11 diseases doctors are most likely to miss

Most women won’t show symptoms of ovarian cancer until later stages, and even then the signs will be vague. One of the most common symptoms is bloating, which could also point to everything from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) to a bad diet, says Dr Brunilda Nazario, lead medical editor at WebMD. “Would ovarian cancer be on the list? Absolutely, but low on the list,” says Dr Nazario. If you suspect ovarian cancer, getting genetic testing that reveals a family history can drive a diagnosis quicker, she says.

This autoimmune disease can attack almost every system in your body, showing up as fever, fatigue, facial rash, skin lesions, shortness of breath, dry eyes and more. “If you meet all the symptoms, that’s an easy diagnosis,” says Dr Albert Ahn, a clinical instructor at NYU Langone Health in the USA. “Unfortunately, the vast majority of patients do not.” Adding to the confusion for doctors, a patient’s blood tests might appear completely normal. Lupus can also look similar to rheumatoid arthritis, he says. Your doctor might try several treatments before diagnosing lupus; the hope is that you have a condition that is easier to treat or manage.

Fibromyalgia symptoms are so vague that some doctors have questioned its existence even though the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognises it. “Classically, they suffer from two things: fatigue and diffuse body pain,” says Dr Nazario. “Neither one of those things is visible to the eye.” You can’t test levels of exhaustion and pain the way you could, say, a fever, and the two are so vague that doctors need to rule out a laundry list of other diseases before blaming it on fibromyalgia. To speed up the diagnosis, Dr Nazario recommends going to your doctor, not just with the symptom (“I’m fatigued”) but how it affects you (“I don’t have the energy to walk my kid to school”).

A thyroid that isn’t producing enough hormones can be hard to catch. All of the symptoms – including constipation, dry skin, weight gain and thinning hair – are too vague to be real red flags, particularly the most common one: fatigue. Still, don’t let fear of complaining keep you from reporting your exhaustion to the doctor. It might take some time to pin down the cause, but your symptoms could get worse over time if you don’t catch it.

With hemochromatosis, your body produces too much iron. It’s a genetic condition that people are born with, yet it rarely shows symptoms before age 50. Often those who find it early stumble upon it randomly, such as when a blood test reveals mild liver inflammation, says Dr Ahn. Left unchecked, hemochromatosis could lead to heart problems, liver damage and diabetes. If you know the condition runs in your family, get hereditary testing or have your iron levels checked. If you do have it, there is a treatment: “It’s a little primitive, but it’s almost like blood-letting,” says Dr Ahn. “You donate blood once a month or every few months, and it’s relatively well controlled.”

Based on 2016 global data, some 127 million new cases of chlamydia were reported in men and women aged between 15 and 49 that year, and the number is on the rise. The sexually transmitted disease usually doesn’t cause symptoms, so the actual number of infections could be even higher. Even if you don’t notice a discharge or a burning sensation when you pee, sexually active adults should be screened at least once a year or after having unprotected sex with a new partner, says Dr Ahn.

Hepatitis C can work its harm silently for years – it can take decades for symptoms to show up, and by that point, it will have caused chronic liver problems. Baby boomers are the most at risk; in part thanks to outdated medical practices when doctors would reuse needles; but also because widespread screening of blood donors for the disease didn’t begin until 1992, so anyone who got a blood transfusion before then is at risk. The CDC recommends people born between 1945 and 1965 get tested at least once. While good treatments didn’t exist until the last seven years or so, prospects are much better now. “We have extremely effective, highly successful options that can cure within six weeks of taking the medication,” says Dr Ahn.

This is a tough one to identify – doctors can only diagnose IBS when they can’t find anything else physically wrong with a patient. Doctors first try to rule out other potential causes for the digestive issues – from simple dehydration to the inflammatory bowel disease and autoimmune condition, Crohn’s disease. IBS also can have ever-changing symptoms, from constipation and abdominal pain one day to diarrhoea the next – and then disappear completely, says Dr Nazario. “It takes a long time to diagnose, and the patient gets frustrated in the process,” she says.

If you are concerned that you might have IBS, check out these 7 sneaky things that trigger IBS symptoms.

Some patients write off their snoring as a minor annoyance for their partner, but it could be the sign of something serious: sleep apnoea, which can significantly increase the risk of heart disease. Those with the condition don’t just snore, they actually stop breathing numerous times throughout the night, which prevents them from reaching a deep restorative slumber. “They sleep in their bed for six, eight, nine hours a night and wake up feeling like they literally didn’t sleep,” says Dr Ahn. People who are overweight are at particularly high risk, but if you’re a snorer don’t hesitate to talk to your doctor no matter your size.

If you’re not sure whether you are suffering from this disorder, don’t be embarrassed, you can put sleep apnoea to bed with 5 simple steps.

Cardiovascular disease (ischaemic heart disease, stroke) is the leading cause of death in the world. Still, many female patients (and their doctors) don’t recognise the signs of a heart attack, which can look markedly different from the classic chest pressure often described by men who have survived a heart attack. Women’s heart attack symptoms can be fatigue, shortness of breath, and discomfort in the neck; if you feel out of sorts and have these signs call emergency services. Experts aren’t sure exactly what drives the differences, but they do know that heart disease in women looks different than in men: “When they do imaging of heart arteries, in men there tends to be a pretty distinct blockage,” says Dr Nazario. “In women, it’s more of a diffuse cholesterol build-up.”

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