The year an athlete lost to the wrong diagnosis

43. Athlete. Been training for over 5 years. Suddenly can’t get out of bed anymore. Where does she go?

I’ve been meeting gynaecologists in Bombay. Specifically ones who work with women in their midlife. To understand what women go through. And what kind of care they get.

I knew that access to care, specifically doctors and practitioners with training in hormonal health, is rare. But I learned that the problem starts 2 steps before that.

Sometimes, women don’t even reach the right practitioner.

This 43-year-old athlete couldn’t get out of bed. Was anxious. Had heart palpitations. Years ago she’d had a bad stretch of anxiety and she assumed it had come back for her. So she went to a psychiatrist. One that gave her medication to feel better.

The same medication came with side effects. And a domino effect. Weight gain, low confidence, hardly stepping out of the house and meeting people.

After one year, this woman found the gynac. Got some tests done. And spent 6 months getting the right counselling, care, and information about her hormonal health.

1 year lost to a domino effect. Here’s what it tells me.

• A woman beginning to feel better is directly correlated to a practitioner’s ability to correlate the symptom. Is it stress? Is it hormones? Is it genetic? If that’s not done soon enough or accurately, women are shooting in the dark.
• And the fact that there’s no villain here. It is not a story of dismissal. It is just a woman making a reasonable guess. And a practitioner solving it the way she knows best.

I made menopausedoctors.in for women to have a list of curated gynacs and coaches. And, as I go out into the world with it, I am realising we need to take at least 5 steps back. And start there.

While I do that, I have only one ask.

If you’re a medical or fitness practitioner working with women in midlife OR a woman who’s begun to feel some symptoms, I’d like to chat. I have questions. And you can help us do better 🙂

I’m learning and building Yellow in public. As we figure what it takes to help women live their best 30s, 40s, and 50s.