The problem is the complete dismissal of subjective evidence as being a valid form of evidence. We have deified objective evidence to the point of hubris, denying the existence of anything that doesn't show up easily using our current technology. In my experience, it's less often gaslighting and more often an embarrassing lack of epistemological humility and a pretense that we are have somehow reached the pinnacle of medical technology already and have nothing left to learn.

We're here to treat patients, not test results. If a patient is reporting that they are experiencing distressing symptoms or that something is making them feel better or worse, they deserve to be taken at their word. Ignoring them because our current tests are not sophisticated enough to identify everything invalidates their subjective experience, and that's not patient centered care.

This is the real issue when people are talking about medical gaslighting. Every endometriosis patient being told for years on end that their debilitating symptoms are "normal" period pain. The embarrassing statistics on how long it takes someone with an autoimmune disease to be correctly diagnosed.

We've become too impressed with our technological toys and forgot how to see the real human beings in front of us.