for me, it's always been older MALE doctors. even for "women's problems", they were faster to Rx than women that theoretically understood what i was going through.

Older doctors are more understanding about pain and will prescibe more openly than younger doctors.

I prefer a woman though.

Women have been pretty rude in the past to me. The only one I like was my OB when I had my youngest child. I am a ER nurse and the older ones are much better. They are to tired to fight the fight. So often if a patient does not get what they think they should pt will do a formal complaint and this requires the MD to write the reason for doing what they did. The older ones get burnt out on trying to justify why they have done something. It is just easier to do it. Also the older doctor is more than likely to have experienced pain and chronic problems and will be more understanding. So many young doctors complain about giving pain med even when so obvious that they need it. Age is a big factor but a doctor that is nice is more likely be nice and want to make you happy. So an old doctor that has experienced pain and is nice I think are going to be the best to have.

I'm a female, and I prefer male physicians for primary care as well, except for ob/gyn issues. It seems like they are more willing to at least try some course of treatment after a patient presents.

After a long time (20 years) without any insurance and almost no preventive care, I finally broke down and went to a primary care doc with a meticulously charted a 6-month long "pain diary" chronicling the progression of pelvic pain and other symptoms that had worsened over the past 5 or 6 years.

She didn't even look at the information I had written down. She didn't prescribe any pain meds, she wouldn't even prescribe me the birth control pills I was already on. She could have at least started the process of figuring out what was going on...blood tests...ultrasounds...etc.

All she did was write me a script for some anti-depressants refer me to an OB/gyn (with whom I couldn't get an appointment for about three months) and charge me $150.

Needless to say, I was pissed. So I scheduled an appointment with another physician on the recommendation of an acquaintance three days later and got in the same day. He took action immediately and ordered all the appropriate tests, which helped the specialist immensely and gave me the piece of mind that what I was experiencing wasn't all in my mind...if that makes sense. And he did script me some mild narcotics, which helped me function and not be disabled for 2 weeks out of every month.

young docs that I've seen (the fresh out out med school type) seem afraid to prescribe anything stronger than advil, older docs are more understanding, from my experience. Too old, though, and then you start have other probs (such as homophobia, senility, etc). True, prejudice comes in all ages, but seems to be more prevalent in older docs, from my experience).



another young, fresh out of med school doc, had a hissy fit when he found out my 93 yr old grandmother was still driving herself to the grocery store. She drove just fine and was fully there upstairs. He then got social services involved and then got her put in a nursing home that nearly killed her (they withheld food and water, for one - by putting it across room despite the fact that she had become bedfast).

She was not on any medications, except for vitamins, and then got a bladder infection and didnt take the complete round of meds (she was always bad about that, even when in her 20s and 30s). So, it got worse and she collapsed and ended up in hospital. She had always had low blood pressure, and infection made it worse, so they put her on uppers and after keeping her awake for 3 days she started hallucinating (well, duh! that'd happen to anyone). And that was the excuse for the nursing home. When got her out of nursing home, the doc had another hissy fit and wrote a bunch of scripts that when we looked them over, some were deadly when combined.

I'll avoid a young doc any time I can. Give me one that's at least in their 40s, if not 50s.

Yeah. I just got assigned a new doctor because my case was changed to workman's comp, so while a work comp case I've got this new doctor. I think it's his first real position. Young guy and not too bright. Not only is he afraid to prescribe anything, he gets the names and mg qtys wrong. He gets them mixed up. I don't know how you make these kind of mistakes after med school on two of the most commonly prescribed meds. I would be more specific, but who knows who surfs these boards. I know a lot of folks in med field are addicts and use sites like this. So answer, stick with older experienced doctors if you can. Bottom line I have MRI showing clearly with 3 specialists I have severe issues that are obviously causing extreme pain. This kid doesn't get it. Karma will get him. Maybe he'll have a skiing accident and he'll get a oc who says take two aspirin. I know that's mean, but this guys driving me crazy.

Zoomster, he/that would drive me crazy too.

Are you just gonna take a deep breath and try to work him a bit? You know, listen to what he says, look impressed, and then give him a leading question so he will mention the drug in question.

Make him think it is his idea. Reminds me of a work term I used to use, call managing UP.

Wish you the best, and yes I agree w/your mean thought about the ski accident. Too bad there is not some virtual experience where doctors can feel the pain so many CPers feel every day.

Older docs imo. I don't need pain killers but for anxiety. Too bad my "compassionate" doc was BUSTED for being just that. But he was young and Vietnamese. The DEA even called me wanting for information. The hardest med I got from him was hydro cough syrup when I had bronchitis.