We expect doctors to maintain professionalism and conduct themselves in an upstanding manner. So, it can be rather infuriating to hear about some of them acting inappropriately with their patients.

Here are some of those stories shared by people in a recent Reddit thread. While a small handful of them are laughable enough despite crossing the line, most of these posts are so egregious that you may even question their authenticity.

But whether they are real or not, these accounts aren’t that far-fetched. Scroll through and feel free to share similar experiences you may have had.

#1

I was told straight up that they weren’t going to refer me to any kind of specialist (endocrinologist/neurologist/gynaecologist) despite me being in constant pain from my cycle. Then they told me to “just have a baby. That will sort things out”. I have never shown any interest in having children.

© Photo: sleeepypuppy

#2

I was mid sentence explaining why I was there when his cell phone rang. He held up a finger to silence me, answered it, and proceeded to argue with his contractor about the tile color for his kitchen remodel for five minutes while I just sat on the paper covered table.

© Photo: Zestyclose_Egg_3100

#3

My hand was swollen to the point of barely being able to bend my fingers, let alone make a fist. Went to the nearest clinic & got an appointment to see a GP. He asked what was wrong, I showed him my hand, said that I’d woken up like that, hadn’t done anything out of the ordinary. He then said “oh, well what do you think is wrong with it?” Which okay, maybe he thought I was going to say I’d been bitten by a spider, or fell over or something, but I hadn’t given any indication of a reason for my hand to be three times it’s normal size.

The red flag was after checking my hand he said “it doesn’t look right, maybe you should make an appointment to see someone about it.”

Gee doc, that’s what I came to see YOU for.

© Photo: nutcracker_78

#4

I asked for a blood test for ongoing fatigue. Doctor rolled his eyes and said: “Everyone’s tired these days. Get over it.”

I had vitamin B12 deficiency severe enough to cause nerve damage.

© Photo: Expensive_Air3009

#5

‘If you were 7 inches shorter you’d be morbidly obese’ I was 7 months pregnant and not planning on shrinking 7 inches either.

© Photo: mulderitsme93

#6

I went to them for a skin condition, they said they didn’t know what it was. We kind of sat there and looked at each other for a few moments and he said “what do you want me to do about it?” and I said “figure out what it is??”

But also just remembered sitting in front of anothet doctor, crying and telling him how I was so depressed and couldn’t function and needed to see a therapist (in my country you can get a mental health plan with a number of free or cheap visits to a psychologist through a GP) and I could see that he had tuned out and was waiting for me to finish. He then completely ignored what I had said and asked what I was doing about my severe cystic acne because “no doubt if we cleared that up it would make you happier”…

© Photo: androidis4lyf

#7

Dr sewing up my (now late) wife after childbirth asked how tight did I want her.

© Photo: Kryton101

#8

“Are you married? Do you have a boyfriend? What would you think about going on a date?”- my male gynocologist AFTER my exam. I was newly 18 🥴.

© Photo: Afroditesrevenge

#9

I had a female GP absolutely rip into me for being on dianette when I wasn’t intimately active, only using it for acne management.

A different GP put me on it for my moderate acne when on most other pills and I was getting significant facial scarring, and it cleared my skin beautifully.

I sat there, quite distressed and upset whilst she was questioning me about being on this pill and then telling me I had lied about being active when I wasn’t to get on it and said she was going to take me off it.

On a separate occasion I was going through a family bereavement just before my exams in my final year at university and I had been advised by the university to submit an extenuating circumstances form as I was very worried about the impact on my examinations, and I unfortunately got the same GP for the doctors letter! She was so abrupt, rude, questioning about why I needed a doctor’s note, everyone goes through loss and why should I need a doctor’s note for it etc.

I ended up moving GPs because I didn’t want to have to deal with her any more.

© Photo: Leo1292

#10

I was having serious sleep disruption. My doctor said perhaps Satan was working through me. This was in February of this year.

© Photo: BlackLakeBlueFish

#11

Was super sick for over a month, no insurance, finally got enough money to go get blood tests at an urgent care…. The doctor was old as dirt and smoked at least 2 packs a day from the sound of his voice… Said he would call me later in the week with results, 3 or 4 days… Following morning at 7.30am he calls me and the first thing he said… “is this, (my name)?” I replied yes and he straight up says… “I’M TALKING TO A DEADMAN…”

WTH?? Both kidneys failed and my creatinine level was 35.4, evidently you pass at levels much lower than this. Which led to 3 weeks in the hospital and 4 years on dialysis then a kidney transplant.

#12

The written report said “Looks well. Lucid alert and cooperative. Well-hydrated, anicteric and no distress. Walks like John Wayne”.

© Photo: Okra5765

#13

A medical student once advised me to use an alcohol-based antiseptic wash as an intimate wash, which was obviously, bad advice.

© Photo: SomewhereFew5111

#14

A male gynecologist told me I had Tubal Ligation Syndrome that was causing constant bleeding. It’s not a real diagnosis and is controversial.

Good thing I sought a second opinion. I diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer by a female doctor that same year.

© Photo: PrecisePMNY

#15

“Panic attack? You are too young to have panic attack, what panic attack??”

I was 15-16, getting an endoscopy, worst anesthesiologist ever. Still remember him.

© Photo: NanzeWren

#16

I have horrible HG (super puking, basically) during pregnancy. I went from 140 lbs pre-pregnancy to 100 lbs at 8 months kind of sick. Hospitalization. They were doing medicine trials on me lol

Anyway, when it first started, I had spent a few weeks just carrying a trash can with me and getting sick on just water. When I started puking up blood, I finally agreed to go get help.

The first guy looks at the blood and puke filled little trash can I had and said *looks like soda* sir I can’t even hold down water.

Then, the nurse wouldn’t give me FLUIDS until I gave her a pee sample. My dad and I kept telling her that I did not have enough to do so. Begging her for hydration, nothing else.

She said *THAT I WAS FAKING IT TO GET PAIN MEDS*

I said I do not want pain meds, I’m just literally about to pass away from dehydration and exhaustion or it’ll probably make me lose my baby.

So after a few hours, my dad carried me to the restroom, I peed the darkest three drops of pee and he carried me back.

My dad told them I had given a sample. Another TWO HOURS went by and my dad went and yelled at them. My dad is a very peaceful man and does not raise his voice like that.

She literally threw the door open, looking pissed, and as soon as she saw my “sample” her face looked horrified and she left. Came back as fast as she could with some fluids… And also MORPHINE. Yeah, apparently I really was sick enough to warrant morphine. I asked to not be given the morphine but they said I needed it.

Honestly, after that, I slept for like 3 hours and it felt like days because I hadn’t slept for more than 30 mins at a time for weeks before that. So maybe it was ok just that once.

I was still so pissed. It’s great to be observant and deny certain meds for certain reasons, but they were so RUDE to me when I was obviously struggling. So bad that I went to my doctor’s the next day and he sent me straight to the downtown hospital, without even knowing I had been to the ER.

#17

Xray verified spiral fracture ankle, about to be transferred over very rough rural roads to a surgical hospital. Asked for pain meds, was told I’d had paracetamol. I said yes, that was two hours ago, doctor told me it won’t have started working yet.

Had a very hard time travelling three hours to the tertiary hospital. They gave me iv pain relief within 10 minutes 😌

Made a formal complaint and the first doctor lied. There was me and two family members there when she refused me pain meds.

© Photo: ralphsemptysack

#18

When I was 16 or so, my mom took me to the doctor because I had a bad cough. She asked if I smoked cigarettes, and I told her yes. She then hit me on the head with my chart, and shouted “stop that!” My mom and I were both so shocked.

#19

“It’s just anxiety.” Turned out to be a literal cyst that needed surgery. They love blaming everything on stress.

#20

I was giving my past medical history to a my new doctor. She said “YOU HAD AN ABORTION?!” with a look of shock and horror on her face, and disgust in her voice. I had been attacked.

#21

A doctor once told me “you’re too young to be this tired” like exhaustion has an age limit. I smiled in the room then cried in my car after.

#22

After a year of increasingly worse stomach issues and 6 months of tests I finally had an appointment with the head of internal medicine at a very reputable hospital. I was stoked, now I would finally get the answer to my issues that kept landing me in the ER. He riffled through my file for a minute, looked up, removed his glasses, pinched the bridge of his nose and said: “Here’s what you’re going to do Mrs T, you’re going to make an appointment with your family doctor and have him prescribe you some antidepressants. This is all in your head.”

I was literally stunned into silence. Left his office and sat in my car and cried for an hour. 3 months later I was hospitalized for two weeks with a severe case of gallstones. The gallbladder was so full of stones it had become inflamed which caused the liver to become inflamed and swell up to three times its normal size which annoyed the pancreas into doing the same thing. It was not a good time.

#23

When having my routine female check-up the doctor was doing my lower region exam and HE said “Can tell you haven’t had intercourse in a looooong while!” and then he giggled.

I felt humiliated after that moment, and held in my tears. I cried in my car after that appointment. He’s no longer practicing.

#24

I was in hospital after an attempt when I was 17. The doctor came in, gave me a filthy look and said “aw did you just break up with your boyfriend” and walked out.

Ignored me for like 6 hours before I was discharged with some legitimate anger from the nurses and doctors. I never understood why they treated me like that.

#25

You have anxiety because you are fat.

My response “OH, so you must have anxiety too.” He was larger than me. I know it wasn’t nice of me, but I am not letting a doctor bully me.

My physician had recently retired and this was the first new doctor I saw. I did file a complaint. I did find a wonderful doctor shortly after.

#26

Dude walked in exactly 60 minutes after my scheduled appointment. Said “My people messed up your place in my schedule. Women, am I right?” The support staff had taken my vitals and history an hour prior. Didn’t even apologize for the long af delay.

Guy also misdiagnosed me so maybe his receptionists weren’t the issue.

#27

When my OBGYN was trying to insert a speculum for my exam, she said, “Girl, you’re tighter than tight, how’d you even get pregnant?”

That made me laugh so hard, totally unprofessional, but so funny.

#28

Went to see a dermatologist. Wasn’t super enthused about the appointment. We chat for a minute or two and then he says, “Alright buddy, let’s check out why you’re here.” He spins around to his computer and continues, “Ah, yes. I see here that you’ve got something going on with your pecker. Alright boss, drop trow and hit the table.”

Totally unprofessional, but hands-down the funniest thing I ever heard a doctor say. It immediately broke the ice and was probably the least awkward way I could have actually imagined the appointment going. The guy was clearly brilliant and knew what he was doing. He socially engineered that encounter into not being awkward for either of us and it was an impressive gambit.

#29

Found a lump so I wanted to book a mammogram. I went to see a replacement doctor because my own was off that day, explained the issue, and mentioned that I had recently done a round of IVF (since the hormone injections can be relevant for breast tissue changes).

She booked the mammogram and then told me I should fly to Saudi Arabia and buy some Mounjaro over the counter to lose weight and I’d be pregnant in no time.

We were doing IVF because of male infertility. 🤔.

#30

I was scheduled to visit a female primary care doctor for blood pressure follow up after I was released from the hospital. I told her why I was just in the hospital and she says “there is no such thing as postpartum preeclampsia”.

Because I have life experience, I’m a health care professional as well and she had a student with her I said “I’m going to allow you to research that and when I come back next week you’re going to apologize and tell me what you learned.”.

#31

Mine told me losing weight would fix everything I came in for. I came in for an ear infection. She connected those two things in a way I still cannot explain and then wrote me a diet pamphlet instead of a prescription.

#32

I had a minor surgery a little while back but for some reason I wasn’t waking up quickly in post-op. I found out later they sternum rubbed me insanely hard bc my chest was swollen and bruised purple, almost hurt worse than the surgery site lmao.

Anyway I slowly started waking up to my sister and the nurse arguing because the nurse was really upset I wasn’t waking up and wanted my sister to basically dress me in the bed and drag/carry me out somehow. Guess she thought I was faking or something? I have no clue but my sister was really heated and still gets mad if you remind her of it lol.

I also have an ongoing issue with extreme chronic fatigue with nausea/dizziness/cold sweats/etc. I’ve seen a pulmonary doc who told me to just sleep less and a cardiologist who basically told me to stop being lazy.

It’s hard not to feel hopeless nowadays.

#33

Trying to get a referral for some psych help (turns out I have what used to be called chronic clinical depression), as is the process in australia. Going through the checklist questions we have this exchange:

Doc: Do you have anxiety?

Me: Honestly, I don’t actually know what that is. I know the word but I don’t how how it feels.

Doc: If you don’t know what it is then you don’t have it.

Me: I don’t know what cancer actually is, does that mean I’ll never have it?

Ended up have a big of a yelling match about it and how stupid this jerk was, I got my referral and stormed out without paying.

#34

A few years ago, I chatted up the nurse practitioner at the Urgent Care that I went to because he noticed my Cattle Decapitation t-shirt and we started talking music.

His entire professional demeanor dropped after that. Handed me my script for antibiotics and said:

“Be sure to take em with food cause they’ll make you poo big time.”

I hope he’s doing well still.

#35

“There is nothing wrong with you, you’re just stressed and imagining a problem.”

It was lupus. Took 3 years and me fighting like hell because I KNEW i was not ok and it wasn’t just in my head.

#36

I was in the hospital after ear surgery when I was probably around 7 years old. I clearly remember 1 of the night nurses who had to administer my rectal pain meds. She never put any type of lubricant on the pill and literally put her ENTIRE finger up my bum every single time without fault (this obviously wasn’t necessary to administer the pill the right way!). It hurt like hell and I felt extremely vulnerable. I was truly scared of her and I had nightmares about it for months after. Also never told anyone before now.

#37

I went in because I felt a strong chest pain the night before that almost had me calling emergency services. The next day I had trouble getting a full breath in but even then, went to work all day. After work I went to the hospital to get checked.

Doctor asked if I had taken any painkillers to help. I said it wasn’t really any pain but rather flu like symptoms and difficulty breathing fully. She rolled her eyes at me.

Anyway, result was a collapsed lung and I was put in an oxygen mask right away. Stayed in the hospital for three nights and four days.

#38

I went recently to a doctor for assistance in weight loss. She told me to aim for 10k steps a day. I told her that wouldn’t do anything as I regularly get 10k on a notably slow day and 17k on an average day. 25k on a busy one.

She said, “I can’t help you if you’re not going to be honest with me and yourself.”

I pulled out my activity tracker and showed her *months* worth of tracking and she looked it over then said, “Is this your husband’s activity?”

Really disappointing that you can’t demand a refund from people like this.

#39

ER Doc here. Not me, but one our locums a few years back was an overseas dude, new to the NHS. We’d had a pediatric passing, which was sadly unavoidable as they were too sick by the time they arrived.

He strolls into the family room full of parents, extended family sitting with bated breath for any update but presumably they knew what was coming.

This dude clears his throat, says ‘The child has passed’, turns on his heels and walks the hell out the door again.

We had some words.

#40

Not a doctor but a nurse. Woke up after open heart surgery for removing a tumor and close up a hole. My first question was how it went and the response was ”They couldnt find the tumor so maybe its somewhere else in your body right now”. She also forgot to gave me pain medication to bridge the local anasthesia so i went into full cramping mode out of pure pain. They had to push morphine through my vein in the neck so I could start breathing again.

#41

Oh I was reminded of another… I was in a horrible car accident my senior year of high school- about 2 months before prom. My face went through the side window due to impact. I was in the trauma room, immense pain, shaking, in shock with BP 60/30 and very low pulse. I was not doing well. But being the silly, young girl trying to make sense of anything going on around me, I asked the nurse how bad my face looked. She told me it looked like hamburger meat.

It did, and I’m sure she was busy trying to concentrate, but it was an awful thing to say to a scared kid.

#42

“You’re only starving yourself to make yourself popular at school” (I was painfully shy/ had no interest in being popular/ had a raging eating disorder).

#43

I came for a visit because of very heavy, extremely painful, and bloody periods. “That’s just how you are. It’ll go away once you give birth.”

I was 12 years old!

#44

I had rough PPD following the birth of my children. My final pregnancy I was suffering with pre natal depression and was trying to talk to my doctor about support following the birth.

His reply ‘you’ll be too busy to be depressed’.

#45

In the 80s I had what I thought might be thrush, and went to a very old GP that I had never seen before. This was in the days before Canesten was available from the pharmacy, you needed a prescription. I told him what was wrong, and he said:

‘All you young girls are the same these days, if you have intercourse with every man that comes along you will get stds’

I was stunned! I said ‘but I have never had that with anybody! I am 15!’ and he shushed me and waved me out of his room with the prescription.

I was so shocked and embarrassed that I never told anyone, I was absolutely mortified.

A pox on that vile man.

#46

1. My therapist told me that I’d get better help treating my PTSD by talking to ChatGPT than going to therapy.

2. A gyno at the hospital flicked my forehead and said that my pelvic pain was all in my head and sent me to 6 months of psychosomatic therapy. Turns out I’m riddled with endometriosis. Yay.

#47

“You shouldn’t be having kids if you didn’t want it to hurt” — my **male** anesthesiologist, while he was inserting my spinal block for a c-section. This was after 26 hours of non-productively labor, during which he let my epidural run out 3 times.

Yes I filed a complaint.

#48

“Do you know…you know…the running?” while making arm motions as though I might not be familiar with the very concept of exercise. He was a psychiatrist suggesting that I exercise and lose weight, I was a fitness instructor at the time. Funny to note, only one of us in that room was in good shape and it sure wasn’t him! Totally normal BMI throughout…but still crazy. Who’d have thought that a little cardio doesn’t erase years of PTSD?

#49

I told an unprofessional general practitioner doctor i think i may have shingles judging from my symptoms. he inspected me and said i didn’t.. then said something to the effect of “where on earth did you read that from?” along with a chuckle. i went for a second opinion a day later and it turns i did have shingles..

#50

I was a medical student and on one my rotations the attending questioned me about my love life, he was shocked I didn’t have a partner.

I also have a disability and another attending forced me to use a wheelchair instead of my usual walker. I quickly switched to another cohort because of the discrimination.

#51

Not a doctor but a nurse: I’m anorexic and was very underweight in hospital one night and was having intense chest pains to the left right where the heart is. The docs were worried so they did an ECG and one of the pads has to go beneath a specific rib and the nurse said “at least we can count your ribs easily!”

I’m sure she meant no harm but darn looking back it’s probably not the most appropriate thing to say.

#52

“You have Ehlers Danlos Syndrome?! Can you show me one of your party tricks?”.

#53

A nurse slapped me once -does that count?

#54

My old doctor had a 1 star review on his google page because a patient ( who was a woman ) said he came into the room and said very loudly

“SO I HEAR WE HAVE A YEASTY BEASTY”.

#55

My husband spent a week in the hospital with an abscess inside of his spine. They did not develop the blood cultures. They did not identify the abscess. They did not figure out the reason for the elevated white blood cell count. And as they were unhooking the bag of antibiotics to discharge him, I was asking the infectious diseases doctor what the last week worth of experiences had been all about? Why had he been so sick? And the doctor very coldly looked at me with a sneer and said “this isn’t an episode of House. Sometimes you don’t get answers.”

Within 48 hours of being unsafely discharged from that hospital, my husband was in emergency laminectomy surgery, from which he emerged paralyzed. We do not know if he will walk again.

My rage knows no bounds.

#56

Went to the ER once because I was having really painful neurological issues. When I started to cry because I was in so much pain, the doctor said, “we don’t treat depression here.”

Yeah… turns out I was withdrawing from benzos. My primary doc hadn’t warned me of any withdrawal symptoms.

#57

When I was suffering from horrendous pre-natal depression and disabling panic attacks, a GP told me to try ‘deep breathing’ because I couldn’t be prescribed medication.

Thankfully I got in to see an obstetrician, who recognised how severely unwell I was. He referred me to a psychiatrist, who then admitted me to a specialist mother and baby psychiatric ward for a month.

#58

I went for dysphagia. Explained the problem. He then took a phone call, it was his wife who wanted to go over the grocery list. He went through what he wanted for about 10min. Hung up and said to me “what are we looking at again?” Went through the problem AGAIN. Without even examining me he said “I think it’s all in your head”. When he did feel around he found a lump on my thyroid!! Never felt so dismissed and invalidated in my life.

#59

Not me but my Nan has Alzheimer’s and she was in the Ed and she does this thing where she says

“somebody help me”

The curtain was closed my dad was there.

And this doctor walking past Mocked her

Fortunately, my dad knew the doctor because he works at the hospital as a cleaner and he reported them and we believe if they did what they said they did came down pretty hard on him.

#60

I only see people with real problems…

It was a psychiatrist and I was a teenager with SI.

#61

“If you’re gonna do this for a living, you need to learn to lift properly.” A doctor said this to me when he misdiagnosed me with back strain (it was a herniated disc) back when I was a paramedic. He wouldn’t order a CT. A week later, my leg gave out and I collapsed.

I had been in the field for five years and had weightlifted competitively before that. But sure, I just needed to learn how to lift.

Bonus story: I once told my old primary care doctor that I thought I had a certain connective tissue disorder. She disagreed. A year later she said, “do you think you might have (connective tissue disorder)?”.

#62

-Advised me against a covid vaccine.
-Told me I should have grown out of my ADHD.
-Suggested an x-ray for my clavicle pain “ in case you have a tumor or something.”
-Told me a GLP one would turn my eyeballs into jelly.

#63

It was my pediatrician and I was 11 years old and pretty chubby. She said I needed to start getting tested for “fat people diseases, like diabetes”. It blew my mind, even as a kid.

#64

“It’s impossible for a teen to be stressed, what are you stressed for? They don’t have any reason” – my general doctor before some MRI showed my chest muscle can get swollen and hurt if I get stressed.

It’s a miracle that she even ordered that imaging because she was too reluctant and still insisted “I had no motive to suffer from stress because I was a teen.”.

#65

“You were right. The blood test confirms you’re definitely pregnant. That aught to teach you to keep your legs closed.”

He walked out as I said “What did you just say to me?!” He wouldn’t come back and face me so I went straight to reception in front of other patients and demanded that my file be sent to a different doctor immediately because there was no way I wanted him anywhere near me or my baby. He’d been my family doctor since I was a little kid and that was the first time he’d ever been vile toward me and the last time I ever saw him.

#66

Went to GP. I had previously been anemic and had taken large doses of iron to bring up my ferritin levels and noticed unexplained weight gain (been skinny all my life and now suddenly almost overweight within a few months). Asked for a thyroid test.

“Iron has nothing to do with your thyroid”

I cited a mayo clinic article that taking large doses can impact your thyroid and that it’s best to check it

“I’m not a vending machine- you don’t need the test just eat better”.

#67

A GP said he would help me lose weight during a visit for my outpatient Eating Disorder treatment.

#68

Maternal fetal med doc I was meeting for the first time said we would figure out why I was having such small babies so I could have a healthier baby with my next pregnancy. I’m 5ft, 110lbs and was struggling to gain weight while pregnant with identical twins. She missed a diagnosis of preeclampsia (I was symptomatic and told her what was going on) which DID cause complications with my emergent c section two weeks later.

#69

I came in asking about night terrors I’d been having, she instantly started assuming things about my life and wanted to put me on antidepressants. She knew me for maybe 5 minutes.