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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
I’m offended they don’t do a sperm count and motility check before my routine medical appointments. X-rays can damage them, and there seems to be no priority to safeguard my ability to procreate before my necessary and unreleated medical treatment is initiated.
“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.
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”.
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 HIPPAA block this info without court action? Can an investigator just ask and be told?
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.
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
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.
It’s HIPAA, not HIPPA and if she or the doctor are being charged with a crime, court is presumably involved.
“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.”
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.
“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.
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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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.
Eh, you’re velma, I’ll let it slide cuz you do a lot of heavy lifting yourself around here.
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.
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
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.
Edit: I’m assuming Celsius here as no specifier of given
100F I’m assuming
Wow you are very clever.
Bro, what?
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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.
Science has finally discovered what people have known forever: exercise doesn’t release dopamine in all people.
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.
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.
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 tried star award meme.gif
Thanks lemmy-silver.jpg
Would love to see this. Every time I’ve had the misfortune to take a family member to the ER, it’s disgusting how fast they roll that payment cart up to you and get in your face about insurance, etc.
Your ER has a payment cart?! Good lord. I’ve been to our local ER for my parents quite a few times over the last several years, and payment has never been brought up. Even if the visit was non-emergent. They just mail you a bill later on down the road.
And? Were you a smoker of any specific race?
Cubans of course.
According to the DSM, Cubans are usually machete wounds. Hatchets are for the Africans and Irish.
“what my race was.”
The half-marathon!
Not with an axe in my leg.
Well it might have been a full marathon, that got cut short.
Race is like the most irrelevant medical information I could imagine. Might as well ask for shoe size, or what you had for breakfast yesterday.
Could somebody ELI5 to me why Americans think it’s important to know what your genetic lineage is?
It’s actually pretty relevant. Different
racesancestries* have different predispositions for certain diseases.you have no idea how minor the physiological difference are been ethnic groups. it’s almost nothing. most of the differences are straight up racism from the past and it still kills not white people at much high rates in emergency rooms, child birth, and life threatening diagnosis, which was always the point.
edit: If this makes you mad, please, educate yourself, if you diagnose based on ethnicity, then use statistics based on that diagnose are you killing people for not being white enough to get regular treatment without assumptions. are we ignoring cancer markers in ethnicity Irish people because stats say they have diabetes at high rates? no? just people who don’t have pale skin. those stats come with a 20%-30% misdiagnosed rate RIGHT NOW, you think that was better 20 years ago where the stats still are on record?
Is it? Hispanic people have a 50% higher risk of type 2 diabetes for example. Sickle cell is much higher in African American people.
I’m happy to be corrected on this with sources though!
Hey Velma! I was procrastinating at work, when I saw your comment. We don’t use race anymore within medical science. We refer to genetic ancestry based on Principal Components. It’s a subtle, but extremely important distinction in science. Race is a social construct, genetic ancestry is the far better marker. So instead of Hispanic people, we’d say people of Hispanic ancestry
I really appreciate the update on the language used! Ancestry - noted :)
Well, Caucasian Europeans share more DNA with certain African black people than they do with certain other Caucasian Europeans for example. The colour of the skin is but a small factor in our make-up.
It most likely has more to do with where they live, what they eat and their socio-economic status than by how much melanin is in their skin.
Except maybe the proneness to skin cancer and other skin diseases.
There’s certainly exceptions like sickle cell:
Sickle Cell Disease
One in 500 African Americans will develop sickle cell disease, an inherited red blood cell disorder. It is uncommon in other ethnic groups.
https://www.realtoughlawyers.com/blogs/people-of-color-are-often-misdiagnosed
when you diagnose based on race, and you don’t collect data on lesser races, and deny access to health care to lesser races, and you teach doctors how to diagnose based on race, you get REALLY SHIT STATISTICS and then you rely on those statistics to continue to justify racist medical treatment. don’t worry black patient, you don’t have cancer, you’re black! you have diabetes! NEXT!!
Do they feel pain less then white people do? because that’s still taught in medical schools. Do they need to be diagnosed with diabetes instead of cancer when they have the same symptoms of white people with cancer? because not white patients get diagnosed with cancer at slower rates allowing them to die more frequently of cancer compared to white patients using EXACTLY THE ARGUMENT YOUR USING NOW
That is not the argument I’m making.
you’re out here fighting hard to keep medical intake race based. what exactly are you in favor of? Do you not know you’re fighting for deeply racist medical practice in the US?
No wonder America’s got a problem with institutional racism if the health system is literally racist.
Edit: I’m not denying that genetics plays a role in medical issues. My wife and I are shortsighted, kid’s shortsighted. My dad and I have ADHD, kid’s got ADHD.
But for race being so relevant I wonder nobody has ever asked my wife, any of my kids or me what race we are. And assuming a scientific relevance, which attributes define race exactly? It is the color of skin, shape of nose, the curliness of hair? Am I black if I’m from North Africa? Am I Caucasian or Asian if I’m from Siberia? If I’m 1/3 black and look like it, am I black even though the other 2/3 are Caucasian?
I do genetic research. Acknowledging that there are different genetic predispositions for different genetic ancestries is not racist. It’s like saying that talking about race is the same as racism.
I have definitely been asked if I’m Hispanic before for medical reasons.
In the USA almost all medical practices use standard EMR software from a small number of vendors. Epic EMR is one popular example.
There are some valid medical reasons to know the patient’s race or ethnicity, but IMO it’s mostly about metrics, data harvesting, statistical analysis, etc. There is a lot of money in data, and it’s cheap to store data points like race or ethnicity in a cloud database. And it’s cheap to punch down on workers and make them collect it from patients.
Sometimes this data is used for studies, but that’s not the prime motivating factor. Data = money. Data = job justification. Race is just one data point of many. I won’t speculate on all the things they could use it for, but there is little doubt they want it. They always ask at any provider I have ever been to.
In the USA, there are a frightening number of middle layer business entities that are basically rent-seekers who drive up the cost of health care. These entities are invisible to most of our population, and they like it that way. This network of entities is very complicated and boring (which is a good way to hide evil). A couple of easy examples would include PBMs and PSAOs. Not everything they do is useless but they are also a kind of tautology: we think we need them because we already have them in place.
Lina Khan was trying to clean some of this shit up, but then the Big Stupid of 2024 happened.
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)
I like how doctors definitely judge you based on how you dress, but there’s no upside.
Person is well dressed and very put together? They obviously don’t have real problems™
Person is messily dressed? Their problems are their own fault (and impossible to solve)
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.
Pregnancy and infants for that matter need specialists, it is what it is. It’s like complaining that a general practitioner can’t do a colon bypass.
Sure, they learned the theory, butt
Right. And a GP knows when they can treat something or when they need to send you to the specialist.
The issue (at least in my wife’s hospital) is ER docs seeing pregnant and immediately throwing the case next door, instead of following the proper protocols.OP’s comic is just a patient not seeing the relevance, but the situation is as frustrating (from her point of view) because it appears that some professionals see a patient with a vagina and immediately forget everything else.
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
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.
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.
“I can’t help you until you lose weight!”
RU fat and it’s the first thing your doctor always tells you?
R U brain dead? (Yes)
But the woman in the comic doesn’t need to lose weight. Who needs to lose weight?
Women are often told to lose weight when they seek care from doctors whether or not the ailment is related to their weight or if they are even overweight to begin with.
It’s a common way to dismiss women’s symptoms.
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!
In chart notes: “Patient is difficult and combative.”
combative
So much so that she even gets involved in shootings!
I don’t know why you would get so worked up about this
That’s why he’s asking for her period
😂😂
Correct answer: “Period of what?”
Menstrual period.
*Period of what question mark
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.
Fake, he didn’t say it was psychosomatic and offer Zoloft
It’s fake because he didn’t tell her to lose weight.
Don’t certain medications interfere with your hormones? Doesn’t a period change your hormone balance?
Asking when someone’s last period was in the process of a diagnosis seems reasonable.
Yes but this is ignoring the implied context of the doctor not paying attention to what was being said and instead immediately assumes that the woman is “being emotional because of her period”, which unfortunately is an all too common issue that women have to deal with.
Modern medicine is held back by decades of ingrained workplace culture that downplayed women’s struggle.
You still see the doctor as acting in good faith, when the comic is making a statement about how doctors do not engage with women’s health concerns in good faith.
bullet in your arm is less hormonal related…
Until medication is given and a potential fetus is damaged and everyone is crying how doctors could miss such obvious things
The solution is to tell the cryers to stfu. A living, breathing, human deserves much more consideration than a hypothetical future human.
This is the most disgusting thing I have read today.
Funny, that’s what I thought about your comment, but I took the time to explain why your pronatalism at the expense is real humans who are pregnant was incredibly fucked up instead of clutching my pearls at the very idea of something different values than me.
Women are more important than fetuses.
Yeah definitely better to force women on an individual level to give up private information despite no relation to the ailment that brought them in.
I have never had a doctor force this issue. Any time I’ve said I don’t care to share, they respect that. It’s not hard.
I have never had a doctor adjust treatment because of where I’m at in my menstrual cycle.
The level of care y’all are assuming women get is hilarious.
So you always ask “are you treating me differently and prescribing different pills or doses because of current events?” or how exactly do you know it?
…are you referring to menstrual cycles as current events?
Obviously.
I have never had any doctor or pharmacist adjust medication due to my menstrual cycle.
This is simply something that doesn’t happen.
My question was “how do you know without asking?”
Hormone levels change daily for women.
Tell me you have no idea about menstrual cycles without telling me, ffs.
What current events are you talking about?
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.
It’s your life, but being cagey about giving information to your doctor seems like a bad idea. They have reasons for asking questions like this. If they are also rude or unwilling to help you, you should find a different doctor.
This was all to different doctors. Urologist, dermatologist, breast exam, gp… the point is my chart says I’m amab. If you ask me this question you clearly didn’t even bother to read passed my name. I regret nothing.
Really, we should just remove the mandatory pregnancy tests before giving medical care to women, and instead inform them before a procedure, that can affect a pregnancy, what the risks are and offer a free pregnancy test before scheduling the procedure.
But then how will we shame queer (or worse childfree) people for having ambitions in life other than birthing and raising future minimum wage workers?
Given the plethora of other ways to marginalize women (and LGBTQ people). I don’t see this being a major issue. We’ll just have to rely on tried and true options like dismissing sexual assault, pay inequity, and pockets.
remove the mandatory pregnancy tests
What does that solve? According to webMD 1/2500 pregnancies are undetected until labour. Meanwhile 1/500 don’t know they are pregnant until week 20.
Obviously doctors shouldn’t be gatekeeping healthcare, and women should be able to opt out, but I don’t see how collecting less data benefits patients.
edit: Like in Canada they started taking blood pressure at everything not just medical doctors. Dentist, physio, everyone. Cuz they weren’t getting enough historical data by the time issues arose?
I don’t see how collecting less data benefits patients.
It takes time and effort to collect and consider that data. You’ll note that we don’t do full body MRI scans of everyone at the ER or when they visit their PCP, and that benefits patients because it reduced costs, respects their time, and makes their Dr. more available. There is a tradeoff to collecting that data, sure, you can argue that administering a pregnancy test is fairly short and consequence free interaction. However, the over-the-counter tests are advertised as “99% accurate” so about 1/100 women are going to get a false results, complicating the care for a lot more people that the 1 in 500 undetected pregnancies.
It also shows preferential treatment for a hypothetical person over the actual person seeking immediate care. Imagine being in pain, confident that you aren’t pregnant, not giving a flying fuck if you are, and the people you are paying hundred of dollars an hour to help you are slow rolling your care because of potential consequences for a statistically unlikely fetus. You would rightly be very fucking pissed off about it.
Asking a woman if she is pregnant should happen before anything is done that will affect her health if she is, and the testing should be opt-in, instead of opt-out with a slew of lawyers and waivers.
You’ll note that we don’t do full body MRI scans of everyone at the ER or when they visit their PCP,
Strawman fallacy. Pregnancy tests are cheap and quick.
There is a tradeoff to collecting that data, sure, you can argue that administering a pregnancy test is fairly short and consequence free interaction. However
Unsubstantiated argument.
“99% accurate” so about 1/100 women are going to get a false results, complicating the care for a lot more people that the 1 in 500 undetected pregnancies.
Another unsubstantiated strawman. An unexpected result can easily be retested.
it also shows preferential treatment for a hypothetical person over the actual person seeking immediate care
Red herring. Already said opting out should be a right.
Imagine being in pain, confident that you aren’t pregnant,
AND BEING WRONG. Which statistically happens as per web MD. 1/500 pregnant women spend half their pregnancy unaware they are pregnant. ~7000 women per year in the USA
the people you are paying hundred of dollars an hour to help you are
Exclusively American problem bro.
and the testing should be opt-in, instead of opt-out with a slew of lawyers and waivers.
Strawman. Again sounds like an exclusively american problem. Opting out in canada is as simple as the doctor clicking a checkbox.
Every problem you’ve described has nothing to do with pregnancy testing.
AND BEING WRONG.
Yeah assuming all women are going to be wrong about the last time they had sex is a problem.
I think they were more concerned about a very small number of women being wrong, not all women.
Which is even worse in my opinion, as a very unlikely problem (1/500 pregnant women didn’t know they were pregnant) affecting a small number of patients (~9% of women visiting the ER are pregnant) is more important than all the reasons not to do a pregnancy test. Some rough math says that’s about 1/5000 women that visit the ER will not know that they are pregnant. We’re administering 5000 tests to catch 1 pregnancy. Low-end estimate puts the cost of administering those tests at 500,000 dollars. Half a million spent on a 1/5000 chance, that someone does not know they are pregnant.
4,999 women will have their care delayed to save 1 statistically likely fetus. 500 of those women will get a false result on their test, creating more delays and issues with their care.
We are disrespecting women’s health so fucking much on the off chance that there may be an unknown potential person in them, it’s ridiculous. And those numbers even assume that the 1/5000 person wouldn’t opt for the test just to be sure when prompted.
From the Wikipedia page about a Strawman fallacy…
A straw man fallacy (sometimes written as strawman) is the informal fallacy of refuting an argument different from the one actually under discussion, while not recognizing or acknowledging the distinction
Your literal point that I copy/pasted as a quote in my reply.
I don’t see how collecting less data benefits patients
My point, copy/pasted from my comment.
It takes time and effort to collect and consider that data. You’ll note that we don’t do full body MRI scans of everyone at the ER or when they visit their PCP, and that benefits patients because it reduced costs, respects their time, and makes their Dr. more available.
I am literally providing a very compelling reason on why we collect less data in order to benefit patients.
I refute your ability to understand a strawman fallacy.
After reading your whole comment, I have low confidence your ability to construct an argument, and you seem to repeatedly rely on misunderstanding (or mischaracterizing) of my arguments and the fundemental fallacies you’ve accused me of using.
Rather than dive into your gish gallop, I would ask that you demonstrate your commitment to arguing in good faith by apologizing for accusing me of creating the first “strawman”, and admitting that you either did not understand my argument, did not understand what a strawman is, or admitting that you accused me while intentionally knowing that it was based on false pretenses.
That surprise pregnancy at week 20 happened to me 😳 Baffling how I had no symptoms, just one day my skinny pants wouldnt fasten, and a quick trip to the doctor, found out I was 5 months pregnant 😳
Edit: come to think of it, I’m an idiot, ignore me.
Some people will then refuse the test, wrongly believing that they aren’t pregnant.
Some people are getting the test, and wrongly believing that they are pregnant. What’s your point here?
Some people may be absolutely sure they aren’t pregnant. Testing is necessary because people are unreliable.
Testing is necessary because people are unreliable.
It’s not necessary if the issue is not related to being pregnant.
No shit. But if it is, the test should not be optional.
No, fuck that.
They should tell you “if you are pregnant, this procedure may have these risks to you or the fetus, would you like to take a pregnancy test beforehand?” And if they say “no” then that is the end of it.
Honestly sometimes I’m glad people mistake me for a cisguy so I don’t have to deal with this bullshit.
Not often, but sometimes.
I’d trade it for passing in a heart beat.
It would suck if you were at the doctor and you failed your heart beat.
“Huh, I think this thing is broken, shows no pulse”
-Naah, I’m just dead on the inside
