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I can't deny the conclusion, and I agree that men are socialized to not show weakness ("macho"), but for me, I tend to avoid going to the doctor because, as a general rule, it rarely helps and it always costs money. (macho-ness may make more sensitive to that, hard to really know) I was very sickly as a child. Every doctor's visit did nothing to change this (it wasn't even "Hmm, you have a trend", it was "oh, you have a cold/bonchitis/etc.) It wasn't until I was 30 that I learned I was allergic to pollen, molds, dustmites, cats, dogs, and rats - basically everything that won't kill you (no food allergies I've nailed down) - and that discovery was made when my symptoms suddenly got dramatically worse for months, and I pinned down the only three things that had changed in that time and went to an allergist myself. Each winter for several years since then I would get bronchitis, and the coughing and shortness of breath would last for months. Every doctor told me to take some Delsym and wait 4-8 weeks. I eventually pieced together that this is my allergies (which, while treated, aren't gone) draining into lungs overnight and slowly being coughed up during the day. Some anti-inflammatory treatment that is now legal in Washington turns out to have stopped that for the last few winters. I've had two rounds of kidney stones in the last 5 years (each involving at least two stones, because apparently the inflammation from a kidney stone tends to "shake more loose") - Doctors couldn't do much beyond painmeds and flowmax. (First time though, I had a $1000 CT scan (I think it was CT - I get CT and MRI mixed up) because the doc suggested it.) I had pneumonia once - didn't realize it, it was just a bad cold/cough that got dramatically worse. Calling my doctor for an appt gave me something in 3 days. Day of, I wasn't sure I would be breathing by the time of the appt, so I was going to go to the ER. (which would have been ridiculously expensive). My wife took me to a local urgent care clinic (PatientFirst in VA) because she was worried about the wait time at the ER. They were awesome, saw me immediately as I walked in (they could hear me breathing), did in-house xray of my lungs and o2 sensor. Now that I'm in Seattle, the local clinics work differently - they REALLY want you to have a primary care physician. I recall a doctor there once saying that's because they want someone to coordinate your care, maintain a big picture view, and proactively look into potential issues. I told her I'd never had a PCP do any of those things) I'm not knocking medical science - it's a near impossible job: "Debug this program to which you don't have the source code, can't control or even know all the environment and inputs, and if you crash it someone dies". It's amazing they can do what they can, and in certain circumstances they are responsible for saving and improving a lot of lives (see above having pneumonia). But the reality is that if I went to the doctor every time some part of me hurt (and now that I'm 40, that's a lot of parts) based on my past experiences, I'd just spend a lot of time and money and be not much better off. So I'm all for being cautious on big things like chest pains. I'm all for knowing the warning signs of stroke, heart attack, and the like. But going to the doctor for every little thing? Seems a waste. |