"I felt my concerns were dismissed"

I came into my GP surgery after dealing with chronic fatigue for over a year; fatigue to the degree that I was falling asleep every time I sat down. I am a very active hillwalker, but was at the point where I would have to stop to take breaks when just walking down the street into town due to how exhausted I was.

I relayed all of this to the doctor and they essentially told me this was all in my head. I tried to explain I did not think this was the case, and evidenced I was used to being able to summit multiple munroes in a day, compared to the exhaustion I felt now. They told me that hiking is not real exercise. Try going on a 45 minute walk every day. When I told them I was already doing that, they suggested going on two 45 minute walks a day. I would have laughed at them if I was not so exhausted. 

A few months later, I found I had a severe allergy that was causing the fatigue. This experience was dismissive of my actual health needs that the doctor was refusing to listen to. I felt they were passing this off as woman hysteria and not listening to the evidence I was giving them that showed how severely impacted I was by this fatigue.

I am so thankful I happened to discover my allergies and have since recovered, but if I had not, I know I did not have medical staff on my side to enquire about why I was feeling this way.