Federal authorities have been probing roughly 5,000 pilots suspected of withholding major health issues that could imperil their ability to fly safely::Nearly 600 of the pilots who are being investigated have licenses to fly the general public on passenger airlines, according to The Washington Post.
I went through a somewhat similar situation to you it seems. I’m a pilot in Canada who had some medical issues and wanted to do the right thing and report it. Talked to my aviation medical examiner and he said it should be resolved within a month or two but it would need to be reviewed by the provincial head aviation medical examiner as it was a unique case. They came back wanting me to have 2 years of tests done costing $10k+ per year and monthly appointments to confirm I was fit to fly, and even after that I wouldn’t be allowed to fly alone to start which was required for the training I was doing at the time. So sadly I no longer fly. I tried taking it to a tribunal but that process was so disgusting slow it didn’t make a difference, lawyers could have helped but I didn’t have enough funds for one, my training was interrupted and it would have taken years to fight it. In terms of solutions, I really have no idea what can be done without a complete overhaul in the aviation medical system. The current system essentially requires a perfect health pilot or you don’t get a medical and it just encourages people to hide issues. It’s probably the major reason why alcoholism is so high among commercial pilots, it’s one of the few things that doesn’t put their career in danger as long as they stick to the rules.