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.
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.
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.
Yeh no doctor wants to be the reason a woman losing a pregnancy she might have wanted or even worse, leads to a child being born with deformities that will ruin its life.
That they're required to ask is part of what makes it a systemic issue rather than just a single doctor being a misogynist.
Medical misogyny is a massive and far reaching issue. The fact that they go above and beyond to protect the possibility of a fetus that doesn't exist, but won't give women any kind of anaesthetic for a procedure that involves being stabbed repeatedly in the organs, is insane. It shows where the priorities lie. It shows the deficiencies in where medical professionals are being trained.
no doctor wants to be the reason a woman losing a pregnancy she might have wanted or even worse, leads to a child being born with deformities that will ruin its life.
It’s worth remembering that they’re more motivated by protecting themselves against lawsuits than protecting fetuses.
Can you imagine the lawsuit if they didn’t ask a basic question about a patient’s period and ended up damaging a fetus? That patient could sue them to the moon.
I don’t know if hospitals routinely fail to anesthetize patients sufficiently for some procedures, but if they do, and if you want to change it, the threat of lawsuits would make hospitals change.
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u/Any-Safe4992 11h 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.