Perhaps, like many people, you feel hesitant to go against your doctors. You may feel you do not have the clout to question them, or maybe a care provider has dismissively labeled you as “noncompliant” in your medical chart when you have spoken up in the past.
However, you have a right to take control of and defend your own health. One way to do this is by seeking a second opinion when you feel you have received a misdiagnosis. Whatever the reason for your uneasiness about a diagnosis, it may be worth trusting your intuition. A little extra due diligence may save you undue harm from unnecessary medications and surgeries.
- Your diagnosis seems inappropriate
You may suspect that your diagnosis is off the mark. For example, perhaps you feel it is inaccurate because it fails to account for enough of your symptoms. Or maybe you feel your doctor treated you more like a statistic than an individual. In either case, listening to your intuition may be necessary to ensure your providers accurately identify your medical conditions.
- Your case is complex
Many symptoms correlate with numerous conditions. If some of your symptoms are typical to a common ailment, your doctor may select that diagnosis without further investigation. But in reaching that conclusion, your doctor may be wrongly assuming that other symptoms you have are not related. If you are one of the many people who have complex health profiles, a doctor who jumps to the simple solutions may be missing key information and saddling you with the wrong answers.
- You worry that bias played a role
You may feel that your doctor was boxing you into a category. If you believe your doctor may have had clouded judgment — such as from assumptions based on your ethnicity or gender — that influenced his or her actions and assessments, your concerns about bias may be justifiable. Even the most well-intentioned human beings are susceptible to bias.