I posted a completely unscientific poll on my Facebook page recently asking a simple (but maybe complicated) question: do you think that your doctor/specialist needs to have personally experienced a disorder to effectively or compassionately treat you for it? Does your answer change based on the type of specialty/disorder? The answer on my page, unsurprisingly, was overwhelmingly and unsurprisingly, NO, a doctor needs to have experience treating a disease or disorder, but does not need experience treating it (exception: pregnancy; best if an OB has experienced pregnancy and delivery if they are going to be a woman’s OB…. I vehemently disagree as nearly all my ob/gyn’s have been male except the ones who have been hoisted on me by virtue of who has been on call at delivery time, but that’s another story and falls outside the confines of “microblog” Mondays).
Interestingly, if you pose the same question in a disorder-specific forum (say, migraines, or infertility), you get the polar opposite answer: migraneurs feel overwhelmingly that neurologists must have direct, personal experience with having migraines and infertiles… while not an overwhelming majority, still have a small margin on the side of the majority who at least feel that fertility specialists who have at least some personal connection with infertility (a family member or close friend who has struggled with infertility) makes for a better physician. Personally, I find this to be an extremely curious thing – and probably based solely on confirmation bias and nothing else. The problem is that we all have an extremely small sample size -those of us who have had wonderful physicians without personal disease experience will argue vociferously for the side of not needing direct personal experience, but rather a great deal of treatment experience; but those of us who have had compassionate doctors who have shared personal stories will argue that this is what made them know that this was the doctor for them.
But when you apply this logic to other diseases, the logic starts to break down. Do you require that your neurosurgeon have had a brain tumor or aneurysm in order to operate on yours; or that your general surgeon have had pancreatic cancer (which will surely kill him, as it has a very low survival rate) or an appendectomy (which requires very little empathy on his or her part but does require the raw technical skill of a surgeon); do you require your anesthesiologist to have undergone general anesthesia before s/he puts you under? These may seem ridiculous questions, but if they do, then why do patients insist that a neurologist must have experienced a migraine before they are qualified to treat a migraine?
What about you – do you think your doctor needs to have experience suffering from [migraines/infertility/other] in order to treat you and is there any specific disorder for which you think there is an exception?
[yes, I realize that was nine sentences and that I cheated by using a lot of semi-colons to make for run-on sentences; WORK WITH ME HERE!]
ChezPerky 
I don’t think that a doctor needs to have personal experience with a disease in order to be a compassionate and competent professional. Sometimes, in fact, one’s personal experiences with a disease can cause their own forms of bias. That said, I finally ended up going to an infertility doctor who had experienced infertility herself, and that was a much better experience than my other experiences.
No, I don’t think they need to have personal experience but I think they need to have a personal interest- especially when you’re dealing with something less run of the mill than say an appendectomy. I have a rare nerve disease (rare enough that 20 odd years ago, when I was a teenager and undiagnosed I went to dozens of doctors who all had their own bias depending on what kind of doctor they were- it’s a sprain, it’s a tear, it must be an immune system disorder, you get the idea. Finally, I was correctly diagnosed at UCLA after a year of other doctors. Even then, I was told there was no treatment or cure. It was a number of years later before I found a doctor who actually specialized in Parkinson’s disease (Neurosurgeon) but who found this rare disease I have “fascinating” and worked on it on the side. His interest got me back among the living. I’ll likely never be pain free, but I was finally able to graduate from college, and have a career, and get married. It did rule out kids and there are definite things I can’t do in my day to day life, but I’m a million times better than I was before him- and had he not died much too young who knows? But, my point is he was brilliant and interested- and thinking outside the box because he was interested – it had nothing to do with having the same disease I do, but in his absolute fascination and brilliance. That’s what I look for- interest and compassion. Since then I have seen many doctors who simply think either I’m a drug seeker (Nope, not me) or that I should go back to trying the things that haven’t worked for people with this disease for 50 years. And are invasive.
The medical professional shouldn’t have to have personal experience in an area to provide compassionate and professional care. If I had a specialized concern, I would of course, seek out a medical professional within said specialty. But, my concern within that circle would be a doctor with an active mind toward solving medical mysteries.
I definitely have never sought out a doctor who had experienced the same medical problems or even wanted to know that much about my doctor. This relationship is about me, just as my car mechanic needs to be focused on my car and not what he knows about his car. I want friends who are able to relate, but people treating medical issues — I just want them to know how to treat the problem.
Interesting stuff!… (curiously I’m also a mother of triplets)… A competent professional is a competent professional to me. It never occurred to me to even think that one of my fertility specialists would or wouldn’t have a personal connection to infertility. My maternal/fetal doctor did tell me that she had twins & that she too was originally pregnant with triplets and had chosen to reduce the number. Frankly, I could have lived fine without knowing that. I do like when my doctors are into physical fitness and have a good awareness of healthy eating. If I have questions about those things, it’s nice to know that they try to practice what they preach.