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\nDr. Bayo Curry-Winchell founded Clinicians Who Care, a crowdsourced, free list of doctors who listen to their patientsThe family medicine doctor says she was dismissed twice by medical providers, and also learned in medical school about \u201cdismissive\u201d terms used to describe women patients\u201cI’m so grateful that I was able to put this together to help people,\u201d she says<\/p>\n
Dr. Bayo Curry-Winchell was a medical student when her symptoms started.\n<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of a sudden I noticed that my joints were swollen. And then I was like, \u2018God, I feel really tired.\u2019 \u201c Dr. Bayo, 46, tells PEOPLE exclusively. \u201cAnd then I started to lose my hair.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
She went to one doctor who told her, \u201c’You’re stressed because you’re in medical school.’ And I remember that sitting with me, and I was just like, \u2018No, something’s wrong.\u2019 \u201d\n<\/p>\n
The next doctor thought she was pregnant \u2014 even though her boyfriend, now husband, James, was several states away in Chicago, while she was in Reno, Nevada.\n<\/p>\n
It took visits to seven doctors before \u201cfinally, one doctor took the time to believe me.\u201d\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
Dr. Bayo Curry-Winchell has launched the crowdsourced recommendation list, Clinicians Who Care.<\/p>\n
Kendall Price Photography<\/a><\/p>\n It turned out that Dr. Bayo (pronounced Bye-oh) had the chronic autoimmune disease lupus<\/a>, as well as a clotting disorder. \u201cThat could have changed my whole life where I could have dropped out of medical school if I wouldn’t have gotten the diagnosis and the help that I needed \u2014 because I was really sick,\u201d the family medicine physician tells PEOPLE.\n<\/p>\n The second time a doctor didn\u2019t believe her, it nearly killed her<\/a>. Dr. Bayo had given birth to her second daughter, but when she told her nurse something was wrong, she was dismissed \u2014 twice. It wasn’t until she called her doctor, who discovered that she was bleeding internally<\/a>. “I got transfused five units of blood, and I was hospitalized for two weeks,” she says.\n<\/p>\n The mom to daughters Jordan, 11, and Jaylin, 9, knows she\u2019s not alone: \u201cThis is happening to people across the country,\u201d which is why she started Clinicians Who Care<\/a>. It\u2019s a crowdsourced list of physicians, nominated by their patients, who vouch for their ability to listen. As she explains, \u201cIt’s organic and it’s a real list of stories.\u201d\n<\/p>\n \u201cI thought to myself, if we can search online [or use] Google or Yelp for restaurants, why can’t we create a list for patients?\u201d she tells PEOPLE.\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now<\/a>!\n<\/p>\n Patients can add a physician<\/a> who has changed their life \u2014 or scroll through<\/a> looking for recommendations. As Dr. Bayo says, after it launched, \u201cwithin a day, I knew it was catching fire.\u201d\n<\/p>\n She\u2019s already heard from patients who\u2019ve found physicians through the list. \u201cI had one person who said, ‘It took 42 years for a doctor to believe me.’ \u201d\n<\/p>\n Another person said, “‘I’ve been looking for a doctor that is LGBTQ+ friendly, and now I know this [one is because] I read someone else’s lived experience.’ ”\n<\/p>\n As Dr. Bayo explains to PEOPLE, \u201cTo be able to do something and create something free and patient-recommended \u2026 it feels so good. I’m so grateful that I was able to put this together to help people\u201d.\n<\/p>\n Dr. Bayo adds that the problem of dismissing patients, particularly women, is systemic<\/a>. She recalls learning in medical school of a code used to demean female patients. That code, she said, is WW, or “Whiny Woman”.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n Stock image of a doctor with a patient.<\/p>\n MoMo Productions\/Getty Stock Image<\/p>\n