with Hanna being let down by clueless doctors until she's finally diagnosed with Lyme disease. And that's fairly interesting, especially the self-denial of patients and dismissiveness of doctors.
Have you done any reading about chronic Lyme disease? I wouldn't really characterize doctors who didn't diagnose it as "clueless" or "dismissive." In fact, there seems to be no medical consensus on the source of this malady, the coherence of its symptoms or the proper way to treat it. We see Kathleen Hanna apparently responding well to large doses of antibiotics, but my understanding is that many (if not most) medical professionals disagree that this is a safe or effective form of treatment for this mysterious disease.
For me this was a really troubling part of the documentary. Hanna makes an eloquent point about medical professionals (and people in general) not believing the words of women. I think this is a true and important point to make, since we know it's true that women are more frequently disbelieved or dismissed as hypochondriacs by medical professionals and that this leads to inequitable health outcomes. However, it appears in her case that the doctors she saw took her seriously, but were met with a set of symptoms they couldn't accurately interpret or treat based on existing medical research and best practices. I think it's great that long term doses of antibiotics have improved her condition, but I don't see why I need to believe her contention that Lyme disease was the root cause of her symptoms. And I don't think we need to call the doctors who diagnosed her with other maladies covert misogynists.
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matt-baen
10 years ago
Thanks, I didn't know that about Lyme disease. I'll have to do some more reading on it.
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