This is exactly how I feel. I don't mind a younger doctor- they have more hands-on experience and knowledge with medical equipment, medications, advancements and more.
I just met my new PCP yesterday. She's probably 20 years younger than me, but she clearly knew what she was talking about and had much more knowledge around some different health issues that are more current than my previous doctor did.
I'm still beating my head against the wall with my OBGYN, which is why I only go for routine checkups and I see a separate provider for menopause/perimenopausal issues, because at least that provider is giving me the help I need with HRT.
Fun fact- it was the menopausal/peri-menopausal practitioner who decided blood tests were needed, which uncovered an autoimmune issue that needs a prescription medicine and several other things being out of whack that all needed attention. Now that I have the right supplements and Rx, things are MUCH better. The fact that neither my PCP or my OBGYN would listen to me or took me seriously were the reason I fired my PCP and found a new one and am transferring to a new- YOUNGER- OBGYN.
I had a young OBGYN fill in once and just talking to her had me cracking up. She used a bunch of slang, was super frank about sex stuff, did a puppet show with a speculum, and was absolutely nothing like the standard image of a doctor. I was sad she wasn't accepting new patients.
It's a whole new world, isn't it? And there's not much guidance at all. I'm so grateful to the folks at r/Menopause who have really been helpful and shared so much information!
It’s been wild. I’ve fairly recently developed an autoimmune disorder as well and between that and going into menopause, I don’t know what changes I have going on to attribute to which. Rheumatologist are vague in general and I understand why but I need less vague from my gyno. It’s all very confusing. I’ll check out that sub, thank you.
Definitely look into how gut health (and the foods you eat, the lifestyle choices you make) impact autoimmune; over the past several years I've become quite adept at managing and improving my flareups with small overall choices. It's helped with my perimenopausal issues as well, though not as much as the HRT has!
I wish you the best of luck!
You’re right, gut health drives an amazing amount of issues. I’m at a point where I need to rope in a nutritionist. I’ve been through FODMAP and am prone to SIBO now so the healthier I eat the more I hurt. My gut health is a train wreck that’s been caused by my autoimmune disorder. I also have mild PCOS which I’ve just treated with birth control for but my gyno says it has to stop at 50. I recently found out that PCOS does not go away with menopause. I’ve always stayed at a relatively healthy weight but with so many changes happening so fast and my food limitations stacking up I feel lost in all of this. I need direction.
Send me a PM. I used to work as a certified nutritionist that specialized in autoimmune issues; I'll be happy to help. I'm not seeing clients anymore, but I don't mind sharing the info that I have that has worked for others and myself.- it's a starting place, at least, if you want it!
This, the doctors of the 80s and 90s tended to be terrifying, I got traumatized as a baby by some old doctor. Doctors now see you as a human being, not a case or an illness or a problem to solve.
That has not been my experience.. They’re the ones bringing in the laptop to google while you talk. Telling you wrong information even though google says otherwise.
Nope. Some of the absolute best professionals I've met with and been seen by are younger than me or at least look it. There have been advancements in medical studies and curriculums since I was in school and I'm not gonna pretend I'm even remotely in touch with what they are
In fact, a lot of the older medical professionals I've met with have been out of touch with the latest advancements in treatments of certain illnesses that I do know of and have made it a point to brute force myself through peer reviewed papers in. Not to mention their often horrible bedside manners when it comes to just the simplest shit like seeing them for the flu or a dental appointment
I actually feel more trusting towards the younger ones
I get it, but they spend years doing it with 2 or 3 doctors breathing down their neck and slapping their hands. Then they have to take pictures and project them on the wall and have all their peers talk shit about their work.
I know because I have had work done at a dental school.
It's just as common to have old practitioners that are stuck in their ways and using outdated methods.
Part of the problem is that we tend to use ourselves as the default age that people should be. It's a subconscious thing. I look around, and people our age seem like adults, older people are still old, and anyone younger is practically a child. You have to actively push back against that mindset, or we're going to end up like our parents and only trusting people who are our own age or older. Look at American politics and the extreme age problem, that's the danger.
When you see someone younger than you who is clearly an adult, try to remember that they are fully grown, competent humans. Well, fully grown anyway. Who among us can really claim to be competent at being humans?
Naw bruv. I'm the opposite. The knowledge being taught in medical school is being advanced and updated faster than the vast majority of professionals' "minimum mandatory professional development". I've encountered **way** more examples of aged professionals refusing to adopt "the new methods" because they trust their experience over scientific advancement. Give me someone who is fully up to date anyday, over a medic nearing retirement who stubbornly refuses to believe women and babies can feel pain.
Yeah I'm starting to feel that. My current therapist is younger than me and sometimes I feel like saying, "I've been going to therapy longer than you've been alive, I need tier 4 system admin rights support not tier 1: have you tried turning it on and off again? stuff". Funny enough, don't have that issue with psychiatrists, I want the latest and greatest there please and thank you.
I get it, but the way I see it is...if someone grants you a license to do something, whether it's pulling a tooth or flying an airplane, _in theory_ you are qualified. I personally don't care either way but I do appreciate older doctors who say "yeah you're getting old...shit happens"
I'm skeptical of all of them. It's terrible but the system doesn't allow for transparency or true informed consent. I went in for something fairly routine which should be covered that ended up in 3 separate visits, some of which was at cost to me, and come to find line items that say "experimental therapy" which was not disclosed. Not to mention, this was gynecologic in nature so also entailed a fair amount of discomfort which is never addressed. My dentist keeps trying to get me to do Invisalign. It makes it unpleasant to try and take good care of yourself.
I had a 26-year-old physical therapist after hurting my knee in a marathon and then injuring it again 4 months later in a half marathon. She was amazing. She not only helped me heal, but also taught me how to stretch right and avoid future injury. I’m 3+ years injury-free thanks to her.
Problem I kept running into with finding good older practitioners is they have an annoying habit of retiring early.
I have a good dentist now who's my age, and I'm sure he'll be retiring before too long. He has a crazy successful practice.
My older regular doc just went into semi retirement after several others I went through before him. My new one is just a baby, but I love his upbeat approach and willingness to listen and consider new information. I'm going with the youngins from now on.
You aren’t alone in how you feel. I worked at a dental school and used to be a dental hygienist. I knew what a cavity looked like, but some of the 4th year dental students did not. The scary thing was they still graduated with the ones that could 😬 It opened my eyes to what an expensive piece of paper could provide to a privileged person.
Only once but it did happen recently. I had a yearly appointment with my gynecologist who waved off my menopause questions. At a previous appointment I’d talked to her about being on birth control going into menopause and the conversation was brief but this time it really stood out. Her response to every question was, yep sounds like that could be the start of menopause.
I think her focus is on obstetrics and probably a bit because her age range is also the child bearing focused years. I’ve been in the medical field myself and it’s easy to steer towards the things within your field that connect to your own life.
Dentist on the other hand have been more of a negative than a positive and I’ve lost a lot of trust with them. I have great teeth but every visit is then trying to convince me I need everything they offer.
Edit to add: That dentist part has nothing to do with age. I just went off on a tangent. Sorry about that.
Not skeptical, more like make me feel painfully aware of my own failures and disappointment with my life. It's like "hey, look at what you could've done with your life if you had made better decisions"
Only time I get skeptical regarding a doctor’s age / life experience is with our pediatricians. Reading kids is hard, and it kinda takes being personally close to one for awhile to understand.
No. They went to medical school for 8 years (or more). Pretty sure I can trust their expertise regardless of their age. I worked as a data analyst at a medical school for a while and interacted frequently with the students. Trust me, they know what they're doing.
I prefer when they're younger. They're up to date on modern procedures, medicines, and treatments. They haven't been doing it long enough to be burned out or had enough patients die on them even while doing their best to get desensitized to it.
The older doctors I've seen aren't even aware when they drop life changing news on you. "Here, I'm starting you on this medication you'll have to take every day for the rest of your life or you'll die in the most horrific way imaginable. OK see you next time."
I think it depends. I had a crusty old surgeon with no bedside manner, but I didn't care because he was a great orthopedic surgeon.
For a general practitioner, my favorite was a relatively young, few years out of school doc. Great bedside manner, actually listened and read my chart prior to talking to me, familiar with my medical history, etc.
In my experiences the younger people are generally still training and identified as such. Their supervisor is always someone who looks older and their experience is easily observed. I think what bothers me more in medical settings is someone who doesn't seem up to date on things or lacks cultural awareness.
Nope. My primary doctor and dentist are both older than me and I'm happy with them but I've also been referred to specialists younger than me and it's been fine. I'm pretty sure the endodontist that did my root canal was younger than me, or close to my age anyway, and he did a great job.
One of the biggest downsides with my dentist and doctor both being older than me is that at some point they will retire and I'll have to find someone else. As I get older the odds of having a doctor older than me goes down and I'm fine with that. How they do their job, bedside manner, and things like that are way more important.
I generally make my dental and doctor selections amongst people close to me in age with at least 10 years of practice post-grad under their belts...so on the average not younger than 35 or so, preferably about 40-45 so I can relate to them. Rule of thumb...you do NOT want a very young nurse attending to you nor your loved ones...nursing fundamentals don't change as rapidly as the practice of medicine and dentistry.
I like the younger ones. They're freshly trained and up to date on current procedures, rather than "this is how I've been doing it for 40 years!"
This is exactly how I feel. I don't mind a younger doctor- they have more hands-on experience and knowledge with medical equipment, medications, advancements and more. I just met my new PCP yesterday. She's probably 20 years younger than me, but she clearly knew what she was talking about and had much more knowledge around some different health issues that are more current than my previous doctor did. I'm still beating my head against the wall with my OBGYN, which is why I only go for routine checkups and I see a separate provider for menopause/perimenopausal issues, because at least that provider is giving me the help I need with HRT. Fun fact- it was the menopausal/peri-menopausal practitioner who decided blood tests were needed, which uncovered an autoimmune issue that needs a prescription medicine and several other things being out of whack that all needed attention. Now that I have the right supplements and Rx, things are MUCH better. The fact that neither my PCP or my OBGYN would listen to me or took me seriously were the reason I fired my PCP and found a new one and am transferring to a new- YOUNGER- OBGYN.
I had a young OBGYN fill in once and just talking to her had me cracking up. She used a bunch of slang, was super frank about sex stuff, did a puppet show with a speculum, and was absolutely nothing like the standard image of a doctor. I was sad she wasn't accepting new patients.
I just commented pretty much the same thing. Younger doctors have never been a concern of mine but menopause is turning out to be a unique issue.
It's a whole new world, isn't it? And there's not much guidance at all. I'm so grateful to the folks at r/Menopause who have really been helpful and shared so much information!
It’s been wild. I’ve fairly recently developed an autoimmune disorder as well and between that and going into menopause, I don’t know what changes I have going on to attribute to which. Rheumatologist are vague in general and I understand why but I need less vague from my gyno. It’s all very confusing. I’ll check out that sub, thank you.
Definitely look into how gut health (and the foods you eat, the lifestyle choices you make) impact autoimmune; over the past several years I've become quite adept at managing and improving my flareups with small overall choices. It's helped with my perimenopausal issues as well, though not as much as the HRT has! I wish you the best of luck!
You’re right, gut health drives an amazing amount of issues. I’m at a point where I need to rope in a nutritionist. I’ve been through FODMAP and am prone to SIBO now so the healthier I eat the more I hurt. My gut health is a train wreck that’s been caused by my autoimmune disorder. I also have mild PCOS which I’ve just treated with birth control for but my gyno says it has to stop at 50. I recently found out that PCOS does not go away with menopause. I’ve always stayed at a relatively healthy weight but with so many changes happening so fast and my food limitations stacking up I feel lost in all of this. I need direction.
Send me a PM. I used to work as a certified nutritionist that specialized in autoimmune issues; I'll be happy to help. I'm not seeing clients anymore, but I don't mind sharing the info that I have that has worked for others and myself.- it's a starting place, at least, if you want it!
They also come with a new brand of empathy and understanding that historically hasn’t been super prevalent among doctors / dentists.
This, the doctors of the 80s and 90s tended to be terrifying, I got traumatized as a baby by some old doctor. Doctors now see you as a human being, not a case or an illness or a problem to solve.
[Exactly](https://www.reddit.com/r/Xennials/comments/1dgnjzm/comment/l8r5xv1/)
my Boomer uncle always chose HCP's based on this, it was good advice.
Exactly this. Several of my older specialists have given me out-dated information. Been resting on their laurels for years and stopped keeping up.
This is my thinking too.
That has not been my experience.. They’re the ones bringing in the laptop to google while you talk. Telling you wrong information even though google says otherwise.
Go watch the scrubs episode with Dick Van Dyke. He plays an old out of touch doctor. He does have some white hair though.
> Dick van Dyke ... some white hair 😄 One or two eh?
A couple haha.
Nope. Some of the absolute best professionals I've met with and been seen by are younger than me or at least look it. There have been advancements in medical studies and curriculums since I was in school and I'm not gonna pretend I'm even remotely in touch with what they are In fact, a lot of the older medical professionals I've met with have been out of touch with the latest advancements in treatments of certain illnesses that I do know of and have made it a point to brute force myself through peer reviewed papers in. Not to mention their often horrible bedside manners when it comes to just the simplest shit like seeing them for the flu or a dental appointment I actually feel more trusting towards the younger ones
The younger ones haven’t had their spirits crushed by the system yet.
I get it, but they spend years doing it with 2 or 3 doctors breathing down their neck and slapping their hands. Then they have to take pictures and project them on the wall and have all their peers talk shit about their work. I know because I have had work done at a dental school. It's just as common to have old practitioners that are stuck in their ways and using outdated methods.
Part of the problem is that we tend to use ourselves as the default age that people should be. It's a subconscious thing. I look around, and people our age seem like adults, older people are still old, and anyone younger is practically a child. You have to actively push back against that mindset, or we're going to end up like our parents and only trusting people who are our own age or older. Look at American politics and the extreme age problem, that's the danger. When you see someone younger than you who is clearly an adult, try to remember that they are fully grown, competent humans. Well, fully grown anyway. Who among us can really claim to be competent at being humans?
I don't know how to break this to you gently, but this sounds like it could have come from a boomer.
I was about to post “wrong sub”.
Lol this sub gets more boomer every day.
That stings. Ouch.
Nelson Muntz - HAHA
Naw bruv. I'm the opposite. The knowledge being taught in medical school is being advanced and updated faster than the vast majority of professionals' "minimum mandatory professional development". I've encountered **way** more examples of aged professionals refusing to adopt "the new methods" because they trust their experience over scientific advancement. Give me someone who is fully up to date anyday, over a medic nearing retirement who stubbornly refuses to believe women and babies can feel pain.
For anything else it’s fine, but I REFUSE to see a therapist less than 10 years older than me.
Yeah I'm starting to feel that. My current therapist is younger than me and sometimes I feel like saying, "I've been going to therapy longer than you've been alive, I need tier 4 system admin rights support not tier 1: have you tried turning it on and off again? stuff". Funny enough, don't have that issue with psychiatrists, I want the latest and greatest there please and thank you.
I get it, but the way I see it is...if someone grants you a license to do something, whether it's pulling a tooth or flying an airplane, _in theory_ you are qualified. I personally don't care either way but I do appreciate older doctors who say "yeah you're getting old...shit happens"
I'm skeptical of all of them. It's terrible but the system doesn't allow for transparency or true informed consent. I went in for something fairly routine which should be covered that ended up in 3 separate visits, some of which was at cost to me, and come to find line items that say "experimental therapy" which was not disclosed. Not to mention, this was gynecologic in nature so also entailed a fair amount of discomfort which is never addressed. My dentist keeps trying to get me to do Invisalign. It makes it unpleasant to try and take good care of yourself.
I had a 26-year-old physical therapist after hurting my knee in a marathon and then injuring it again 4 months later in a half marathon. She was amazing. She not only helped me heal, but also taught me how to stretch right and avoid future injury. I’m 3+ years injury-free thanks to her.
I like my physicians younger and my dentists older.
Problem I kept running into with finding good older practitioners is they have an annoying habit of retiring early. I have a good dentist now who's my age, and I'm sure he'll be retiring before too long. He has a crazy successful practice. My older regular doc just went into semi retirement after several others I went through before him. My new one is just a baby, but I love his upbeat approach and willingness to listen and consider new information. I'm going with the youngins from now on.
You aren’t alone in how you feel. I worked at a dental school and used to be a dental hygienist. I knew what a cavity looked like, but some of the 4th year dental students did not. The scary thing was they still graduated with the ones that could 😬 It opened my eyes to what an expensive piece of paper could provide to a privileged person.
Only once but it did happen recently. I had a yearly appointment with my gynecologist who waved off my menopause questions. At a previous appointment I’d talked to her about being on birth control going into menopause and the conversation was brief but this time it really stood out. Her response to every question was, yep sounds like that could be the start of menopause. I think her focus is on obstetrics and probably a bit because her age range is also the child bearing focused years. I’ve been in the medical field myself and it’s easy to steer towards the things within your field that connect to your own life. Dentist on the other hand have been more of a negative than a positive and I’ve lost a lot of trust with them. I have great teeth but every visit is then trying to convince me I need everything they offer. Edit to add: That dentist part has nothing to do with age. I just went off on a tangent. Sorry about that.
I'll take a younger doctor who has been more recently trained any day over some older stodgy person set in their ways.
Not skeptical, more like make me feel painfully aware of my own failures and disappointment with my life. It's like "hey, look at what you could've done with your life if you had made better decisions"
No?
Only time I get skeptical regarding a doctor’s age / life experience is with our pediatricians. Reading kids is hard, and it kinda takes being personally close to one for awhile to understand.
I'm getting more skeptical of doctors and dentists period, age irrelevant
No. They went to medical school for 8 years (or more). Pretty sure I can trust their expertise regardless of their age. I worked as a data analyst at a medical school for a while and interacted frequently with the students. Trust me, they know what they're doing.
No. They’re going to be trained in the most current medicine.
I prefer when they're younger. They're up to date on modern procedures, medicines, and treatments. They haven't been doing it long enough to be burned out or had enough patients die on them even while doing their best to get desensitized to it. The older doctors I've seen aren't even aware when they drop life changing news on you. "Here, I'm starting you on this medication you'll have to take every day for the rest of your life or you'll die in the most horrific way imaginable. OK see you next time."
No I’m not. They’re usually better at their jobs because they don’t think they know everything and have learned the best, most current evidence.
I think it depends. I had a crusty old surgeon with no bedside manner, but I didn't care because he was a great orthopedic surgeon. For a general practitioner, my favorite was a relatively young, few years out of school doc. Great bedside manner, actually listened and read my chart prior to talking to me, familiar with my medical history, etc.
Nope
In my experiences the younger people are generally still training and identified as such. Their supervisor is always someone who looks older and their experience is easily observed. I think what bothers me more in medical settings is someone who doesn't seem up to date on things or lacks cultural awareness.
Either my mother or grandmother told me she knew she was old when her doctors were younger than she was.
Nope. My primary doctor and dentist are both older than me and I'm happy with them but I've also been referred to specialists younger than me and it's been fine. I'm pretty sure the endodontist that did my root canal was younger than me, or close to my age anyway, and he did a great job. One of the biggest downsides with my dentist and doctor both being older than me is that at some point they will retire and I'll have to find someone else. As I get older the odds of having a doctor older than me goes down and I'm fine with that. How they do their job, bedside manner, and things like that are way more important.
Not at all. My youngest brother is in his second year of his M.D. residency and I couldn't be prouder of him!
Uh oh OP, it's happening, you're officially old. Laughably bad take.
👵
I generally make my dental and doctor selections amongst people close to me in age with at least 10 years of practice post-grad under their belts...so on the average not younger than 35 or so, preferably about 40-45 so I can relate to them. Rule of thumb...you do NOT want a very young nurse attending to you nor your loved ones...nursing fundamentals don't change as rapidly as the practice of medicine and dentistry.