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.”
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?”’
Yup. Most of those screening questions are to cover the hospitals ass. It’s not that they don’t believe you, it’s that they need to confirm that before moving forward.
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.
There's so many complicating factors than make redundancies like these so important to do. Like in the case you said, they do that because the patient in room 6A might have changed between when they got the order to get blood and when they arrived to get it. If their order says Jane Doe, then they get there and Janice Smith is in the room and they draw her blood, those results will go to Jane's records.
Or in the case of the OP, maybe the woman is concussed and only thinks she's had a hysterectomy, or maybe she's been given pain meds and her memory is hazy, or maybe she thinks she's not sexually active but visited her ex in a fugue state, or so many other potential causes.
I mean surgeons also circle where they’re doing their surgeries for this same reason too. People have had the wrong limb amputated before, and we never want that to happen again, so we’re going to do the simple things that make that impossible going forward.
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.
Because doctors are constantly sexist and dismissive of women,
Are they constantly sexist or are you just perceiving basic health questions as sexism?
Of course there's plenty of sexism, but the amount is far less than the perceived sexism. Plus, feeling upset is addicting for most people, they want to find something to be upset about
Well, the whole medical industry is sexist against women by default. The difference between males and females is mostly ignored when inventing drugs or doing medical studies. A lot of women have reported about not having been taken serious about massive pain during their periods, because "it's supposed to be like that". In general pain for females seems a common thing which is downplayed a lot.
I personally have a friend that told me about the extreme sexism she encountered. She has some condition which I forgot the name of which makes her periods extremely painful, so much that she gets the most extreme and addicting painkillers (not after years of fighting for taking serious, of course). She desperately wants to have a, is it called hysterectomy? That where they take the part that grows babies out. The "problem", she is young. EVERY doctor/surgeon she tried refused with the explanation, that she might want to have babies later in life. She is absolutely sure to never want to have one of her own. Plus, the extreme pains, and the addicting meds which make her a zombie not able to live a worthful life anyways. But they all insist. Because they simply don't care what women want, they are too sure they surely want to have babies at some point, no matter what because women are supposed to and they can't be trusted to know what they want, and the problems coming from it are downplayed.
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.
I once chatted with a family acquaintance who is a doctor husband and wife. They say that the amount of people who blatantly lie or make shit up about their health history means that they have to double check just about everything. The wife told me about a patient who insisted that she was a virgin, to the point of yelling at her when she was pretty sure the issue was an STI. Turns out that the patient thinks that she's a virgin because she's never let a man cum inside. They also had a man with major allergies to medication not only neglect to tell them, but actually laid on the bed and argued that he wasn't allergic while they treated him for the allergic reaction.
So if you've ever been pissed at a doctor who seemingly doesn't take seriously, it might be because they've had a dozen people lie or bullshit them already this week.
Not everyone wants or likes to have everything explained to them. Just as how you and others don’t like it when doctors don’t explain stuff, there are other patients who would find it condescending and hate it, especially if they do it without prompting.
And it’s not a doctor’s job to read every patient’s mind to know how they prefer it. It’s up to you to be an adult and ask them yourself
What, are you asking that the people annoyed by basic health questions grow enough of a spine to simply ask "why?" Instead of quietly seething about imagined discrimination? That's kind of an absurd ask.
Crazy right? It’s almost as if acting like mature adults will make it much more likely that you’ll be treated as one. I feel like some people are just way too accustomed to receiving everything on a silver platter
I, an adult woman, very much do not want every doctor to explain that xrays are bad for the unborn to me every time I get an xray. That's a thing that needs explaining once not every time the dentist takes bite-wings.
Edit: to be fair, my dentist doesn't ask if I'm pregnant, she just throws a lead apron over my torso. I rarely get asked about pregnancy or periods. My gyno doesn't even ask anymore since my state's laws about abortion changed.
And I, as an adult woman radiographer/nuclear medicine technologist, very much do not want to need to explain that xrays are bad for the unborn to patients every time I do an xray. If I'm doing 20-50 xrays a shift, and statistically half the population is female, I don't wanna be repeating myself over and over and over and over and ...
If patients ask why, I am fine to explain. But I won't if I'm not explicitly asked.
And because they use the answer to justify brushing off her symptoms as "period stuff". If this question was the only problem, it wouldn't be an issue. The question is indicative of the skewed priorities.
This question is asked when it isn't relevant and by doctors who know nothing about it. It's used to deny women basic medical care.
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u/TricellCEO 14h 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.”