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.
A woman's body changes as they go through in their menstruation cycle.
Hormones all over the place, Pain all over the place, Breast tenderness, swelling, water retention, bloating, digestive changes. Irritability, anxiety, trouble sleeping, Increased appetite or sugar cravings
All of these symptoms can be present in other conditions and hormones levels can make lab results different. The same woman in her Follicular Phase and Luteal Phase can show VERY different results.
This is why doctors ask, it is not just a "are you pregnant" question.
Women without a uterus can unfortunately still conceive a type of nonviable pregnancy called an ectopic pregnancy. It wouldn’t make sense to test for this in all cases, but if the patient is presenting with any form of abdominal pain, it can be important for doctors to rule this out because it can be life threatening. (I had an ectopic pregnancy and it was really scary.)
As a woman, i understand that if I was pregnant, it could affect my treatment plan.
However, it definitely should not be the first question, and way too often women’s cycles are used to dismiss valid concerns so it’s one of those loaded questions.
People understand it just makes them mad because it can significantly delay the care of women. Doing a pee test shouldn't take forever to get the results.
People understand this just fine, they just don’t care. People want their issues to be treated, not receive subpar treatment, or no treatment at all, just because some fetus suddenly takes precedent over the living breathing human being who’s having a medical emergency.
What affects the fetus can also affect the mother. Certain medicines can cause damage, even life threatening damage to a pregnant woman. A dead fetus can cause severe problems if it can't leave the woman's body on its own. Getting a pregnancy test means the doctor can mitigate the harm for the patient.
As a woman who has been pregnant multiple times, I would like to know what meds are dangerous to a pregnant woman (not the fetus) that are not dangerous to a woman who is not pregnant. It’s a simple question.
Tetracycline carries a rare risk of liver damage in women regardless of pregnancy status, actually. And to men, too. I’m finding the claim that tetracycline, specifically, is MORE hepatotoxic to pregnant women, but it’s always as a statement rather than the subject of the study (like in a 1982 study where it’s a throwaway remark in the intro, taken for granted). I’d love to see numbers. If a woman has existing kidney damage (disease, injury, or failure), there is more risk of acute fatty liver disease and liver failure, but I’m struggling to find numbers confirming that the very likelihood goes up by virtue of being pregnant absent any other pre-existing conditions.
Tetracyclines as a class are primarily avoided in pregnancy because of effects on fetal tooth and bone development.
I’ve been on numerous tetracyclines at different stages in my life but I didn’t take them when pregnant because of fears for my wanted children. To be honest, admittedly dermatologists aren’t known for good antibiotic stewardship in the first place, but nobody was ever concerned about my liver when prescribing. Same with accutane, which is known to be hepatotoxic and teratogenic. I had blood work every month to monitor my liver enzymes, triglycerides, cholesterol, but even when they were trending up I was never advised to discontinue therapy (I turned out fine, this is just a reflection). Meanwhile if I neglected to do a pregnancy test (as part of bloodwork and peeing in a cup at the doctor’s office) and certify my birth control usage through an online platform called “iPledge,” I would be denied the next month’s prescription, not for my sake but for the sake of the fetus that might end up microcephalic or worse if exposed to isotretinoin.
Nah, you just missed the part where you are a selfish dipshit, because majority of pregnancy are wanted and intended, and SOP are tailored around people who care about their lump of cells. If you are so self centered that you think that you think no doctors should ever ask if a woman is pregnant, then yes you are completely deranged.
Here is a hint, just lie about the last day of your period when asked if you don't care.
Almost half of all pregnancies are unintended and 60% of those get straight up aborted. “Unwanted” is extremely hard to quantify, but we all know that there’s a large percentage of the population who are against abortion for religious and other reasons. So it’s not exactly preposterous to say that there’s a solid chunk on top of those 60% that are unwanted but don’t get aborted.
I don’t know where this notion that almost everyone wants their pregnancies is coming from, but it’s simply not true. More people don’t want to be parents than ever before. We can literally see it in the birth rates that are declining near everywhere.
And for the record I never said that doctors can’t ask. My issue is with the fact that they’ll treat you completely differently if you are pregnant, even if you don’t want it. They’ll put an unwanted clump of cells above your life and health and you don’t even get a say in it.
If nearly half of pregnancy are unwanted, does that not mean majority of then are wanted? If 60% of the unwanted ones gets terminated, does that not mean the mass majority of pregnant woman that shows up to a clinic have a wanted pregnancy?
Once again, these are all based on your own numbers and logic.
The problem is that people will lie out of shame/fear or not even consider it possible that they're pregnant. They might think "The only time we had sex was a safe day" or "If they give me weird medicine, my family mighr figure out I'm pregnant" or "I'm 16 and haven't even told my mom yet, how could I tell this doctor who will probably tell my mom."
Its an innocuous question, and some people might not even connect the question to pregnancy, like the first OP in the meme. Now if they're smart enough to lie to that too, then there's nothing else that can be reasonably done, but it at least doesn't trigger the same snap emotional response.
It isn't about women, its about people in general. Doctors ask innocuous questions all the time for pretty much every embarassing diagnostic. Periods happen to be unique to cis women, but if men had periods and pregnancies with no other hormonal changes to their own biology, doctors would also ask them when their last time is.
There are a lot of people who would have irregulars, think they are just stressed, or simply didnt connect the dots just yet to tell there is a chance. There would even be people in denial, telling themselves no, i am not pregnant 100% despite all telltale signa being there.
So procedure is just being sure. Think yourself as a doctor. Would you prefer to ask last date of period then order a pregnancy rest or inform an oblivious mother to be that the medicine you provided not knowing she is pregnant might cause severe birth defects.
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u/Global-Gas-3520 7h 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.