“Hm… Is it possible you’re pregnant?”
Nah, you’re just over reacting and emotional. It’s just a flesh wound. I don’t know why you would get so worked up about this!
I went into the ER in Alabama about 20 years ago, and the nurse at intake didn’t even look up when I said there was a hatchet stuck in my leg and started asking if I was a smoker and what my race was.
And? Were you a smoker of any specific race?
Cubans of course.
“what my race was.”
The half-marathon!
I cant fucking find it because of all the slop results but just imagine I linked you a comedy skit of a completely apathetic hospital intake person requesting the name and date of birth of a person unconscious being resuscitated with CPR, and they don’t stop robotically and persistently asking the half-corpse intake questions.
You know I get the joke, I really do. But how hard is it to understand that many people with trauma require a CT scan prior to surgery, which absolutely can radiate and embryo and cause birth defects? Is it really so far-fetched that someone might be pregnant and not know or not want to admit it?
The real joke would be if she was indeed pregnant, and now her actual emergency gets sent to the obgyn department. My wife loves it when the ER don’t want to do their job because baby on board.
It isn’t hard to understand imo. I’m a woman and being asked those questions just comes with having the equipment for it. I actually did refuse to take a pregnancy test prior to a minor surgery (I was on my period so I didn’t see the need) and I had to sign a waiver stating I refused the test and won’t retaliate if any harm comes to the fetus. It’s just par for the course of having a uterus
Most people have extremely limited medical knowledge. I envy them
Yesterday I was standing in the baggage claim customer service desk at the airport, and the woman in front of me was asking about a missing bag. The guy asked to see the bag she had with her and asked her what was inside. She said “Why would you need to see my bag? It has nothing to do with you. The tags on it are clearly from a different airline, and it wasn’t involved in this flight in any way.” She was just holding it for a friend who stepped away.
He just kept insisting “I need to see your bag.” “Why?” “I need to see your bag.” “I’m not showing you my bag, it’s none of your business.” He kept reaching for it.
I thought it was absolutely insane and couldn’t wrap my head around it. Eventually I realized it was because she was a woman that he was being such an obstinate prick. She eventually capitulated, and in my male privilege I thought “Uh uh, make a scene! What’s he going to do? He isn’t a cop!”
Life can be bullshit sometimes.
Nothing to do with women, it’s the doctors the problem.
I’m too young to be sick! Too healthy ‘looking’! Like the fuck. You want me to put on some corpse makeup so you’ll take me seriously? Mom’s friend had breast cancer and they caught it late because she always dressed well, but I’m dressed like a slob and just told I’m lazy instead!!
Hrghghghghhgg
When I went to ENT due to sudden tinnitus and loss of hearing higher frequencies in my left ear (which also felt a bit disorienting), they just tested my hearing with a machine that only went up to 6kHz, she said it was mostly fine, and that humans don’t need to hear above 6kHz anyway.
So hey audiophiles, you’ve heard it, 12kHz sample-rate is HiFi.
I used a tone generator to recreate my tinnitus, it’s about a 13k tone. I didn’t know they stop testing after 6k
ooo, i remembered testing this a while back. mine is a constant pitch: E11 or 42kish (i thought it was E12 but i just tested again to be sure). before my tinnitus showed up, i had damn good relative pitch. now i have nearly perfect pitch, and it’s all comparing the interval to the note that has not stopped ringing for 30 years.
Yeah, science!
We peaked at Doom (1993)
While there is definitely an issue of women receiving worse treatment, the providers have good reasons to ask; namely there are a lot of tests where they have to know if you could be pregnant before they can run them, even an X-ray. If you just tell them you’re pregnant up front, then they can save you a blood draw for an HCG test. Otherwise, they probably will, to make sure.
Edit: This blew up, so I wanted to clarify something. This is clearly a very common and frustrating experience for many women who may feel bullied into giving up private information. I don’t want anyone to think that they must answer all the doctor’s questions. You have a right to refuse to answer questions and to refuse care. Read the rest of the thread and stay informed of your rights.
These days in certain US states a court could use this date as a starting point to say the abortion pills you used a few months later were for a pregnancy that must have been over six weeks. Or the same doctor could deny you the pills. Even though you might just have very long or very short cycles.
Does HIPPA block this info without court action? Can an investigator just ask and be told?
What guarantee do you have that those rules won’t be revised? Or that someone won’t hack & leak it?
remember it’s Hippa the HIPAA Hippo
It varies by state and then it varies by case. In some of these cases, it was the nurses that reported these women to the police.
Hundreds of US women charged with pregnancy-related crimes since fall of Roe
The report indicates there are far more cases of miscarriage criminalization than have made national headlines. In one widely covered case in late 2023, police charged an Ohio woman with felony abuse of a corpse after she miscarried into a toilet. In another, earlier this year, a Georgia woman who had been found bleeding and unconscious after a miscarriage faced one count of concealing the death of another person, and one count of throwing away or abandonment of a dead body. The charges against both women were ultimately dropped.
Nine cases discovered by Pregnancy Justice involved allegations that women had considered abortions, such as ordering abortion pills or looking for information about abortion online. Only one woman in those cases was charged with violating a criminal abortion ban, likely because it is legal in most states to “self-manage” one’s own abortion. US abortion bans tend to penalize providers and people who help abortion patients, not the patients themselves.
In 2025, lawmakers in at least 12 states – including Alabama and Oklahoma – introduced legislation that would treat fetuses as people, which would leave women who have abortions vulnerable to being charged with homicide. In several of those states, that charge would carry the death penalty.
“What our work has proven is that, unfortunately, anything is possible when it comes to policing pregnancy,” Sussman said.
Yes this type of information is covered by HIPAA and should never be disclosed without a warrant.
Just because it shouldn’t be disclosed doesn’t mean it’s never disclosed.
“No, I am not menstruating.” “No, I have never been pregnant.” I tell them I’m a trans woman. “No, they did not implant a uterus in me.” “Yes, I’m sure. 😅”
I’ve also made a mental note to not pee before doctor’s visits, in case they want me to pee for them.
Going to the doctor hits different now.
I routinely decline urine and blood tests because I got my tubes tied in my 20s and have been on merana for years, both clearly documented in my files. My doctors still somehow magically find a way to treat me without it.
Just food for thought :) I’m sure not every doctor is willing to respect your privacy, but some are :)
That sounds exhausting. I’m sorry that you’re met with so much ignorance and disrespect. I would probably complain to the patient ombudsman if this is a recurring issue.
I think there’s been some spotlight on the sad state of women’s healthcare in the news, but I’ve not seen much about trans care. I hope that improves, but I’m not optimistic under the current administration.
I’m not optimistic under the current administration.
That is what I like to call “a gross understatement”.
If that were the case, they would accept “my tubes are tied and I’ve additionally been on long term birth control since I was a teen and thus haven’t had periods or pregnancy risk in decades” or “I have not been sexually active in several years”
But they don’t, they say “just give us an estimate on when the last one was”
Tubal ligation and birth control, while wildly effective, aren’t 100%. Plus, there are probably other reasons they want to know about menstruation other than pregnancy. They’re just checking a box, let 'em get on with it.
Do you have to regularily answer when your last bowel movement was because it could be related?
No, of course not, not unless it seems -actually- related.
Thats not what women deal with. We are asked even when it is so wildly unlikely to be related (as comic above) as to be functionally impossible as a cause.
Because there’s a chance.
But no, sometimes there isn’t, and I will abort if I just happen to be wrong (something I tell my docs who are concerned I might be pregnant, because I have ZERO desire to have kids), give me my fucking healthcare.
I had my uterus yeeted in 2015 and I kept getting asked until my hair was so white they were willing to accept that I couldn’t remember.
To counter with another anecdote, my 55-yo wife never gets asked. When I showed her the comic she didn’t understand it. Being Asian, she has no white hair, wrinkles and hasn’t had a hysterectomy.
See my other comment about my oh-so-rare doc actually remembering who I am as a patient, even after not seeing me for a year.
Yeah this is what I mean. We don’t have to answer this question just because it’s a checkbox on a form at the doctor’s office. Sorry it took so long for them to accept what you were saying.
While the comment immediately below this is basically “rofl thats not a problem!”
Lemmy is a trip… supposedly heavily leftist, which strongly implies feminist, but actually anything but…
At this point, im not at all convinced its actual leftism anymore. Its sounding more and more like Green MAGA everywhere I go.
On topic, I am still utterly appalled at how many stories I see about women’s cancer being misdiagnosed by lazy/shithead physicians. I dont know what to do about it though, and frankly its depressing to see community after community willfully ignore the problem.
It gets my goat how leftist and progressive everyone pretends to be here only to see the most sexist shit get typed out into comments. It’s maddening.
I’ve appreciated your comments in this thread a lot <3
I’ve been here for a long time fighting against the absolute dick-wavey crap this platform is. Idk if you have with other accounts, but if not:
first wave - lots of women came with during the api nonsense.
6mths later, most women driven off by a preponderance of bad behavior. Because the vast majority of commenting lemmy are shit men with shit opinions (don’t tell me I’m wrong, idgaf what you say, prove me wrong.)
Every other wave has been a repeat but with fewer women showing up each time. Because every man on this platform seems to think he has authority to speak about women’s issues, and women rightly nope the fuck out.
I genuinely wish I had some other platform to go to, I haven’t liked being here for a long time… but at least it riles me up enough for my feminist flag to fly on fire. Maybe that helps someone.
It may as well be different people, no need to get that mad about people pretending
They’re just checking a box, let 'em get on with it.
I don’t answer that question unless it’s pertinent to why I’m seeing a doctor in the first place. We don’t have to give them this information every time.
It’s actually fairly relevant to your overall physiological functioning, hence why they want to know. Not sure why it’s such a sticking point for your doctor to ask a question about your physiological functioning, regardless of whether or not you think it’s relevant. Being a woman myself and a nurse, I understand that medical care is often lacking for women, but doctors assessing where you are in your menstrual cycle is not the reason why. In fact, I would be way more wary of a physician who doesn’t ask
The US is also in the middle of rolling back women’s rights to bodily autonomy and tracking women having miscarriages in order to imprison them.
I don’t give a fuck about giving my last period date if I’m seeing the doctor for a gunshot wound. My doctors don’t push for a period date if I don’t want to give one either.
Honestly the technicians are probably required to fill out the date section of the form in order to proceed to the next tab. Doctors don’t torture people for fun.
As someone who builds said forms: that is why we put “patient declined to answer” as an option along with “not applicable”, “unknown” and other ways to get past the questions without having to put in a fake answer. “The computer won’t let me keep going without you answering the question” is a weak-ass excuse.
It’s not a requirement to move onto the next form.
Doesn’t mean I won’t fight it, because they don’t actually need to know for most reasons. When they actually need to know, they have ways of asking that eliminate doubt, like “hey you are trying to get a uterine ablation, which causes scar tissue in your uterus that prevents proper implantation of fertile eggs. We need to be entirely sure you are sterile before you get this proceedure done, and that you recognize the implications”. (A proceedure I have tried to have done but it failed because my cervix is amazing!!! Powerful warrior cervix wouldn’t let boiling liquid or energetic mesh in!)
I fight against their data collection bullshit for fun and for others, because there’s no chance whatever that I’m pregnant and I know that. (tubal aside, I haven’t had sex in years and prefer my life that way. My tubal, at this point, is mostly BC in case of rape, I’m otherwise just not generally sexually active). I don’t need some asshole doctor accusing me of getting an abortion because my periods are basically never to begin with.
Tell them it was in march of 1623
Edit: not really, even justifiably annoying a person whose attention to your situation could save your life is a bad idea, but that’s what I always want to tell them
I kinda do that, if they really push against my “are you serious? Genuinely serious?” I give them a date when I was 16, which was like 25 years ago, because its the last time I can reliably say I had one that wasn’t just hormone withdrawal (which is the actual reason the pill gives “periods” in the week of placebo pills, it’s not a real period)
My docs and nurses would genuinely find that funny af tho (their patents are mostly old men, and they find my levity quite disarming and enjoyable because they see me frequently enough for my kind of humor to be a hit) so I am gunna do that the next time they insist.
They have you do a pregnancy test in those cases regardless.
Yes, they can’t take your word for it. I was just implying that if you already told them you are pregnant then they can save a step since the safe choice is to not do the test.
Disclaimer: I’m not a doctor
Right, but asking about a person’s menstrual cycle is different than asking if they’re pregnant. Just throwing that out there.
Yes, but there are other physiological reasons why it may be pertinent. For instance, the clotting factors in your blood may behave somewhat differently depending on which phase of the menstrual cycle you are in, or in relation to several ovarian or hormonal conditions that would affect menstruation and present with changes to the menstrual cycle. That could ultimately be relevant to the treatment for a traumatic injury. But you wouldn’t know that, because you are not a physician
I get what this comic is pointing out, and I understand that many women receive subpar care, but your doctor asking you about your menstrual cycle should NOT be a sticking point for you as a patient. It is frequently relevant, and most doctors are not just asking questions for the fun of it. Overall, medicine is continually advancing, and we are seeing much more research done on female bodies. The majority of graduating physicians are now female, and that scale continues to tip farther and farther each year.
If you find yourself getting annoyed at the questions the doctor is asking you, take a deep breath and try to answer them honestly while continuing to advocate for your needs. Refusing to answer your doctor’s questions rarely does you or your doctor any good
All of those things might be relevant if they actually bothered to study how those things happen and change throughout the cycle.
They do not. Laughably do not. I encourage you to verify for yourself that women’s issues are not even studied. Only wothin the last year we got a crash test dummy built to be female from the ground up, rather than a re-scaled male dummy.
None of those things are considerations. None of the realities for women are considered. Mostly because none of those things are remotely known because nobody studies women.
Super fun cycle!
If you find yourself getting annoyed at the questions the doctor is asking you, take a deep breath and try to answer them honestly while continuing to advocate for your needs. Refusing to answer your doctor’s questions rarely does you or your doctor any good
I routinely have to educate my doctors on my various health issues, I will maintain my level of skepticism when it comes to these things after years of medical abuse before I finally received a diagnosis.
Doctors aren’t gods. They are fallible. It is a relationship between patient and doctor and they should respect that over checking a box on a form for federal funding.
Oh yeah, and I definitively think the doctor in the comic is being rude and dismissive. I could see the question being used as a proxy for “are you possibly pregnant”, though.
Also, almost all the intake questionnaires you get at the doctor’s office are templates that they have to complete per policy. I just treat them like when they ask me if I have a loyalty card at the store.
almost all the intake questionnaires you get at the doctor’s office are templates that they have to complete per policy.
Are you aware that “policy data collection” has no bearing on what information you actually need to disclose in order to get care? And that it’s prohibitively invasive in a way that it doesn’t need to be for no reason other than to collect incredibly intimate data? (Lots of women aren’t gunna answer your invasive questions, fuck off!) And that that data never ever is meant to help you, the person who is seeking care, but will help the state or maaaaaybe your possibly progeny, who might not ever exist?
Cuz like. You could show up with no ID and lie your butthole out about your life situation, and your care would be functionally identical (insurance notwithstanding), because they need to due dilligence it either way.
So the data collection about female fertility isn’t required, its just another way to keep women down when abortion legality is questionable or overturned.
I understand there are SOME reasons to ask that info, like abdominal or back pain, but thats not the usual complaint that gets the question.
Yeah, you’re less likely to get a false negative.
If it’s that important, they’ll do a blood draw pregnancy test.
Would you rather be asked a slightly rude question by a doctor or have a blood draw?
I mean, they may do the blood draw anyway, but asking the question saves time and money up front.
I’m mostly here to combat the misinformation from people who have never been pregnant before spouting off “facts” like they’re right.
Then they should force men to take pregnancy tests as well. They can’t just take your word for it that you’re not a pregnant transgender man.
Sure, if you’re a trans man, perhaps in the middle of your transitioning where maybe there is a chance you could still get pregnant. Not sure if that’s possible. I’m a developer not a doctor. I don’t see why that would be any different, though. I don’t make the rules, either.
Funny you should mention it because I’ve said the same thing during the design of an app we were building where they needed exactly this information. Since they only had one field for “sex” and it was male/female only, I argued maybe they should leave the pregnancy question enabled if they picked male.
Again. But you can’t just look at someone and know they’re not a pregnant trans man. So better force everyone to take a pregnancy test, including cis men, just in case.
Fake, he didn’t say it was psychosomatic and offer Zoloft
It’s fake because he didn’t tell her to lose weight.
First you have to run this gauntlet of humiliation:
“And before we begin, please step on the scale so we can give you diet advice you have definitely not heard a million times before.”
It’s also pertinent to certain medication dosing regimens which are weight based, but I’m sure most people just get triggered with their self-esteem issues when they step on the scale so they assume it’s for the doctor to poke fun at them for being fat.
Yes, there are medical reasons to step on a scale.
And if someone has had an eating disorder, stepping on a scale and being told to lose weight is the opposite of good medical practice.
Weight, temperature, pulse, and blood pressure are baseline diagnostics that go on your chart every time you visit a doctor.
People fixate on weight, because they’re sensitive to it. But if you kept showing up at the doctor with a 100⁰ fever and the doctor kept saying “We need to get that fever down. Liquids, Tylenol, and bed rest are what you need”, what else do you want the doctor to tell you?
“Hey, there’s a secret panacea that will fix all your problems, but we just won’t give it to you, because it’s too cool to prescribe”?
Like, for a gunshot wound, they’re going to stabilize you as best they can and then it’s going to be a bunch of bandages and bed rest. “Hey, have you lost a much of blood due to a recent period?” isn’t even an unreasonable question to ask.
Not to mention weight is 100% required for accurate medication dosing.
Its also valuable to understand trends. I got real sick once, and kept going back to the dr. Had they not taken my weight every visit, we wouldn’t have been able to track that i lost almost 30 pounds in a month
“Hey, have you lost a much of blood due to a recent period?” isn’t even an unreasonable question to ask.
People only lose about 2-3 tablespoons of blood during a period.
Some of us had much heavier periods than that. I went to the doc once complaining of heavy periods that were making me anemic. She decided to do an exam, so I stripped off, took off my pad, and laid down. She was a little delayed coming back, and when she stuck in the speculum and opened it up I dumped 200ml of blood in her lap.
Yeah the “about” is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence in my comment.
Wouldn’t that make the docs question reasonable? Like aren’t they just asking if you’ve had an abnormal period to cover all the bases? From my admittedly ignorant perspective, all women have periods, they happen every month, it’s a major part of your lives and health, seems a normal thing for doctors to ask about, no?
Like if a random dude is asking you how much you bleed on your period that’s fuckin creepy, but that seems like a basic health question for a doctor to ask to me.
It’s not pertinent when treating a wound like in the comic.
A pregnancy isn’t more important than saving the life of the person with the wound.
Doctors already know how much blood people (it’s not just women that have periods by the way) tend to lose during menstrual cycles.
Ya but that wasn’t asked in the comic, it was asked in the comment I’m referring to. I’m aware it wouldn’t be relevant to a wound, but during a normal physical it would seem a routine question.
Like, for a gunshot wound, they’re going to stabilize you as best they can and then it’s going to be a bunch of bandages and bed rest. “Hey, have you lost a much of blood due to a recent period?” isn’t even an unreasonable question to ask.
Did you not read the conversation that preceded your comment?
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My first gf would easily lose that much a day, every day for 5-6 days. Never knew a woman like that before or since, but outliers exist.
Yes outliers exist and no it would not be a reasonable question for a doctor to ask how much you bled during your last period while they’re treating you for a gunshot wound lol
If it was just put in the chart, it’s not a problem.
The biggest problem is when weight is considered as the first and only medical explanation for symptoms that would prompt further inquiry in a person who isn’t overweight.
The second problem is people are tired of hearing advice about how to lose weight, like, wow, thanks, never heard that before.
The first problem contributes to poorer outcomes because diagnosis and treatment is delayed or missed. And they both contribute to overweight people being more reluctant to go to the doctor, which, again, contributes to poorer outcomes.
Unless you have a stubborn parent, most people around you don’t tell you to lose weight because it is a sensitive topic.
The truth is it’s in the best interest of your health to lose weight and the doctors office should be the one place where you hear that regularly and hopefully any judgment is just perceived. The more consistent this is the less it should seem targeted or judged. A lot of doctors don’t do it anymore and you can probably find one. I get told this and it’s a conversation starter for me to talk about obstacles and progress. I also get told by the dentist to floss more every damn time, but being so sensitive about this as to not see a Dr or dentist seems like an issue in and of itself. Talking about the sensitivity with someone might be the first step in being able to deal with the weight issue.Unless you have a stubborn parent, most people around you don’t tell you to lose weight because it is a sensitive topic.
Hilarious.
IMHO, and not being a doctor or even in the medical field, I think obesity is America’s #1 health problem. Every time I’m in the doctor’s office, every time, I’m the only non-fat person. Now imagine the doctor’s experience. “Fat people keep coming in with problems and I can’t figure it out!” I can see how they get blinded after awhile.
Another thing I’ve noted, next time you see someone in a leg cast, they won’t be skinny unless they’re obviously a teenage athlete. You won’t be able to unsee it.
So I can’t blame docs for wanting to eliminate the issue before them. I feel ya though. I’m a functioning alcoholic. Try getting treated for anything once you admit that.
“Doc, I’ve been drinking a 12-pack of light beer a day for 20-years, this symptom is completely new.”
“Have you thought about cutting down?”
🙄
I’ll leave you with this thought: Installing satellite for a little old preacher man in South Chicago,
“Shalafi, you ever hear the term ‘little old man’ or ‘little old lady’?”
“Of course.”
“Why you think that is?”
Funny enough for a preacher, his take was that we didn’t evolve to be tall or fat and our bodies can’t handle it into old age. 25-years later, that’s still a compelling take.
We little old ladies are little because we shrink, honey. I don’t even have osteoporosis (yay) and I have excellent posture, but I’ve already lost an inch.
I’ve discovered that when you’re old they start measuring again, like when you were a kid. And they replace “When was your last period?” with “Have you had any falls?”
(From now on, my reply to that one is going to be “I refuse to answer on the grounds it will jinx me,” because I said No and then tripped in the middle of crossing the street the next day.)
I brought spinal compression up in that interesting conversation! But as we both agreed, it’s more than that. How many truly tall or truly large people you know in their 70s or 80s?
Anecdotally, the only large elderly person I ever knew was great-grandpa. I suspect he looked like the barrel-chested gangster in “Last Man Standing”. :) He could barely walk in his 70s, BUT, made it to his mid-90s in bed. (Weirdly enough, I cannot find a pic of that actor!)
How many truly tall or truly large people you know in their 70s or 80s?
Most of my dad’s brothers. Anecdotally, that’s about 10 men right there.
Obesity has a lot of social factors to it, too. The only cheap food is junk food, you have to drive everywhere, and your job is sedentary, and you don’t have money to play hockey… I mean, there’s a lot that goes into it. Making everything an individual medical issue is bad policy.
Have a little (or a lot of meat) on your bones is protective for bone breaks for people with osteoporosis, so you might see some leg casts on old skinny people.
But the main thing is, yes, to do a thorough workup and not stop at the first and most obvious possible cause of a symptom. The second thing to do is recognize that the person probably is a) aware of the problem and b) has all the same information you have. I’ve never been surprised by what a doctor told me, neither that I was overweight, or that I change change my diet, or that I should get more exercise. So why waste that time and also endanger the relationship with that?
I think nowadays at least we have GLP-1, which I’ve got some doubts on, but at least it’s something that’s more likely to work than Another Diet.
The problem is the doctor is a doctor. It’s the same with psychologists, the patients are depressed because their life is depressing, but the only thing the shrink can do about it is try and get them to feel better.
By making the problem the patient and not their life, the psychologist is actively doing harm.
But the result is that the psychologists has clients, so the psychologist gets paid, and from that comes a whole host of emotional justifications.
But if you kept showing up at the doctor with a 100⁰ fever
With a 100° fever, you’re not going to the doctor, because you are just dead.
100F I’m assuming
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Well, not every condition, but see my comment above as to what I’ve observed in life.
Ah young one, you see the reason you have no motivation, feel exhausted and sad all the time, and no longer feel any joy from activities is due to a lack of exercise.
Look kid, I’ll do some jumping jacks. Now I’m Smiling! See! You try, and you’ll see. Exercise releases dopamine so that’ll fix you up.
Thanks doc
Science has finally discovered what people have known forever: exercise doesn’t release dopamine in all people.
I see the exhaustion with my wife, because she doesn’t move around. It feeds on itself. “I’m too tired to walk a mile.” Then you will always be too tired to walk a mile.
So few of us get exercise that my doc is happy when I answer “several” to, “How many times a week do you get your heart rate up?” And I’m not talking about “real” exercise, just simple shit like dragging my kayak in and out the swamp, or paddling like mad to get out the sun, or lifting heavy stuff working around the yard.
My little kids screamed while hiking when I told them the creek was 1.2 miles. “A MILE!?” When I was their age we started gym class with a mile jog and then did other stuff. (Two months later they could make that trip with no pain or fatigue.)
As with my comment above on obesity, I can’t blame docs for wanting to eliminate obvious issues. If my windshield is filthy and I’m complaining to the mechanic about my dim headlights, he’s going to start with the obvious. Cleaning the windshield won’t fix the headlights, but it will help and allow him to focus on troubleshooting further. (OK, that’s kinda sloppy but you get the idea.)
Your wife might be anemic, it often goes undiagnosed in women.
Good idea! She eats loads of rice, not much if any iron. Going to ask her. I have iron pills we can try as well. One other thing, we cook in cast iron almost exclusively, so that should cover iron intake?
But anyway, I’ve been so low on blood (bleeding hemeroids) that they damned near did a transfusion on me, still had plenty of energy.
Fellow h-bleeder here, they had to give me iron infusions. I was exhausted and noticed hearing my pulse in my ears because my heart was working overtime trying to oxygenate me
Trouble swallowing? Just take these pills every four hours for two weeks and you’ll be cured!
That’s Parkinson’s for ya. Except the pills are forever.
Every. Damn. Time. 😑
it’s important to ensure they don’t administer some medications to pregnant women.
however, the amount of times doctors have systematically dismissed their patients opinions when they have a vagina is outrageously high.
I love telling them I don’t have a uterus.
“Are you sure you can’t be pregnant?”
“Absolutely sure.”
“We do need to know if you’re pregnant or nursing.”
“Well, I’m not.”
“Would you be willing to take a pregnancy test?”
“I don’t have a uterus. I’m not pregnant. Can we move on?”
it’s important to ensure they don’t administer some medications to pregnant women.
I’m being a bit of a broken record, but they administer pregnancy tests in those cases.
They also don’t ask about your period for the first question when you come in with a gunshot wound.
Yup, the wounded person’s life is more important than a potential clump of cells anyway.
Maybe to you. But is not “my body my choice” all about letting the woman decide that?
I would sacrifise my life anytime if it would help my unborn kid survive.
Your unborn kid wouldn’t survive if you sacrificed your life in this scenario, but ok.
Women have been faced with the choice of saving themselves or their soon-to-be-born child. OP is saying they would opt for the latter. That would be an edge-case, but it can happen.
Punched that question into ChatGPT to see what it spit out. Yep, only a thing in extreme edge cases. It’s almost always, “Baby’s gonna die anyway, save yourself.” But there were some rare instances that weren’t impossible.
I’m aware - I’ve been cut open on a surgery table in order to save my child.
We’re talking about in the case of a patient coming in with a gunshot wound. Doctors are typically going to focus on saving the person in front of them before thinking of saving the clump of cells inside of the patient.
Correct answer: “Period of what?”
*Period of what question mark
Menstrual period.
I’ve really started fucking around with my answer too this.
It’s been awhile. Honestly can’t remember. Period? What’s that? Hmmm, maybe I’m pregnant? Did you read my chart? Yesterday.
All answers I’ve genuinely given at this point.
“Did you read my chart?”
From my IT troubleshooting perspective, I’ve noted that many things my doc asks are for a sanity check on their part. Same reason I may ask “dumb” questions of an end user.
Only had one doc in life who could see me once a year and remember who I was, what my issues were, etc. That’s damned unusual.
