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.
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.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 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.
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.
“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”.
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”
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.
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.
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.
