[Perspectives] The cost of diagnosis

“It is a truth universally acknowledged”, Meghan O’Rourke writes in her memoir The Invisible Kingdom (2022), “that a young woman in possession of vague symptoms like fatigue and pain will be in search of a doctor who believes she is actually sick.” O’Rourke, who spent years struggling to name her illness, captures the essence of the diagnostic quest—the longing for a label that makes sense of suffering. A diagnosis offers not only an explanation but also a language to translate pain into meaning.