Finding a good doctor is like finding a good mechanic.

They’re hard to track down, but once you find one, you never let go.

I’m talking about the ones who are honest, friendly, and considerate.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of doctors out there who have horrible bedside manners are might have been better off pursuing careers as prison guards.

What’s the most unprofessional thing a doctor said to you?

Here’s how people responded on AskReddit.

1. That’s bad.

“I have raynauds phenomenon, which is basically an overreaction to the cold where my blood vessels in my extremities constrict too much.

I brought it up during a routine checkup when I was 17, saying that my hands go deathly white and numb in the cold. She told me it’s all in my head. I was 17 and stupid and wasn’t picking up what she was putting down, so I said “no, I can see it happen when I’m cold.”

She cut me off and told me again it was all in my head and gave me a condescending look. She clearly just didn’t want to deal with it.

Also my mom had cancer that didn’t get caught until it was stage 4. It didn’t get caught until stage 4 because the doctors she explained her symptoms to would literally say things like “don’t worry, it’s not like it’s cancer or anything.””

2. Terrible.

“I went in to see a women’s doctor because I was bleeding (as in heavy blood 24/7) and had debilitating pains that were literally forcing me to have time off of work.

I went in and explained the situation to this doctor who actually laughed at me whilst I was almost in tears trying to get help. I then asked her to do a pap smear to test if I had anything wrong with me, as I was terrified that I had cervical cancer, and she proceeded to do the worst pap smear I’ve ever had.

She didn’t explain what she was doing, looked at me for about 20 seconds without doing any tests or swabs and then told me “it was all in my head”. I ended up crying and leaving because I felt so embarrassed.

I went to another, much better doctor recently and am now getting tested for endometriosis. It is so awful that people become doctors when they obviously couldn’t give less of a s**t.”

3. Know-it-all.

“I have stage 4 endometriosis, the endo tissue in my intestines and stomach have caused a secondary condition called malabsorption syndrome.

Basically my intestines don’t do their job and don’t absorb everything they should out of food, which leaves me with constant deficiencies. I get a lot of my vitamins injected.

A few years ago I moved house to about an hour away. In happy to travel for specialists, but am hour is a bit of a trip just to see a GP. So I gathered up all my documents, my chronic illness management plan, my reports from my gynaecologist and gastrointerologist and started GP shopping.

I’ll preface this by saying I did end up finding an excellent GP who I am very happy with (although I wish she worked more than three days a week), but wow so many GPs do not like reading things from specialists.

Here are some stand out comments

“I’m not reading that, forget what you’ve been told, let’s start from scratch, a fresh start!”

“Yes, many women think they have endometriosis, they read something on the internet and suddenly they’re convinced. Let me assure you that you will be grateful to not have the pain women who really do have it deal with”

“And what is it that makes you think you have these conditions? What you’re claiming to have is pretty serious and requires specialist medical care, I hope you realise that”

“I don’t read specialist reports, I know more than most of them anyway”.”

4. Close call.

“A doctor told my husband, “I can’t make chicken soup out of chicken s**t” in regards to a finger injury he had.

He wanted to cut the whole tip off. We convinced him to just put a couple stitches in it.

It’s actually quite amazing how well it healed.”

5. Thanks a lot.

“Me: How do I prevent these back spasms from ever happening again, this is awful?

Doc: You’re old and fat. You can’t be younger so be less fat.

Thanks, doc.”

6. Hahahaha.

“One time I went in for a general check up and my doctor said “well everything is fine with you except for that haircut”.”

7. Wow…

“To my wife: Don’t worry, nobody ever d**s from this kind of cancer. We’ll give you a full hysterectomy and you’ll be fine.”

Eighteen months later she was d**d.”

8. That’s really weird.

“For a routine exam, the doctor insisted that his young nurse take my temperature rectally, not orally – much to her embarrassment as she inserted the probe.

As I once described, he claimed that the rectal reading was more accurate.

But for a routine check-up, it’s hard to see the benefit of this relative to the embarrassment it causes.”

9. Inappropriate.

“I got circumcised when I was 16.

The next time I saw my doctor for a physical later the same year and he examined my p**is he kept making comments about how hot my penis looked after the surgery and how it made the tip “pop”.

Needless to say I got my father to file a complaint and never went back to see him again. Still makes me feel super gross thinking about it.”

10. That’s a big help.

“When I told her I had been suffering badly for 10months and has severely impacted every aspect of my life, she said “that’s not that long, others go 20+yrs without any relief, so……”.”

11. Wrong!

“Me: I have bad balance, I keep walking into things and I get headaches.

Doctor: this happens to girls who are too skinny, how often do you exercise?

Me: about once a week and I eat like a horse.

Doctor: you’re fine just you’re going to the gym too much.

Few months later I was diagnosed with a serious neurological condition.”

12. What a creep.

“I took my 9 year old daughter to see what was supposed to be a highly respected neurologist at the children’s hospital for a consultation about her ADD.

First he asked her if she’d ever kissed a boy, and what she would do if a boy tried to kiss her. Then when I mentioned that I was concerned about her thumb sucking, he said, “The boys will like that when she gets older”.

We did not continue seeing that doctor.”

Has a doctor ever said something really unprofessional to you?

If so, tell us about it in the comments.

We’d love to hear from you!