SUNDAY, APRIL 3 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ RE K C5
enough. We need to learn from
those stories. We need to nag one
another to make those doctor
appointments and, if they prove
disappointing, to seek second
opinions. We need to push for a
medical system that won’t make
people feel hesitant to seek help
and then regretful when they do.
After a week of feeling
miserable, I made an
appointment with my primary
care physician. She conducted a
physical and referred me to a
cardiologist. It took three weeks
to get an appointment, but when
I did, he listened attentively and
eased my worries without
dismissing them. I left his office
without answers but with hope I
would soon get them. Without
me needing to ask, he ordered
several tests.
When I went to schedule the
first one, I found out the soonest
appointment available was April
1 — my birthday. I hesitated and
almost chose one of the slots in
May.
Then I decided I didn’t have to
look at it as something to dread.
I could view it as a gift to myself.during the pandemic. That
means women skipped annual
physicals, routine gynecological
exams, mammograms, dental
visits and more. That means
while they were taking care of
others, they were neglecting
themselves. I was one of those
women. At first, my reason for
avoiding those doctor visits was
that I didn’t want to risk
catching the virus and passing it
to my unvaccinated children. But
then a children’s vaccine became
available, and I still didn’t rush
to catch up on my missed
appointments.
When I found myself
struggling to breathe, I was
forced to consider why I was
hesitant to seek medical help. It
wasn’t because I didn’t have
insurance. I do. It wasn’t because
I didn’t know better. I had just
written a column about heart
health awareness. It was because
I feared that if I wasn’t actually
dying, I would be seen as wasting
the staff’s time.
It is encouraging that women
are sharing their medical
gaslighting stories, but it is notwas benign and easily removed
with surgery. She also had breast
cancer three times. Her first
diagnosis came when I was in
high school, two years after she
noticed a lump and a doctor
suggested she cut back on coffee.
Cut back on coffee. Reduce
your stress. Lose some weight.
Women know those phrases well.
That’s what it sounds like to have
your legitimate health concerns
brushed away.
Not all doctors, of course, do
that. There are many incredible
ones, including the two who took
the time to order those tests for
my mom. But it takes only a few
dismissive doctors to cause
conditions to go undetected and
distrust to grow. There’s a reason
many women of color feel the
need to slip mention of their
education or jobs into
conversations with doctors. That
instinct grows from the hope
that a physician will see you as
worthy of their time and care.
A study by the Kaiser Family
Foundation found that women
were more likely than men to
have gone without health caremedical help.
The New York Times recently
ran an article with the headline
“Women Are Calling Out
‘Medical Gaslighting.’ ” The piece
told the stories of several women
and pointed to studies that
addressed the different ways
women were being failed by
medical professionals. In it,
researcher Karen Lutfey Spencer
is quoted as saying, “We know
that women, and especially
women of color, are often
diagnosed and treated
differently by doctors than men
are, even when they have the
same health conditions.”
Everyone has probably had a
bad experience at a doctor’s
office. But there is a problem
when certain people come to
expect it as the norm, and so
many women I know do.
For years, my mother
complained of abdominal pain
and pressure. Several doctors
ignored her concerns before one
finally ordered the right tests
and discovered she was walking
around with a basketball-sized
tumor on her ovary. Thankfully itreturned to the United States
and saw another doctor. He ran
tests and discovered I had
gallstones. He removed my
gallbladder and, for reasons he
described as precautionary but I
suspect also had to do with
billing, my appendix.
At the time, the term “medical
gaslighting” did not exist. There
was no succinct way to describe
how it felt to sit in front of a
medical professional and have
that person dismiss your
complaints or misdiagnose you.
There was no catchy phrase to
express the frustration of telling
a doctor about physical
symptoms only to have them
suspect the problem was in your
head.
But now, women are using
that phrase “medical
gaslighting” to share those types
of experiences on social media.
And in doing so, they are
creating a growing and
important collection of horror
stories that warrant attention.
From doctors. From medical
researchers. From women who
have grown to dread seekingthe adults who managed the
program. She gave me the name
of a doctor, and I went to see
him.
Within minutes in his office, I
regretted it. He spoke to me in a
condescending way that let me
know he wasn’t convinced
something was wrong. At one
point, he pinched my stomach —
not in the way a doctor does to
check for pain but in the way a
teasing uncle might. Two of my
male friends who were waiting
for me in an adjoining room
heard me giggle uncomfortably. I
felt embarrassed at that
involuntary reaction but more so
at my failure to speak up for
myself. At the end of the visit,
without offering a diagnosis, the
doctor pulled a plastic vial from
his desk and told me to put a few
drops from it in water every time
I found myself in pain. I’m
convinced that vial contained
only sugar. I followed his advice,
and those drops did nothing but
make water taste sweeter.
Several months later, I
VARGAS FROM C1
THERESA VARGAS
There’s a problem when a bad doctor’s o∞ce visit i s expected a s the norm
BY OVETTA WIGGINSDemocratic gubernatorial
candidate Wes Moore on Satur-
day won the coveted endorse-
ment of the state’s largest teach-
ers union, a large boost for the
former nonprofit chief who is
making his first run for public
office.
The support from the Mary-
land State Education Associa-
tion, a 76,000-member union, is
sought after in state Democratic
politics and comes as the crowd-
ed race for the Democratic nomi-
nation begins to intensify.
Union leaders said they were
drawn to Moore’s “personal his-
tory as a Marylander” and his
commitment that aligns with the
union’s goals for a “world class
education for every student.”
“Our students and communi-
ties need leadership committed
to the promise that no matter
their neighborhood they will
have the same opportunity to
reach their potential,” union
president Cheryl Bost said in a
statement. “Wes Moore has dem-
onstrated a commitment to unite
people whom he leads in the
fight for racial, social justice, and
to give educators a voice in the
decisions and policies that affect
education.”The backing from the MSEA is
the latest high-profile endorse-
ment for Moore, who picked up
support from Prince George’s
County Executive Angela D. Also-
brooks (D) last month.
Every Democratic candidate
that has won MSEA’s endorse-
ment in recent memory has won
the party’s nomination, accord-
ing to a union official.
MSEA also threw its support
behind U.S. Rep. Anthony G.
Brown (D-Md.) in his bid for
state attorney general and Del.
Brooke Lierman (D-Baltimore
City) in her race for state comp-
troller.
Moore received 85 percent of
delegates’ votes — well above the
58 percent needed to secure the
endorsement. Brown won 96
percent of the vote in a race
against former judge and first
lady Katie O’Malley, and Lierman
captured 98 percent of delegates’
votes in a primary contest
against Bowie Mayor Tim Ad-
ams.
Eleven Democrats have filed
to succeed term-limited Gov. Lar-
ry Hogan (R). Nine of them
completed the process to obtain
the endorsement and addressed
the union’s assembly Saturday.
The Maryland primary is
scheduled for July 19.MARYLANDMoore wins teachers union’s
support in governor’s race
since we’re all going to be in
town,” Sickles said, adding that it
is possible the special session
will lead to progress on the
dozens of other bills that were
carried over. “There are 40 con-
ference reports out,” he said. “So
something could happen here
and get a bill to the governor’s
desk.”Sen. George L. Barker (D-Fair-
fax), another negotiator, noted
that most of the bills would have
a financial impact on the budget,
so it makes little sense to act on
them until the spending plan is
set. It costs the state nearly
$46,000 every day the General
Assembly is in session, according
to the House and Senate clerks.
Noting the price tag, Sen.
Adam P. Ebbin (D-Alexandria)
said, “I’ll be there Monday, but it
could have all been handled April
27, saving taxpayers a little bit of
money.”the House but not the Senate.
The two chambers were sched-
uled to return for a veto session
on April 27, when members will
consider any of the governor’s
amendments or vetoes of legisla-
tion passed during the regular
session. Some legislators ex-
pressed hope they will be able to
vote on the budget at that meet-
ing, also known as the reconvene
session.
“We have time to put together
a really excellent budget, and I
think the reconvene date is a
really fine target date to look atlocalities.
The differences created a gap
of about $3 billion between the
two spending plans, and negotia-
tors were unable to find a com-
promise before the regular ses-
sion concluded.
Since then, Youngkin has wid-
ened the gulf by calling on the
General Assembly to approve a
“gas tax holiday” of three months
to help consumers suffering from
high prices brought on by infla-
tion and the Russian invasion of
Ukraine. He has found support
for that push among leaders inschedule for meetings on Mon-
day, after the chambers gavel in
and out, said Del. Barry D.
Knight (R-Virginia Beach), chair-
man of the House Appropria-
tions Committee.
“I assume we will gavel out,
and go into recess, and then we
control the timeline,” he said. “I
would imagine we would not
come back until we have a budg-
et,” Knight said.
Del. Mark D. Sickles (D-Fair-
fax), a budget negotiator, called
the Monday session “a little bit of
a waste of time” for a “citizen
legislature” whose members
have to put their day jobs on hold
to come back to the Capitol with
no prospect for passing the budg-
et.
The tax cuts, a campaign focus
for Youngkin last fall, are the
main sticking point. He wants to
double the standard deduction
on personal income taxes and
eliminate state and local taxes on
groceries. The House, led by
Republicans, passed a version of
the budget that would do both.
But the Senate, controlled by
Democrats, wants to take a year
to comprehensively study tax
cuts because of their impact on
revenue over the long term. The
Senate plan would eliminate the
1.5 percent portion of the grocery
tax levied by the state but leave in
place a 1 percent levy that goes to
VIRGINIA FROM C1
Virginia lawmakers set for special session on budget
BOB BROWN/RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) wants the legislature to pass a budget
with tax cuts he campaigned on, but they remain a sticking point.“The budget is still at an
impasse. ... This is a
total waste of time for
legislators.”
Sen. Janet D. Howell (D-Fairfax),
chairwoman of Senate Finance and
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