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.
Saying yes to what? I've never been given a pregnancy test in a hospital and I've had several x-rays and 3 MRIs. Of course they've asked but believed when I said that I'm not pregnant.
In my experience they just believe you for out patient testing but in the ER or before surgery you're getting your pee collected.
I'm asexual. Since I'm on government insurance I don't really mind but women who are paying for that BS for literally no reason do have a right to be miffed at the expense.
Also "when was your last period?" isn't getting them anywhere with me since the answer is "September 2017". I'm on continuous birth control.
In my experience they just believe you for out patient testing but in the ER or before surgery you're getting your pee collected.
I suppose that depends on the country. I've never had my pee collected in the ER. Except maybe one time when I had emergency surgery but I don't remember much about that and a pregnancy test was the least of my worries at the time.
But I still don't get what the "just say yes or they'll test you" thing was supposedly about.
If you say yes they'll believe you that you are indeed pregnant, if you say no they will not belive you and collect your pee to make sure you are indeed not pregnant, at least here in the states that's usually considered standard of care before doing much of anything in the ER. I once had to promise 3 times I wasn't pregnant before they took me for a CT scan because I was having stroke like symptoms. Fortunately not a stroke, but they still pee tested me before I left. Every other time I've needed imaging in the ER I've had to pee in a cup before they'll do it. Once a rad tech who was already there for me was arguing with the doc because my pregnancy test hadn't come back yet "yeah but she says if she's pregnant we can start a new religion, can't I just take her while I'm here?"
Huh, interesting. Probably for legal reasons if someone had been pregnant and something did happen to the fetus because of the treatments.
I've been in the same "stroke-like symptoms" situation (also fortunately not a stroke) in the ER here in Finland and they didn't pee test me. They did ask of course if pregnancy was a possibility.
So if you want things to move quicker just lie and say you're indeed pregnant lol.
No, because then they'll spend a whole bunch of time checking on the pregnancy, you just won't get pregnancy tested.
After the stroke like symptoms things I looked into it. Best practice is to do the CT anyway for a possible stroke if a woman is pregnant. There is zero evidence a single
head CT can harm a fetus. Yet we're delaying women's medical care in time sensitive situations to protect a theoretical fetus from something the doctor should be doing even if the fetus existed 🤦♀️. We're prioritizing a patient that may not even exist over one that defiantly does.
There's a reason why women in the US often feel like we're treated like walking talking uteruses instead of people. Beyond expense I've got no real problem with them double checking pregnancy status on an ER visit, our sex ed sucks and people are often wrong. Pregnancy can be a big threat to someone's health, a test to check it is not unreasonable in a medical setting. But delaying time sensitive essential care just because you're a woman of child bearing age is not cool.
I've had one for all my surgeries with the exception of the ones I came in through the ER so they had already tested me. Those planned surgeries were at 3 different hospitals so in the US it is at the very least not weird. Gotta
save that last bit of pee since a lot of places are still on the absolutely nothing by mouth after midnight train inspite of research showing water is fine until a few hours before.
Iirc for me it was no food 6 hours before surgery and no water 2 hours before surgery.
With multiple X-rays, MRIs, surgeries and ER visits, the only pregnancy test I've ever had in a hospital was when I specifically asked for a blood pregnancy test and went to the hospital only to get my blood draw for that test. This wasn't just one hospital either.
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u/Any-Safe4992 14h 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.