It was never just in your head.

For years, many of us were told our symptoms of POTS, endometriosis, arthritis, fibromyalgia, eczema, psoriasis, MCAS, and other chronic conditions were "all in our heads." The exhaustion, crushing pain, sensory overwhelm, biblical bleeding, constant anxiety, brokenness, and the lack of faith in our own being... we were told it was our fault. We were just "hard work."

Today, we know our bodies were telling the truth all along. The medical system was built on poor scientific research and heavily skewed towards men. A patriarchal medical culture simply wasn't built to listen, and medical dogma fueled decades of poor treatment.

I am one of those women. From childhood, I struggled with panic attacks. My knees would dislocate and throughout my teenage years I went to school whilst suffering severe period pain. I was told I was too sensitive. Nobody was ever interested in my whole story; at every GP visit, the pieces of me were explained away. I believed it was all my fault. I was...too sensitive.

Today I know the real problem is the rigid wall between medical departments and across professions. My fatigue, dislocating joints, biblical bleeding, mood changes, autism, ADHD, and endometriosis meant I needed far more than a disconnected GP and a gynecologist. I needed medical care that recognised my history. Care that accounted for my environment, my social and financial context, and a nervous system carrying a great deal of trauma for a long time. Possibly for generations.

I still hear the horror stories of women who, like me, are passed from pillar to post, ending up in functional medicine, told to see a psychiatrist, or mislabeled with a personality disorder. This explains my seated rage at a profession that has gaslighted and dismissed women for decades.

Yet, I still believe the profession can be fixed. Change is slow, and we are not out of the woods. But with a new generation of advocates like me and within medicine, and even my own GP training as a yoga teacher... I have hope for my daughter.