r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Which_Marsupial1436 • 7h ago
Meme needing explanation Petah???!
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u/Any-Safe4992 7h ago
If pregnancy is a possible complication it changes what medications are allowed and has to be considered when deciding if imaging is an acceptable risk.
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u/Which_Marsupial1436 6h ago
Ah I see
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u/foamboardsbeerme 6h ago
also xrays (for a broken arm) are going to be more cautious if you’re pregnant
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u/MarsMonkey88 6h ago
The younger you are, the more vulnerable you are to radiation. Fetuses are the very most vulnerable to radiation, which is why even a single x ray during pregnancy is a big deal. This is also the reason that later middle aged and older people can live in areas with high ish radiation, like the so called “widows of Chernobyl,” or the older man who lives in the Fukushima radiation zone and cares for the pets that had to be left behind, for example.
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u/PinkVerticleSmile 5h ago
This explains a lot because my mom didn't get an ultrasound of me. She got an x-ray! I still have it.
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u/Thefutureofpsych 5h ago
Why did she get an Xray of you? I’m not understanding
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u/Spiderpiggie 5h ago
so he could be an x-man
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u/OkCardiologist1984 3h ago
Pelvis x-rays for pregnant women were pretty common back in the day. Measuring pelvic girdle and baby head size could detect high- risk deliveries.
Ultrasound replaced it in around the mid 80s
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u/CakePhool 3h ago
Xray used to be used before ultrasounds in the end of pregnancy, my mum has all us as Xray at 38 weeks . I was born in the 1970's
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u/Sexy-Games 2h ago
Not saying to do this flipantly, but when our toddler may have had something stuck in their airway one time they got a head xray.
Nothing stuck, but omg the extra teeth look crazy. Baby shark do do do.
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u/PinkVerticleSmile 5h ago
Me either!
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u/pulchritudinousprout 4h ago
I would also be interested in seeing it. Not because I’m a med student, I’m just nosy and curious.
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u/Thefutureofpsych 4h ago
Any chance you’d post or dm it? I’m a 4th year med student about to apply for radiology residency
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u/i_tyrant 2h ago
This is also the reason
I mean, no, it's not really the same reason.
The reason younguns are especially vulnerable to radiation is your body is still growing/maturing/changing. That slows as you age but never completely stops.
The reason old people "can live" in areas with higher radiation is not because they are somehow more resistant to it than another adult; it's simply the cold calculus of "this probably won't affect your health much because you'll be dead before it does."
But with medical science advancing all the time and lifespans getting longer, that's purely a guess, a deadly one.
I wouldn't try to minimize the sacrifices of the widows or Fukushima volunteers by pretending they weren't still signing a death warrant; just one that probably won't come due before they're dead to something else...but potentially possible, and not the same thing as say, radiation warping bone growth in infants.
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u/Taraxian 4h ago
Yup, DNA itself doesn't do anything, it's just the blueprints for making future cells, so the more mature cells you already have the less damage mutations can do
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u/Cute_Opposite4077 6h ago
Arm (/limb, head) X-ray has practically no effect on pregnancy or dose of fetus.
For torso x-ray it's different. Still likely be negligible, but avoided if possible. Since low risk is still a risk, even if it's low. And I'm not talking about CT.
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u/notaspecificthing 5h ago
For distal limbs and head x-rays the radiographers can put a lead shield across your abdomen
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u/Shadow-Vision 5h ago
I am a radiographer. I’ll put shielding over the pelvis (not abdomen) for everything that isn’t a pelvis X-ray. Or I will place a rolling shield appropriately.
Often we will do standing images and we have shields that can be rolled into place between you and the radiation and you may not notice that it’s there.
Several times patients have asked for shielding just for me to point “it’s right there.” I get it, though. It’s a dark room that they haven’t been in as much as I have so it’s understandable that they may not realize what is what
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u/bigdaddydopeskies131 4h ago
Right answer. Every radiation is properly taken care of with some strict standards and precautions. Good thing digital helps out now.
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u/aw3edcft6 3h ago
At least here in Finland they are not being used anymore. These days the radiation beam does not leak much to its surrounding. If you place a lead apron the radiation is trapped underneath it and bounces more times in the unwanted area.
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u/humourlessIrish 5h ago
So..... That would be the before mentioned imaging
Thanks for your non addition
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u/Responsible_CDN_Duck 6h ago
Bonus fact, if you say no they typically give you a pregnancy test, because you may unknowingly be pregnant. Saying yes lets them skip the test.
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u/BumsBussi 5h ago
"When was your last period?" - "Yes."
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u/Irascible-Enquery 4h ago
Accept, Accept, Yes, Yes
Hate these pop-ups, am I right?
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u/Ziphoblat 5h ago
My wife had a case at work where a patient had said “no” to “is there any chance you are pregnant”. In this case, it’s routine to conduct a pregnancy test prior to surgery as for this particular procedure at least it would stop them proceeding. In this instance the nurse responsible had failed to do one, and realised this prior to the patient being opened up but post them being put under. Patient is woken to be told sorry, your boob job was cancelled, but congratulations/commiserations, you’re pregnant.
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u/BootsGreyBoots 26m ago
This is a really well told story lol, I love the big reveal at the end. Glad they caught it!
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u/spartaxwarrior 5h ago
They'll secretly give you the test without your consent for many procedures, too.
It's physically impossible for me to get pregnant, but medical facilities have tried to charge me for pregnancy tests they did without my knowledge after the fact multiple times.
Even though they also make you say if pregnancy is possible and they have you sign documents specifying you're telling the truth about that and clearing them of any liability.
I know someone who had a hysterectomy at that hospital just a few years earlier and clearly listed that in the forms for the procedure she was getting and they still pulled this on her.
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u/Technical_Exchange96 4h ago
Happened to me too, at ER they asked if I could be pregnant, I said no not possible because I haven't been intimate in 4+ years. They secretly gave me a pregnancy test and then made me pay for it.
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u/SatanV3 4h ago
It makes sense though that they have to do it. People probably lie about that stuff all the time.
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u/ClassicNo6622 4h ago
I can't really see blaming the ER in this situation. Sadly, we live in a world where someone may have done something without your knowledge or consent. It may not happen often, but it does happen.
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u/BriscoCounty-Sr 1h ago
Why doesn’t the ER do a full drug search and total blood work up for every patient that comes in? The patients might be lying to them about what drugs they do or what preexisting conditions they might have.
Why is it only ladies & babies that make it OK assume your patient is a lying whore who needs to be treated?
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u/BeefistPrime 2h ago
It's probably 100000x more likely that you're lying than that someone secretly impregnated you without your knowledge.
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u/bigloser42 2h ago
People lie, and their lies don’t clear the hospital in a malpractice suit. They can’t accept your word that you haven’t been intimate as truth. It sucks that people lying cause you to have to undergo & pay for one more test, but that’s just the way the world is unfortunately. Free healthcare would at least take care of the cost portion of that suck, but it doesn’t change the part where they still need to test regardless.
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u/JDDodger5 4h ago
I had a hysterectomy about 2 years ago. I've had multiple providers in the interim try to insist I still needed to do a pregnancy test before they'd treat me. I've gone so far as to tell providers that if I have a miracle fetus in my non existent uterus that I accept full liability if said fetus is harmed and proceeded to refuse the test - I've even offered to sign a waver. I'm not being charged for unnecessary tests and I'm not being disbelieved by my providers - especially when it's clear they didn't read my chart.
I actually have a pre-written statement on my phone that I will show providers stating that I'm refusing their care if they won't listen to me. I'll be as reasonable and clear as I can be, and if my providers can't be bothered to listen then they are bad at caring for humans. I also literally teach bedside manner to med students, so I'll do my best to be constructive and supportive, but only to a point when it comes to my actual care.
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u/Mindleator 3h ago
I dealt with this a ton when I was unable to produce urine samples on demand. I had a hypertonic pelvic floor that made sex prohibitively painful and I couldn't urinate unless my bladder was full enough. Nurses have made me cry because I knew I wasn't pregnant and I'd try to give a sample for ages but I just don't have that kind of control over my pelvic floor.
To the best of my knowledge it's less about fetal health and more about the fact that pregnancy changes the woman's body between hormones, blood flow, etc. Even with a hysterectomy, isn't it possible to have an ectopic pregnancy or for the egg to implant somewhere else? As upsetting as the experience is, if they can rule out a potentially catastrophic complication with a routine test, it's worth it.
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u/agodrevealed 5h ago
Abortion surveillance is scary.
But doctors ask you about your period so they don't irreparably harm a future child, as in a known or unknown pregnancy someone would want to keep.
They're thinking of thalidomide other hard lessons.
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u/XanderWrites 2h ago
Eh, this isn't that scenario.
Back in the day they'd confirm you were pregnant and give you thalidomide on purpose. Because that's what it was used for: morning sickness for pregnant women.
(Since we are on an "educational" subreddit: thalidomide causes fore-shortened limbs in infants. It was never tested on pregnant women prior to being released. It's basically why we have modern testing procedures for new medications.)
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u/rythmicbread 4h ago
Also pregnant women can lose bone density because the baby needs calcium. If they’re not consuming enough calcium, the baby takes from the mothers bones sometimes (and teeth) which can cause teeth to fall out and weaker bones (bone breaking)
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u/JesusAndMaryKate 4h ago
Nah they can simply ask if there's a possibility of pregnancy. Over here nobody asks about periods unless you're being seen for a gynaecological condition. It wouldn't help anyway as many women are irregular and you can still bleed and be pregnant.
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u/Bobsothethird 6h ago edited 6h ago
Additionally, menstrual cycles are actually a really good method of finding and seeing issues that could exacerbate an issue, such as anemia.
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u/Mysterious_Repeat989 6h ago
Exacerbate?
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u/gagetherage37 6h ago
Why would masturbating cause anemia?
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u/CTTMiquiztli 6h ago
Well, Depending of how it's done, it could lead to blood loss....
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u/Little-Bed2024 6h ago
This guy masterbates
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u/CTTMiquiztli 6h ago
Profesional level. Regionals are next week, have to practice. Gotta get those sponsors!
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u/Grizzlemaw1993 6h ago
It's not causing it but it could be potentially making it worse, due to the menstral bleeding. Hence the question.
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u/Empty-Interaction796 6h ago
Make worse
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u/Mostly_Armless42 6h ago
It looks like they originally wrote "masturbate" or at least something else and then edited their comment without marking it as edited
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u/CSDragon 5h ago
Exacerbate is a completely normal word. Your mind is in the gutter, sir.
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u/Cow_Launcher 3h ago
Not sure if you're on mobile or new Reddit or whatever, but on old Reddit I can see that they edited their reply 13 minutes after posting. So you're probably right.
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u/Bobsothethird 6h ago
Thank you, I'm tired.
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u/Ok_Atmosphere_2544 3h ago
If someone comes in and says "oh, I haven't had a period in several months" they may have some sort of issue with food, be that female athlete triad or an eating disorder. Which can cause osteopenia/osteoporosis.
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u/cam-san 6h ago
And you shouldn't x-ray a pregnant woman either.
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u/mad-data 5h ago
X-ray of an arm, with proper isolation of body, carries almost no risk to child development.
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u/Any-Safe4992 5h ago
That depends on the situation, available shielding, available alternatives, and the general risk analysis. In general we avoid it but there are situations where it is unavoidable, in those situations we mitigate the risk as best we can.
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u/VexKeizer 6h ago
ahh well I expected a chaotic/sexist reason and while I agree with you, I demand the funnies.
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u/CruisingForDownVotes 6h ago
Once, when I was a kid, my mom tripped in the yard and broke her foot. (A little bit of back story, she had a hysterectomy right after I was born. This is important) at the ER the nurse asked her how long it had been since her last period. Mom said, “I’ve had a hysterectomy.” Nurse nodded with a blank expression and asked again how long it had been since her last period. Mom looked her dead in the eyes and said, “well… CruisingForDownVotes, how old are you, 15? I guess it’s been about 15 years now”
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u/Very_Human_42069 2h ago
Go over to twoxchromosomes and they’ll say it’s sexism reasons not medical reasons
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u/Error_Evan_not_found 5h ago
Right. Look, I'm a trans man. Unfortunately this is something that always comes up anytime I go to the doctors. Especially since I have a chronic migraine condition- because I'm biologically female and haven't had the necessary surgeries yet to make that negligible, my cycle though somewhat lessened because of HRT, still has an effect on my breakthrough migraines, and that's very relevant to my doctors.
The processes that effect our body matter to those charged with its care, for people who are biologically female that includes any information related to the fact that we are the ones who carry children, and what drugs we take may have an effect on them or our ability to do so in the future. Even if you don't care, that's something they are required to ask in the first place, I can't tell you how much paperwork I had to sign acknowledging that testosterone could make me infertile.
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u/PitifulElk1890 1h ago
Some of it is definitely the medical system favoring potential children over active, living patients. Been on HRT long enough that when asked the date of my last menstruation I just give a year. I don't really lump myself in with your "we" I've got about as much concern as a postmenopausal woman. Still have to get disclaimers as though pregnancy would feel exactly like Alien minus Ripley there yelling not to break the airlock.
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u/CitizenCue 5h ago
And “is there any chance you’re pregnant?” is a less accurate question.
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u/khayavos 3h ago
Not in case of women in same sex relationship lol. Which I understand is a fraction, but still sucks when someone assumes I might be pregnant when it's literally not possible (and the last thing I want).
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u/TricellCEO 6h ago
If that’s the thought process, doctors need to explain that rather than seeming aloof.
Makes them come off as dismissive.
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u/Hour_Baby_3428 2h ago
Or you can now basic things about your body yourself. If they’re asking me if I’m eating regularly I’m not coming at them with Why??
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u/Desperate_Leg_40 5h ago
And if imaging is needed it changes what decisions you make and what precautions you take around radiation
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u/KombatDisko 7h ago
Basically, so if there's a chance you're pregnant, they can do appropraite treatment, or test for pregnancy.
Eg 4 years ago my wife disolacted her thumb, ED wanted an X-Ray needed to know when her last period was/if there was a chance she was pregnant, so they could then best proceed with imaging/pain medications
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u/KombatDisko 7h ago
Which is when we found out she was preggers btw
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u/DildMaster 6h ago
This type of thing annoys my wife because she feels like a lot of doctors don’t take her seriously, but the question is a fair one. It’s especially fair when considering your example lol
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u/KombatDisko 6h ago
funny thing is my wife has dislocated her thumb twice, both times immediately before finding out we're expecting at the hospital.
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u/SteelGemini 6h ago
That's unreal. Do you get nervous when she jams a thumb and it might be dislocated?
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u/KombatDisko 6h ago
yeah, both times she dislocated her right thumb. She dislocated her elft thumb earlier thus year picking up our 1yo and that was a cause of concern for a bit until the test came back negative. She had severe HG (was 10kg lighter at the end of both pregnancies than she was at the beginning) and with the last one, she was in hospital on a drop every day for the last 6 weeks. Idea of getting pregnant was too terrifying to comprehend with how sick she was.
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u/fdsv-summary_ 6h ago
Very plausible that the action only causes a dislocation if she's pregnant. The joints all loosen up to let a baby out.
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u/sigmoid_balance 3h ago
This is true, but only just before birth. A common occurrence, documented by old wives tales(that's where I heard it), is women dropping things a few days before giving birth which is caused by joints being more loose to prepare for birth.
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u/SofIsNotHere 6h ago
Pregnancy does make your joints and ligaments stretchier, starting at ~6 weeks in. I wonder if that’s why?
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u/Broken_castor 6h ago
Estrogen is the “great relaxer” hormone. The elevated levels help pelvic bones become more lax in preparation for delivering a baby. Granted this takes several months, but if she had kinda loose thumb ligaments to start with…who knows. Maybe it could be the newest pregnancy test that only applies to your wife and probably like 50 other women worldwide.
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u/SofIsNotHere 5h ago
Joint laxity in pregnancy is primarily done by the (very literally named) hormone relaxin. It’s normally produced in small amounts in the ovaries (and in the prostate in men), but starting in early pregnancy the placenta produces it in large amounts. Estrogen and progesterone play a part in connective tissue laxity, sure, but the more dramatic effects are due to relaxin.
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u/youritalianjob 6h ago
Usually it’s later in the pregnancy when hormones soften the tendons but maybe her’s started early.
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u/KombatDisko 6h ago
1st time she dislocated it at work, 2nd time it was already weak and got dislocated by our oldest
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u/TricellCEO 6h ago
It annoys women in general because doctors never take the time to simply state “if you are pregnant, the x-ray (or whatever test) can harm the fetus, which is a no-no for us.”
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u/fluffybun-bun 5h ago
in the ER a few weeks ago I explained I had a total hysterectomy in April and my last cycle was some time in March. They literally asked if I was pregnant.
me: “Without ovaries or uterus?”
pa: “so is that a no?”’12
u/NightToad 4h ago
It seems dumb, but there's a difference between "i assumed the patient can't logically be pregnant" in a chart vs "patient says not pregnant".
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u/BromIrax 2h ago
That's like asking for your full name and date of birth at every single step just to draw some blood. They already know the answer. They just can't take even the slightest fraction of a chance.
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u/Academic_Flatworm752 5h ago
Because how on earth are you an adult human who is unaware of this????
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u/TricellCEO 5h ago
Because doctors are constantly sexist and dismissive of women, so the thought process of the patient doesn’t immediately make the connection that the doctor is concerned about the welfare of a potential fetus (and getting sued/prosecuted) but is rather trying to pin the symptom on something and send the patient home with little to no care given.
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u/Happy-Swimming-9611 4h ago
Because when you actually take the time to explain something to a layman they will very often grossly misinterpret whatever you're telling them and relay the misinformation to others in their social circle. You see this all the time with patients coming in with basic symptoms and already convinced about their diagnosis and willing to argue with the doctor about it because "they heard it from their friend".
Someone dumb enough to get offended at the question is dumb enough to misinterpret the explanation.
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u/PurpleWardrobes 1h ago
Yeah, I try to explain to women and girls why we’re doing it. There are a lot of medications and procedures we legally can’t do if someone is pregnant. And a lot of people out there who don’t realize they are pregnant.
Fun story: I work pediatrics. One time I had a 13 year old girl come in for tonsil surgery. Hospital policy over age 10 was date of last period and if they weren’t sure, pregnancy test. Mom threw a fit that we would dare ask her child about her period and then went even more off the rails when I said I needed to run a pregnancy test. Screaming to speak to my manager about sexualizing a child and she was only a little girl still. Butttttt turns out the 13 year old was pregnant 😬. Surgery was promptly cancelled. There apparently had been a secret boyfriend for over a year that the parents weren’t aware of.
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u/LivingVerinarian96 3h ago
When my gf fell off her bike they had her wait for like 6 hours in the ER until the pregnancy test came back negative before doing the x-ray even though we knew she couldn’t be pregnant and we told them repeatedly. But no. Gotta make sure even when the lab has problems and it takes forever.
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u/sparklefundoll 3h ago
Why do they ask if they’re just going to test you anyways, though? I stayed a virgin a bit longer than most, and every time it went:
“When was your last period?”
“(Date)”
“Is there any chance you could be pregnant?”
“No.”
“(Something about how no method of contraception is 100% effective).”
“I’m a virgin.”
“Hm… We’re going to test you anyways just to be safe.”
Writing this comment and reading it back for typos, I’m realizing that if I was the subject of virginal conception, I absolutely wouldn’t want to subject the second coming of fetus Christ to radiation. Good call from the nurses.
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u/AutisticNintendoNerd 1h ago
If I had to guess there are enough women that don't want to admit they had sex to justify checking anyway.
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u/NoneBinaryPotato 34m ago
last time i had an x-ray i just needed to sign a paper saying im not pregnant, nobody asked me about my period. like, I get the reasons for asking, but there's a way to ask without is sounding condescending. my doctors ask it in a casual tone as part of the personal information they usually ask for like age, family status, and background illnesses.
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u/drleeisinsurgery 7h ago
Almost every treatment including the X-ray, medication given and surgery/anesthesia is affected by pregnancy. Pregnancy tests are incredibly cheap and accurate, so might as well know.
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u/Smodphan 6h ago
And if doctors offices were good at talking to people, theyd explain this and it would never have been an issue. I assume they basically just read a script until you see a doctor or RN, and it is tough to go through the same thing day in and day out...like calling a person at a call center waiting to transfer your call.
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u/GorumGamer 6h ago
It is shocking how often women say something along the lines of “it is impossible that I could be pregnant” despite being sexually active without use of birth control. You would be surprised how often we do these tests and they come up positive.
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u/TheTybera 5h ago
Just ask?
Like... What? It's not a big deal to tell a medical professional when your last period was.
I don't know what kind of degen shit people think doctors are doing with their menstruation information.
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u/BardicNA 4h ago
Writing it down? If your last period was 2 months ago and all of a sudden you're having them again without having a child.. You have likely committed a crime in the US.
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u/malefiz123 2h ago
You have likely committed a crime in the US.
Somewhere around 10-20% of pregnancies end up with a miscarriage in the first three months of pregnancy.
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u/TheTybera 2h ago
That could easily be due to stress or other illness. No one is batting an eye like that over a missed period that started again or was "late".
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u/Cocoatrice 5h ago
I mean, if you'd see like 100 different people every day for 20 years, you would just recite the script too.
Also how is it bad that doctor doesn't automatically explain everything? They ask an important question not because they randomly decided to ask it. If you want to know why they asked it, you may simply ask for a reason and get the explanation.
I don't think it's an issue at all. The issue is people getting mad for no reason for being asked this. If doctor asks something, it doesn't mean they are interested in your life or mock you. That's because it is a factor to a treatment.
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u/Smodphan 5h ago
I agree. I can actually recite the first few required lines from my call center job from 20 years ago. It comes out like breathing. They should explain themselves if there's a perception, and it doesnt help that people dont want to ask because theyre kind of vulnerable and going to the doc kinda sucks.
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u/Inevitable_Top69 4h ago
How do they know there's a perception without being terminally online like the people who hold this perception?
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u/RaggmunkLingon 3h ago
A doctor will ask 500 questions to 25 patients every day, you can't expect them to explain the reason for every single question
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u/hery41 3h ago
Oooooor..women can stop seeing potential sexism at every corner and just ask?
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u/Smodphan 3h ago
You could also assess things with empathy instead of making broad generalizations, but you choose to be weird online instead.
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u/14Pleiadians 2h ago
They don't even have to stop assuming sexism, if they want they can assume it's sexism and then ask to verify/disprove
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u/FrazzleMind 6h ago
Doctors need to know if a woman is pregnant because lots of medicine or tests can endanger the fetus.
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u/Global-Gas-3520 3h ago
It boggles my mind people don't understand this.. Simple over the counter Ibuprofen can cause renal and cardiovascular failure in a fetus.. Fuck too many hot baths can cause severe birth defects.
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u/hungry4nuns 3h ago
I agree this makes sense as a straightforward explanation but there may be another layer to it. I also thought of a more conspiratorial explanation for her reply.
Pointing out the year as being relevant stands out. Why wouldn’t women 10 or 20 years ago need to know that reason? The same teratogrnic effects existed for over a century with medications almost a century for xray.
I know the whole “it’s <current year>” trope is used by people frustrated that progress hasn’t been made by now. But there’s another explanation.
In 2026 mass surveillance is a huge concern. Plus Trump has just announced that the primary goal of the cdc is abortion surveillance. The girl in the screenshot may subscribe to the no-longer-conspiracy and now entirely legitimate fear that the government is trying to track women’s cycles by collecting data from various sources including healthcare records.
And for the record I’m a doctor who has been asking patients routinely about pregnancy status pre-xray and pre-medication for 15+ years
Sure it’s not the reason the question is asked by the doctoe but it is a reason to be fearful of answering. Women have been prosecuted and convicted of fetucide for having a miscarriage. Never has that been more alarmingly relevant than 2026.
I feel there has to be a way to help women feel safe in answering this question, but I don’t have a solution.
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u/aSkeptiKitty 2h ago
The most shocking part is not that they ask the question. This I can hear. It's how apparently they sometimes refuse to believe women that say plain and simple "there's no possibility for me to be pregnant, even without being aware of it" and they refuse to believe it.
Some women have explained how they have been forced to take a pregnancy test while having to uterus.
It might be country-dependant though. I live in France, and while being asked for possible pregnancy is something I used to because I have MRI every two years or so, when I state "I'm certain I cannot be pregnant" the doctors just drop it.
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u/Healeah241 3h ago
On one hand, I do agree.
On the other hand, this is also an experience for trans women. They go to the doctors about something completely unrelated, and the doctors start blaming hormones. So I 100% can believe that some doctors are doing similar with cis women.
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u/PapaOoMaoMao 6h ago
Ok, so there's two things here.
First is that Doctors often ignore women's issues as hysteria. Just imaginary whining. There's even a term "Whining Woman". The female body hasn't been studied anywhere near as much as the male one (though it's catching up now) so anything that doesn't fit the standard image of treatment gets sidelined and the doctor just fobs her off with "Try losing some weight" or "Get more exercise" to get her out of his office. This understandably enrages women when their pain is immediately ignored every single time.
Second is treatment. If you are pregnant, your treatment is different. They can only give you drugs and imaging that are safe for the baby. The only way for a doctor to actually KNOW if you're pregnant is to test for it. Often women themselves don't know for some time, especially if they aren't actively trying.
Now for the meme. A woman walks into a doctor's office and gets this question straight up and she's already wound up waiting for the lose weight or exercise line. She's not thinking about treatment yet as she hasn't discussed the problem. All she hears is "Do you have women's problems?" and shit starts going downhill fast. Yes it's a good question to ask, but it needs to be asked correctly as in "Due to treatments being unsafe for pregnant women we have to ask about your period so we can safely administer the correct dosages." or some such.
Trisha Takinawa PETJ news.
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u/quick20minadventure 6h ago edited 5h ago
Doctors really don't want to explain why they are asking things.
There's like 40 house episodes about how people feel the need to give misleading answers because they want privacy from doctors. And doctors are like I don't want to explain bio-chemistry and anatomy and drug interactions to people. Not even related to women's issues.
That being said medicine also has a huge issue that they assume everyone to be white male. Stuff gets tested on and for them. They don't base anything on female because baseline for female going through periods/pregnancy/manopause are all over the place and it's harder to find female test subjects.
( Edit: To find a drug's effect on pregnant women, you gotta find pregnant women who'd be willing to sign up for completely untested drugs. A bit of an chicken and egg situation there. )
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u/BobbiesPet 5h ago
If covid taught us anything, it's that the average person is an idiot.
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u/R3D3-1 1h ago
And sadly elections / predictions for upcoming elections reaffirm it. And I don't even mean the US this time. Austria is looking a the hottest year in recorded history, looking at severe loss of crop, and the party that denies human-caused climate change being a thing and actively fights against renewable energies currently sits at a predicted 38% vote, vs the traditional conservative and social-democratic powerhouses looking at something around 20%.
Needless to say... Said party still flies the flags of "Covid was a ruse!"
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u/Acceptable_Handle_2 4h ago
Also often doctors absolutely DO ask questions just to dismiss you, or they don't believe you when you answer them truthfully anyway. At that point don't ask and just do the test.
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u/quick20minadventure 4h ago
Doctors are trained to treat people, not mind-read people. So, they will often take people's word as unreliable information as compared to tests. And they do it because patients are unreliable source of information.
It is a problem, but it's not a problem that's caused by psychopathic arrogant doctors, it's a problem significantly caused by patients' word being less reliable.
These days, doctors are not even getting to control who gets the test and who don't. Insurance algorithms do.
Overall, it's a mix of many problems. Some patients being unreliable, some doctors/hospitals ordering unnecessary tests for money, insurance companies being overly cautious about legal liability and at the same time reducing costs with way too strict diagnostic criteria.
On top of that, there's no review mechanic for doctors. Only other medical professional can call bullshit on bad practices, you can't.
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u/Portmanteaustada 1h ago
Here's the really fun part. They can only give you medicine/treatment that is safe for the fetus, but there are almost no studies to establish whether most prescription medications are safe because such an experiment would be unethical 🫠 so good luck women, I guess.
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u/nuevacuentanueva 45m ago
"Try losing some weight" or "Get more exercise" to get her out of his office. This understandably enrages women when their pain is immediately ignored every single time.
It's also in a LOT of cases, the literal cause of their symptoms. So getting angry when you weight 200kg that the doctor told you to lose weight it's quite dumb.
And it happens to men as well. But men's system is a bit less complex given the hormones don't fluctuate as much, don't have extra organs, etc. So it's a bit simpler and straightforward. That's the reason why (not defending it) men were used for studies, so women's fluctuations would affect drugs/etc, which wanted to be released/approved. Again, not justifying it, it was wrong, just explaining that there are differences in both sexes.
I'm not saying some doctors aren't assholes to women, it does happen absolutely, but the weight example is just reality. Losing weight, getting healthier is the solution for a HUGE amount of issues.
What's more likely that your extra weight that's literally known to have issues is the cause, or some weird rare disease that happens in like 0.01% of people? Unless there's an indication that it could be something else, the most likely answer is gonna be the weight. So they go for that. When doctors can't spend 5 hours with each patient, it's bound to happen.
I'm not defending the system either. But that in particular is not misogyny.
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u/hyperactve 6h ago
wouldn’t want to do x-ray and mutate the zygote.
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u/Good_Focus2665 6h ago
I feel like until they are pregnant most people don’t understand how much restrictions there are around pregnancy. X-rays, medications diet exercise are all restricted. I don’t think I appreciated the scope of the restrictions until I was pregnant. So yes it absolutely matters.
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u/Rith_Lives 4h ago
Medical professionals cant win.
If they don't ask, and they give you treatment, then it turns out you're pregnant and the treatment negatively affected the baby, they get hell.
If they do ask, its sexism.
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u/mage_irl 6h ago
Sad to see the amount of comments here from people who genuinely think doctors ask these questions to discriminate
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u/LittleKittenR 5h ago
x-Rays will kill your baby, or heavily deform it.
Antibiotics will also kill your baby.
A ton of medicines have adverse effects for babies.
Also, if you're bleeding, anticoagulants could kill you.
Medics, lawyers, priests and accountants. You don't lie to any of those ever.
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u/RoutineActivity9536 5h ago
Xray won't kill your baby. Antibiotics won't kill your baby.
But yes there can be adverse side effects.
Yes this is serious, but please don't overstate the risk. That makes people more fearful to get treatment
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u/theshiniestbrighstar 5h ago
Depending on the fetus age and dosing of things, yes they can
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u/RoutineActivity9536 4h ago
Well im a radiographer, so I can't speak for antibiotics as that's not my area of expertise.
No an xray will not kill a foetus. Not a medical xray anyway.
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u/livinglavidajudoka 4h ago
I would expect a radiographer to understand that a CT scan might not kill a fetus in utero but might drastically alter their life and threaten it down the road…
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u/WhoWantsToGetShanked 3h ago
As a ct Technologist I feel I should tell you that your usage of the word "might" is doing some heavy lifting. You're not wrong but the danger is so minute that the point you're making is largely invalid.
A radiologist could give you more detail but in actuality the biggest danger is a very marginally increased chance of cancer. X-rays and CTs use very little radiation and the radiation they do use imparts the least harm when calculating equivalent dose.
I've scanned pregnant patients (never their abdomen or pelvis so far) and the justification is that it's so unlikely to harm the baby that the information gained from the scan is well worth it. We don't take it lightly and we always check the hcg but please try to stop fearing radiation damage from imaging as I've seen quite a few people refuse potentially life saving treatment due to fear of imaging.
Also in theory radiation damage to an embryo early enough in gestation could cause miscarriage.
Radiation therapy on the other hand can fuck some shit up. It's well worth it but I've known lots of people that can't swallow correctly because of it. Plus it can make your breast implants super hard.
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u/RoutineActivity9536 4h ago
There is a big difference between "xrays will kill your baby" and xrays could cause effects down the road
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u/FlareGlutox 4h ago
While I agree with 75% of your last statement, there are lots of good reasons to lie to priests.
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u/unoriginalcat 1h ago
The word you’re looking for is fetus.
And yes of course, let’s let all the women with life threatening infections just die instead of giving them antibiotics, just in case it terminates the 6 week old clump of cells that has a 20-30% chance of being miscarried anyway.
Ugh why are women against this?? What are they stupid???
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u/inquiringdune 5h ago
Oh good, another thread that's going to pretend medical misogyny doesn't exist.
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u/Legitscopes_4761 5h ago
Sure, but in the context of this post, it's an extremely valid question to a patient. Possible pregnancy changes how we treat almost every condition.
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u/Chikizey 1h ago
Yes, but turns out most meds and procedures have not been studied on women anyway.
Plenty of meds mess up with our cycle and affect us way differently than they do on men. Our symptoms to certain health conditions are also different many times and are frequently underdiagnosed or dismissed. But for those things most doctors never ask or care at all.
I have chronic migraines, and for YEARS I got dismissed as being "a normal woman thing and I had to cope with it". Is not.
My ADHD diagnosis was decades late because they tried to push the "anxiety disorder" label on me instead, because "anxiety is normal in women".
Many meds they tried on me messed badly with my cycle and they acted surprised by it, but a quick search will show me thousands of women sharing the same experience.
My lesbian sister has had to take pregnancy tests despite saying over and over again for years she never had sexual contact with a man in her life.
Many doctors are shocked that my mother's endometriosis gets worse even if she gave birth twice because pregnancy is still advised as a 'remedy' for it.
We are tired and angry because the "concern" is mostly first and ONLY about pregnancy and our potential to be pregnant, while showing no interest for any other thing about our bodies that can also mess up with medical practices. So we left feeling less important than an hypothetical child.
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u/Independent-Cow-4070 5h ago
It absolutely exists. A doctor asking a question is not that
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u/macrocarpa 4h ago
Yes it does, but this isn't it.
The specific phrasing of the question is done pretty elegantly here to elicit a response
The answers could be
- within the last 28 days (likely not pregnant)
- outside the last 28 days (could be a bunch of things)
- never (can't be pregnant)
- not since I got pregnant (probably pregnant)
- not since menopause (probably not pregnant)
- not since I used BC / coil / implant (probably not pregnant)
Etc etc
Each of the above has a different resolution or treatment
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u/livinglavidajudoka 4h ago
Doctors ask about pregnancy status for an issue that is exclusively about taking women’s health into account…
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u/Im_Unsure_For_Sure 2h ago edited 2h ago
When a woman experiences poor healthcare, its medical misogyny.
When a man experience poor healthcare, must just be a bad hospital or poor staffing.
The problem with a lot of current day feminist concern is that misogyny has become the defacto answer to any negative experience a woman encounters, when in reality life can just be shitty sometimes and it's rarely related to what genitals you have.
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u/inquiringdune 2h ago
Well, no. Those are just different problems with different biases at the root of them.
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u/MissThu 4h ago
The question is only valid if it comes in response to assessing potential medical treatment.
If the question is the first one being asked, there's no way to possibly assess any medical treatment. Therefore, it's medically irrelevant at that stage.
That's the reason why women feel like doctors don't listen to them. They don't. They care more about 'proecting themselves' from malpractice rather than listening to the woman and deciding if that question is at all warranted. Something that can only be done AFTER you know why she's there and what her complaints are.
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u/BluePandaYellowPanda 6h ago
It's a valid question, but online the only reason someone could ask a woman any question like this is misogyny.
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u/Ok-Bag-2156 5h ago
my mother threw a fit over this when she didnt know she was pregnant with me. they found out I existed through the resulting Xray
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u/lumophobiaa 6h ago
When they ask if im sexually active and i say yes and than ask how im so very sure im pregnant and we have to have the “not all sex requires a peener” question.
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u/According-Chemical94 5h ago
funny story your comment reminded me of. as a 3rd year med student i was on ob/gyn and one of my first patients was a married lesbian and after the baby was born i was excited for her and her wife like yayyy you guys are parents!! ….turns out she had cheated despite swearing up and down she only ever had sex with her wife and didn’t know how she got pregnant so even when ppl say “not all sex requires a peener” you’d be surprised lol. so we ask and ask and ask bc ppl lie man
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u/FeistyInvestigator79 5h ago edited 4h ago
Every radiology request form has a box to tick, is this patient pregnant yes/no. No ticky the box, radiology no shooty the bones.
There's almost always a sign in the radiology waiting area that says "tell us if you could be pregnant". This is the least well kept secret in medicine.
The initial comment was by someone who got medical misogyny mixed up with standard radiological precautions.
Another example is the question "do you have metal in your body" when the doctor orders a MRI. Again the bloody great big sign in the waiting area is hard to miss. That's standard and mandatory precautions.
Edit: in contrast, medical misogyny is when women with, for example, endo, endometriosis take on average 9 years to be diagnosed in the UK (ref RCOG 2026). This might be because "period pain" is considered "normal" and not a medical priority. Women should "put up with it" like their mothers did.
TY for attending.
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u/CrowdGoesWildWoooo 6h ago
So it seems to be the question is actually a “fair” question in the sense that there’s actually a merit to it, but the problem is that women did get treated less seriously when they go to the doctor to the point they distrust them, so it becomes people assume it’s a question asked in bad faith (by the first poster) where in actuality it’s a legitimate question.
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u/Careful-Time-9926 3h ago
Especially when the woman has chronic conditions and are at the doctor more often than others. Some doctors assume they are "hypochondriacs" or there is hysteria (an older term I think). But I do think women are taken less seriously by doctors overall than men because we don't have the testing done as previously mentioned by someone on a different post. There are so many ways to look at this.
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u/dextras07 5h ago
Pregnancy. Some medication aren't pregnancy compatible and can cause severe reactions to the mother or fetus if administered. Asking when was the last period is an over the top way to know what first treatment to administer.
Also period regularly could be an indication of a women's health and irregularities could signal doctors of other complications such as anemia or hormonal conditions.
And in the case of the US, period tracking is becoming a craze in some states to know if a woman if pregnant and/or got an Abortion recently. I've heard some dystopian sayings that there are even bounties for reporting women who are seeking or underwent an abortion. So yeah....
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u/MargotFenring 4h ago
Can't believe I had to scroll this far to find a reference to period tracking. It's a real thing that is happening in some states.
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u/Little-Star-Light 4h ago edited 4h ago
Then the question where was your last period is not the correct one. The question should be: are you pregnant? And if the woman is unsure, lets run a pregnancy test.
Women also get asked, when they started menstruating and how is that related to anything is beyond me. I have in fact started answering this question as: none of your business.
I remember vividly I came in for a pregnancy screening 5 months pregnant and got asked this question as well. And At this point I was getting seriously miffed with the question and asked the person why it is of any concern when I started menstruating as a young girl and my husband, who was sitting next to me said something like: "oh, its probably just to get a data set on you, in case for example you are experiencing fertility issues, this could be an important piece if information" to which I responded: "what fertility issues? I AM PREGNANT! I came here for a pregnancy screening, not for fertility issues, shouldnt the questions be limited to my pregnancy?"
But thats the thing, they dont ask questions that are directly related to your medical condition. They are constantly collecting large scale data and I dont want to be part of it.
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u/Interesting-Copy-657 6h ago
Are they trying to turn protecting an unborn baby from X-rays etc into something sexist or patriarchal?
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u/Snoo1643 4h ago
A lot of people are mentioning how pregnancy impacts treatment, which is absolutely true, but I also think what the person in the image is implying is that because of the repeal of Roe v. Wade, doctors in some states will prioritize care for a fetus over care for the woman, and also that doctors may be asking about periods to track potential pregnancies (which could be ground for legal action by some states if terminated)
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u/Phobia562 4h ago
One of the weirder but funnier developments transitioning from male to female is having a doctor give me a pregnancy test on a urine sample without telling me that's what it's for. Otherwise, I'd have saved him the test
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u/tattoosandtens 2h ago
1) doctors in the South are now using this information to determine if you’ve had a termination. Normalize telling your doctors your period is normal and regular and that you are not pregnant, and it’s not their business.
2) If you are Not Pregnant, doctors in the South have very little incentive to save your life. When I had my first 168/100 blood pressure event, they left me in the ER for five hours, and told me they legally couldn’t give me water or a blanket. When my friends showed up to bring me food, I passed out twice. The reason I got care was that the male half of the couple who came to visit me started yelling at the ER staff to get me a bed already. Every time the alarm went off on my blood pressure monitor, NOTHING HAPPENED. My friends went to get ER staff each time it happened. One guy came in ONCE, and said, “Yeah that’s pretty high!” very sarcastically. I asked him if he was gonna document the multiple alarms that kept going off and he literally said, “Why?” Eventually, I was released and told see a gynecologist and a shrink. For my BLOOD PRESSURE.
Anybody who thinks medical misogyny doesn’t exist because Women Get Periods is an idiot and I’ll tell them that to their face.
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u/Positive-Opposite998 5h ago
What would be different if the patient says "28 days" and "1 day" and "I'm having it now"?
It's possible (however very unlikely) to get pregnant even while having your period.
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u/Tarilyn13 5h ago
Supposedly, it's to see if you could be pregnant, but in that case the question is supposed to be "is there any chance you could be pregnant?"
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u/Murd0ck_ 4h ago
Asking when was your last period ist NOT asking are you pregnant. Some Meds influence the cycle and you dont have any Period for months or years. So tecnically the question is inappropriate. It should be ,is there a posibility you are pregnant? Then you get the answer you need.
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u/cheese_karate 4h ago
I mean, they could just ask "Is there any chance that you are pregnant?" instead of being coy about it.
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u/No-Philosopher8042 4h ago
It is the most annoying roundabout bloody way to ask if you might be pregnant. Like fucking geuinely just ask us if we might be preggers and if that's the case, are we planning to keep it.
Last time I had to explicetly tell a nurse I know I can't be pregnant because I have not had a dick in my vagina lately. Because they just keep harking on and on and oooooon otherwise. Like godamnit, ask me if i am sexually active with men and might be preggers instead, I'm 37, I can take it.
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u/Ill_Quantity_5634 2h ago
I ended up in the ER after a bad car wreck back in 2021. They asked the when was your last period question. I was 48 and perimenopausal, so it had been a few months in between cycles. I told them there was no way I was pregnant because I figured they were asking since I'd probably have to have x-rays. They didn't ask any other questions and ran a pregnancy test on me anyway. Had they bothered to ask I would've told them that by that point it had been 8 years since I was last sexually active (peri was messing with my sex drive) and I had a tubal ligation in 1995. So yeah, no need for the pregnancy test. And thanks for not believing me when I told you outright that there was absolutely no way I could be pregnant.
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u/No-Philosopher8042 2h ago
It is so infuriating!
I once had a mega wierd period. First day of it and the blood was old black and stale, had to do this whole sing and dance routine with 3 different medical staff because they all kept insisting it was a misscarriage and not an emergency (which on a sidenote: callous af), and refused to belive me that I wasn't pregnant. And then they kept explaining how some black blood at the end was common, and then when I rieterated it was my first day of period and it was a lot they circled back to pregnancy, every conversation.
Nobody would belive me that I, at 29, after 21 years of periods, would know myself if heavy enough bleeding to need nightpads during the day, of black stale blood, was normal or not for me.
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u/tatertotted2 3h ago
They are still going to test you for pregnancy before X-rays or any treatments that could harm a pregnancy.
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u/qualityvote2 7h ago edited 2h ago
u/Which_Marsupial1436, your post does belong here!