IVE BEEN CRYING MY WAY - QUALITATIVE-ANALYSIS OF A GROUP OF FEMALE-PATIENTS CONSULTATION EXPERIENCES

Background and objectives. What do women patients, sick-listed for bio medically undefined musculoskeletal disorders, expect and experience w hen they consult a doctor? With the purpose to learn more about this, a qualitative interview study was conducted. Methods. Twenty women par ticipated. They were patients at an urban health care centre in northe rn Sweden. Data were gained through repeated, semi-structured intervie ws, and analysed according to grounded theory. Results. The participan ts described an atmosphere of distrust in the consultation. They had f elt ignored, disregarded and rejected by doctors, and had worked out s trategies to keep up medical attention in their search for a creditabl e diagnosis. They were somatizing, claiming under cover, and pleading, to catch the doctor's interest. In addition, they upheld their self-r espect by mystifying and martyrizing themselves and their symptoms, an d by condemning physicians as ignorant. Discussion. The patient's cons ultation experiences are discussed from different aspects; the biomedi cal framework, the power asymmetry, and the gendered positions of pati ent and doctor. The findings indicate the importance of making doctors aware of the context behind frustrations in doctor-patient interactio n.