What to Do When Your Doctor Doesn't Believe You

Most patients who have been dismissed by a doctor leave the appointment wondering if they imagined it. They didn't. Medical gaslighting is real, it is one of the most underacknowledged problems in healthcare today, and it does not end when you walk out of that office. It lives in your chart and shapes how every future doctor sees you before you even open your mouth. In this episode, Dr. Bayo sits down with patient advocate and author Ilana Jacqueline to break down what medical gaslighting actually looks like, why your medical records may already be working against you, and exactly what you can do to get the care you deserve.

Ilana Jacqueline is a patient advocate and the author of two books: Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness and Medical Gaslighting: How to Get the Care You Deserve in a System That Makes You Fight for Your Life. Diagnosed at nineteen with hypogammaglobulinemia, a condition where the immune system fails to produce enough antibodies to fight infection, leaving you looking completely healthy on the outside while your body is fighting constantly on the inside, she has spent years turning her own patient experience into practical tools that any patient or caregiver can use in that exam room.

In this episode you'll learn the four categories of excuses physicians use to avoid treating patients and the specific phrases that signal each one so you can recognize them in real time, why what you wear to a new doctor's appointment can affect the care you receive and what Ilana recommends instead, how to use your MyChart clinical notes to find errors and gaslighting language that may already be shaping how every future doctor sees you before you say a word, how to request your full hospital records including the nursing notes most patients never know exist and what to do when what is written does not match what actually happened in that room, and how to hold your ground in a disagreement with your doctor while knowing the difference between gaslighting and a genuine difference of medical opinion.

Find Ilana's books at Surviving and Thriving with an Invisible Chronic Illness and Medical Gaslighting, wherever books are sold and free at libraries across the United States. Visit her at ilanajacqueline.com. Get her free step-by-step guide to requesting your full medical records at ilanajacqueline.com/hidden-mychart-records-how-to-guide. Follow her on Instagram and TikTok at @ilana_jacqueline.

Follow Dr. Bayo at @doctor.bayo. Find a provider who will listen at CliniciansWhoCare.com.