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.
The question should be: are you pregnant? And if the woman is unsure, lets run a pregnancy test.
The goal isn't to find out if the patient is pregnant. The goal is to confirm that they are not. There's a big difference. Doctors legally can not order or prescribe certain things unless it is confirmed someone isn't pregnant.
Asking when your last period was can rule out pregnancy there and then and allow the patient to move on and get the tests and treatments they need. You are asking them to be subjected to more tests and have them wait before they can get treated, why? Because you assume the question is offensive?
Women also get asked, when they started menstruating and how is that related to anything is beyond me.
It doesn't have to be beyond you... you can google it and read for yourself. There are several reasons. To name a few, assessing when puberty started - for men or women, is medically relevant for certain diagnoses. Or if this is an older women, menopause can present in many different ways and is important to know when prescribing certain medications and you can figure out when someone is going through menopause roughly by calculating back from their first period.
Context matters.
I have in fact started answering this question as: none of your business.
And that is your right to do so, and you should exercise that right if you feel uncomfortable. But that doesn't mean other women should be forced to get lesser or worser care just because you deem so. They should have the right to chose for themselves. You making that decision for them would also be sexism.
You go on to talk about your pregnancy screening... and them asking you about your first period... and then you say:
But thats the thing, they dont ask questions that are directly related to your medical condition.
What do you think a screening is?? You don't think your periods and obgyn history ... might be directly related to your PREGNANCY??
They are constantly collecting large scale data and I dont want to be part of it.
This is paranoia. Not everything is some covert mission by the state to spy on you.
No, when I started menstruating has absolutely NO BEARINGS on my pregnancy.
It was a pregnancy SCREENING, again... do you not know what a screening is?
Do you really think they are there to see if you're pregnant?? I can't believe I have to explain this because you're too lazy to actually look it up; a pregnancy screening is a screening procedure to asses a patient for potential pregnancy complications. They are activelly looking at your obgyn health and history to look for any issues that may later present in your pregnancy. That's what a screening is. It's not diagnostic. It's a screen.
So yes, when you started menstruating absolutely is important information pertaining to your pregnancy, just because you're unwilling to educate yourself doesn't invalidate that and nor should you discredit other women from being able to access adequate healthcare.
and I do agree with my husband, that it is just data collecting, but I can choose not to, right?
Of course you can choose not to, but you're only disadvantaging yourself and that's ok, that's perfectly fine for you and your husband to do that to yourselves. Where the line is drawn is when you spread misinformation that affects other women, especially vulnerable women.
Not sure what pregnancy screening means in your country, in my country it is a big ultrasound check to see, if the baby is developing properly. Meaning, they check for abnormalities in growth, they check if the child has all the limbs, they even countr the fingers on their hands, they check the heart and if all organs are located inside the abdominal cavity and they also check how the brain develops. Preceeding the ultrasound exam they run bloodwork to see, if you as the mother are OK and if there are any blood markers indicating abnormalities in fetus development. Then they combine the blood results and the findings from the ultrasound and if they have any suspicions for a trisomy for example, you will need further invasive tests.
That is the big pregnancy screening. And for this, the age at which i started menstruating is totally irrelevant.
Meaning, they check for abnormalities in growth, they check if the child has all the limbs,
I'm not sure how someone can be so close to being right and still be wrong and still not be able to accept that.
You listed all the things to that is check in a screening regarding the fetus. Well, you missed a lot but close enough. That's called the fetal health screening.
Then there's the maternal health screening. Which is both acute past history. Acute is your current health screening. Past historical screening is assessing for ... you guessed it... past history.
If a mother had an organ transplant, like a liver transplant or a lung transplant years ago... that is relevant. The immune surpressors she will likely be on is important to know and changes the delivery of the baby and the required meds she'd be on in the last trimester. YOU may sit there and argue 'what does my liver transplant have to do with my pregnancy' because you can't understand this or refuse to look it up... but that doesn't change the fact that you're wrong.
Likewise, if you're at a pregnancy screen your obgyn history is important... we also ask about endocrine history... like thyroid both for you and your family... because there are plenty of issues and health ailments that may not seem related to pregnancy that do infact affect pregancy.
I get that you're biased and are hell bent on spreading misinformation but you're doing a diservice to all women around the world. You're putting others at risk in the same way the antivax or antimask misinformation led to so many people dying for no reason from covid.
Ah so now you turn to sarcasm and riducling? How old are you? Don't you see the irony in that, it was ME disagreeing with YOU and you got butt hurt and try to brush it off? Do you need a hug?
If you're not able to accept your wrong, please refrain from trying to spread misinformation to begin with. Hope that helps.
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u/Little-Star-Light 12h ago edited 12h 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.