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I used to have this attitude of... medical professionals have trained a huge amount, and are very experienced, and it's a bit silly to think I, a rando with access to google, could make better decisions than they could. One of the key events that made me change my mind-

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was when I happened to end up going to two doctors back-to-back, and I asked them about the same issue - can I take birth control with estrogen if I get aural migraines? They both gave me strong, clear, confident answers - one yes, one no. I was so confused. 2/

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Realizing (for the first time in my life) I couldn't trust one of these doctor's opinions, I did my own research, digging deep into the... actually pretty spares literature about how dangerous it is. Evidence suggested yea it is more dangerous, but not a lot? 3/

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Iirc it was roughly around the same risk of stroke as getting in a car accident, per year. I was like oh, I'd be willing to take that risk, and then I didn't know why the doctors hadn't just *told me* what the increased risk was?? Did they even know?

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And I found out later that the literature on this is decades old, from when women were taking over 2x the amount of estrogen in their birth control than they are today, and there's evidence that stroke risk decreases proportionately with estrogen dose. Did the doctors know that??

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No, they probably didn't. And this experience helped destroy the magical aura of authority doctors had for me; after this I realized doctors were probably regurgitating outdated or bad information and completely ignorant to the actual risk differences.

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Once another doctor frowned when I described how an earlier doctor had treated me. Then he looked at the CDC website and was like "oh nvm the CDC updated its recommendation, you're fine." Did he even look at WHY it was updated? Did he AGREE with it? Ir-fucking-relevant.

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The more I interact with doctors, the more I become increasingly shocked at the lack of knowledge they seem to have about why they're doing what they're doing. They're like a dumb computer; punch in the symptoms and you get a binary "safe/not safe" treatment suggestion.

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At this point I've nearly fully taken over my own health. I research in depth every question I have by reading ACTUAL STUDIES, I order prescription medications from overseas online and lie nonstop to doctors when I can't, I order my own lab tests, I monitor my own damn self.

8:35 PM · Oct 21, 2021

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Has your health noticeably changed since you started doing this?

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I haven't had significant health issues in general, but for the minor things, yes.

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Andrew Ferguson

@AndrewFerguson

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How do you handle supply chain quality (I.e. ensuring what you order is actually what it claims to be)?

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@AndrewFerguson

That's a risk, yeah. It's really hard cause the sites have to operate so in the shadows. So far everything I've ordered appears to be ok (no side effects and has the effects I wanted), but I haven't done this a ton.

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This is one way I think AI could really do some good for the world. Having an intelligent, impersonal entity with access to all the data and research in the world; would be great for medical use. A centralised supercomputer could run a single hospital with human and robot staff..

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Or we just teach everyone to research there own medical issues and find solutions themselves. That seems kinda impractical tho lol

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Priscilla Reiss

@_PriscillaReiss

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Taking control of your health like this is probably the best approach - although ordering medication can get dicey for those without discernment. The unfortunate reality is that medical practice is built on conservative, standard practices that enable them to serve lots of people

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Priscilla Reiss

@_PriscillaReiss

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@_PriscillaReiss

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You have difference in opinions, but mostly based on the doctor’s anecdotal experience, since research is extremely labor intensive and costly. Unless you sign up for concierge medicine, you won’t get medical advice where the doctor synthesizes relevant info to your circumstance

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Idan ("eden") Solon ("sew-lin") (

Replying to

I emphatically agree with this. I have also had the experience of multiple doctors giving contradictory answers to the same ? (& the same doctor giving different answers). I also have been right about my own experiences while doctors have wrong (subsequently proven right).

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