Medical Gaslighting Doesn’t Stop in the Exam Room: How to Trust Yourself and Build the Right Care Team with Dr. Efrat LaMandre | E186

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In this deeply personal episode of Made for Health, Dr. Aaron Hartman sits down with Dr. Efrat “Dr. E” LaMandre, a family nurse practitioner, PhD in Integrative Medicine, host of the Medical Disruptor podcast, and a leading voice on medical gaslighting.
What begins as a conversation about why patients feel dismissed when their tests come back “normal” becomes something much more personal. Dr. E shares that she was recently diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer after months of back pain that she repeatedly minimized herself. The experience transformed her from a clinician who teaches patient advocacy into a patient navigating the healthcare system firsthand. Pasted text
Together, Dr. Hartman and Dr. E explore a rarely discussed side of medical gaslighting: the ways patients can begin gaslighting themselves. We may apologize for taking a clinician’s time, downplay symptoms, assume normal tests mean nothing is wrong, or ignore the internal sense that something has changed.
Their message is not to reject conventional medicine. It is to understand what each clinician can and cannot provide, continue investigating when symptoms persist, and build a healthcare team capable of looking at the whole picture.
Key Topics Covered
What medical gaslighting actually means
Why normal laboratory results do not automatically mean a patient feels well
Why patients may feel dismissed even by well-intentioned clinicians
Populations most affected by medical gaslighting
Why women may be especially likely to minimize their symptoms
Fatigue, migrating pain, unusual sensations, and GI complaints that can be difficult to fit into conventional diagnostic categories
The habit of “pre-apologizing” before describing symptoms
How patients learn to become “good patients”
Why people sometimes trust test results more than their own bodily experience
Intuition as a form of pattern recognition
The importance of knowing when something is different from your normal
Why self-advocacy does not mean rejecting doctors
Understanding the limitations of individual medical specialties
Why conventional testing still matters
How to build a multidisciplinary healthcare team
Choosing clinicians and researchers over unqualified health advice
Avoiding overwhelm when facing a complex diagnosis
Why healing plans may need to be implemented gradually
The emotional and mental challenges of serious and chronic illness
Hope, family, purpose, and continuing to move forward
In This Episode, You Will Learn
✅ What medical gaslighting can look like even when the clinician has good intentions
✅ Why being told “your tests are normal” should not automatically end the conversation when symptoms persist
✅ How patients can unknowingly participate in their own medical gaslighting by dismissing or minimizing what they feel
✅ Why Dr. E now tells patients to get concerning symptoms checked instead of talking themselves out of evaluation
✅ Why self-advocacy is not the same as being confrontational or distrustful of medicine
✅ How intuition can reflect years of subconscious pattern recognition
✅ Why every specialist has a particular role—and why complex health problems may require an entire team
✅ How to decide whose medical advice deserves your attention when everyone around you has an opinion
✅ Why you do not have to make every lifestyle or treatment change at once
✅ What becoming a patient taught Dr. E about exhaustion, uncertainty, hope, and the emotional burden of illness
Connect With Dr. Efrat LaMandre
🌐 Website:
https://www.drefratlamandre.com/
🎙️ Medical Disruptor Podcast:
https://www.drefratlamandre.com/e-podcasts
Dr. E shares additional education and updates under Dr. Efrat LaMandre acros...