I would recommend, do your research, go to the doc, explain your symptoms… let him talk and THEN if he doesn’t say what you suspect, mention what YOU think is going on - that way you’re letting the doc feel like he/she is still in control and likely you’ll save yourself a lot of grief…if you let the doc speak first, he’s much more likely to listen to your opinions
- Some
- No, but if you put it to the docs the way you wrote the OP, I can see it pissing them off. I’d insert “I think I might” before offering my own self-diagnosis, unless it is something I’ve had before and can tell it is the same.
- Get a new doctor.
Doctors who have a lot of patients who say, “I’ve just got (insert condition here), and here you’re trying to run up a big bill doing all these tests. Just treat my (whatever) and let me go,” tend to not respond well to self-diagnosis. The same goes for the doc with the patients who are in all the time saying they’ve got some dread disease that they show no clinical symptoms of, but get all pissy when their dread disease isn’t treated they way they think it should be.
Unfortunately, in many practices those sorts of self-diagnosers tend to outnumber the people who are generally right.
Besides, people who think they know something about medicine can be dangerous, to themselves and to those they advise. Frankly, if you were responsible for someone’s health, you’d resent and/or ignore those who might endanger your patient, too.
In this case, I think both parties are out of line. The best way to approach it (even when you’re a doc yourself) is to say, “I think have x again,” or “I’ve been having this that and the other symptoms, and I think I may have y.” Coming in and saying, “I have this disease and need this drug,” tends to come across as pushy and rude, even if you’re right. The correct response is, of course, not “Bullshit, I’m the doctor here,” but rather “Why do you think so?”
Bottom line of the situation, though, is that the OP and her doctor aren’t gelling to form an effective team to take care of her health and well-being. That doesn’t make her a bad patient, nor does it necessarily make him a bad doctor. It just makes them a bad team, and she needs to look for a new teammate.
You should also mention to your doc that your sex drive is a concern. SSRIs (Prozac is one) are famous for sexual disfunction.
Oh and yeah, I’d get a new doctor.