like I knew enough about my health to have an effective conversation. 

After going through endometriosis, I realized that I was only getting a small piece of the conversation in the examining room. My doctor was giving me surface-level explanations, but I think I could have gotten more from my visits with him if I’d known how to talk to him. 

How to Feel Empowered in the Examining Room

I was never taught about hormones at the sex-ed level (most of us weren’t), and I didn’t understand the role they played in reproductive health and other functions. I also didn’t realize that health is holistic and symptoms can be connected, even when they don’t seem that way on the surface. 

Through my experience with endometriosis and trying to get my hormones back on track, I found that conversations with doctors became much easier once I learned more about how my body works. I started feeling more knowledgeable in the examining room about what I was experiencing and felt like I could ask questions without sounding like I was challenging the doctor’s expertise. It really made all the difference in my approach to taking control of my own health.

If you want to have more effective conversations with your OBGYN, the Cycle Solution is for you. Inside, we talk about holistic health at the hormone level and cover the things you weren’t taught in sex ed about how your body works, and most importantly, what you can do to work with your hormones for better overall health. Check out the Cycle Solution course today!