Pre-pregnant?!?

[whatever]

Interesting article (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/do-doctors-view-women-as-pre-pregnant/) in the NY Times health section on the idea that women of a childbearing age are treated differently by the medical profession since there's always the lingering fear that any medical treatment may affect thier unborn child if they ARE pregnant.

I've run into that going to the doctor before with dialogues something like this:

me- *coughs horribly* hello

dr- when was the date of your last period? are you pregnant?

me- um... no, I just have this cough :huh:

dr- well, we have to make sure that you're not pregnant so that we don't have to worry that the medicine we may give you may harm the fetus.

me- what fetus? I'm not f*&^ing pregnant! :steam:

Seriously- what's wrong with doctors these days?!?

[disregard]

It's even worse--they'll make you go on birth control for some medications! I was 15 and I was mortified! I was like Ummm.. I am not sexually active. But they insisted! I refused and ended up signing some document saying that it is against my religion or something, and got my prescription.

[whatever]

ugh... that reminds me of being forced into a pregnancy test before taking one drug even though I'd explained that I hadn't had sex for so long that I'd be very obviously showing if I was :dry:

but forced bc?!? pretty horrid as well! so they assume that you'll immediatly sleep around? :huh:

[disregard]

Yes, while on my medication I had to take regular (every 6 weeks about) pregnancy tests. It was the most humiliating, degrading crap.

[runvardh]

Wow, talk about overboard... :rolli:

[cafe]

I assume they fear malpractice suits. As cheap and fast as it is to test for pregnancy, I don't blame them for taking the precaution. OTOH, I'd be pretty upset if my 15 y/o went through what you did, Dana. Ugh! Always with the seeing both sides. :doh:

[runvardh]

I assume they fear malpractice suits. As cheap and fast as it is to test for pregnancy, I don't blame them for taking the precaution. OTOH, I'd be pretty upset if my 15 y/o went through what you did, Dana. Ugh! Always with the seeing both sides. :doh:

Yeah, I don't do much of that anymore unless I have to, always more of a headache than it's worth. :(

[disregard]

Yeah, it is understandable, cafe.

[MedGirl]

I'm going to have to disagree pretty strongly with most of you on this one. I saw the NY times article and read many of the comments. I'm a med student, and what you may not realize is that there are many, many patients who lie to their doctors, especially when it comes to sensitive issues like sex and pregnancy. You may be telling the truth, but for every 100 patients who swear that they're not sexually active and couldn't be pregnant, there are going to be a few who lie or who are just wrong. Would I risk causing potential harm to unborn fetuses just to avoid offending some women who don't want to take a pregnancy test? Hell no. Many doctors probably see 100 patients in a week, and prescribe many drugs that are teratogenic. It's considered the "standard of care" to have a DOCUMENTED negative pregnancy test in the chart before prescribing these drugs. I'm sure there are women out there who SWORE they couldn't be pregnant but then ended up having a positive pregnancy test who are glad there doctors are taking these precautions. This is not even counting the fact that doctors are legally liable for following the standard of care and can be sued if they don't.

I will concede that many doctors could probably do a better job of explaining to their patients why these precautions are necessary and beneficial to the patient, and this I bet is where a lot of this frustration comes from. But being angry because you're doctor wants you to take regular pregnancy tests because you want to treat your acne with Accutane, a drug known to cause some of the most awful birth defects known to man? Either get over it or treat your zits some other way.

[murkrow]

I'm going to have to disagree pretty strongly with most of you on this one. I saw the NY times article and read many of the comments. I'm a med student, and what you may not realize is that there are many, many patients who lie to their doctors, especially when it comes to sensitive issues like sex and pregnancy. You may be telling the truth, but for every 100 patients who swear that they're not sexually active and couldn't be pregnant, there are going to be a few who lie or who are just wrong. Would I risk causing potential harm to unborn fetuses just to avoid offending some women who don't want to take a pregnancy test? Hell no. Many doctors probably see 100 patients in a week, and prescribe many drugs that are teratogenic. It's considered the "standard of care" to have a DOCUMENTED negative pregnancy test in the chart before prescribing these drugs. I'm sure there are women out there who SWORE they couldn't be pregnant but then ended up having a positive pregnancy test who are glad there doctors are taking these precautions. This is not even counting the fact that doctors are legally liable for following the standard of care and can be sued if they don't.

I will concede that many doctors could probably do a better job of explaining to their patients why these precautions are necessary and beneficial to the patient, and this I bet is where a lot of this frustration comes from. But being angry because you're doctor wants you to take regular pregnancy tests because you want to treat your acne with Accutane, a drug known to cause some of the most awful birth defects known to man? Either get over it or treat your zits some other way.

:nice:

[scantilyclad]

I actually found out i was pregnant because a doctor forced me to take a pregnancy test when i went in for an upper respiratory infection. I had no idea i was pregnant, especially since my periods have never been normal, so i'm really very happy they tested me and asked questions before prescribing me medication that could have been harmful to my baby; However, i do understand the frustration. It was especially frustrating when i was a teenager, and was not sexually active.

[Ivy]

I agree with scanty here. I was out of town and had to go to the ER a couple of months ago and I needed a pelvic X-ray. They of course asked "is there any chance you could be pregnant," and while it was 99.9% certain that I was not, I didn't mind doing the test anyway. It really could have been a bad scene if I were.

[INTJMom]

Interesting article (http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/28/do-doctors-view-women-as-pre-pregnant/) in the NY Times health section on the idea that women of a childbearing age are treated differently by the medical profession since there's always the lingering fear that any medical treatment may affect thier unborn child if they ARE pregnant.

I've run into that going to the doctor before with dialogues something like this:

me- *coughs horribly* hello

dr- when was the date of your last period? are you pregnant?

me- um... no, I just have this cough :huh:

dr- well, we have to make sure that you're not pregnant so that we don't have to worry that the medicine we may give you may harm the fetus.

me- what fetus? I'm not f*&^ing pregnant! :steam:

Seriously- what's wrong with doctors these days?!?
Maybe they've had too many lawsuits.

I was put on Accutane once and would have had to endure regular pregnancy tests except that I had already had my tubes cut and cauterized, so thankfully it was unnecessary.

[Grayscale]

this happens to me all the time, stop complaining :coffee:

[whatever]

;) My friend's husband was once asked if he was sure that he wasn't pregnant when he went to the doctor, then they looked up and realized he was a guy :shock:

[WobblyStilettos]

When I was 13 I got really quite ill with some problems with my stomach and srsly the amount of pregnacy tests they made me do! I know in their eyes it was possible that I could be pregnant and that could be what was wrong, but still xD every doctor or nurse I saw asked 'is it possible you could be pregnant' in a sympathetic hushed voice cos my mum was sitting right next to me, yeah like a 13 year old is going to tell you they've been sleeping around with a parent listening in xDDD

[kyuuei]

I'm in the Army, and everytime there's some sort of mobilization, or shots to be given or anything they herd all of us like cattle and round us up into the lab for a cup sample so they can get results for pregnancy. One girl when we first got our initial warning orders in June '07 found out she was pregnant because of that test, but we can't even go get our hearing checked until we have that piece of paper in our hands. One time a friend of mine was playing around and wrote "positive lol!" in pencil above it.. They made her RETAKE the test.

Its annoying, and frustrating, but necessary. There's no real graceful way of saying "Well some of you bitches lie so we gotta test all of ya'll!" (well maybe slightly more graceful than that..) but rest assured I feel just as much like cattle being branded as ya'll do when I have to do that. We have to take drug tests every month too, I'm pretty much an expert at pissing in a cup.

[Enyo]

I'm pretty much an expert at pissing in a cup.

:shock: I'm pretty sure that's a marketable job skill. Somewhere?

[prplchknz]

The only issue I have is I'm not getting any. So taking that test would just remind me.

[cafe]

:shock: I'm pretty sure that's a marketable job skill. Somewhere?
Man, if it was I could be rich. I think they make you pee in a cup every time you go to an OB appointment which gets really fun when you are nearly full-term and you're going in every week.

Talk about feeling like cattle. http://planetsmilies.net/kaos-animal-cow-smiley-6119.gif

[Ivy]

Man, if it was I could be rich. I think they make you pee in a cup every time you go to an OB appointment which gets really fun when you are nearly full-term and you're going in every week.

Talk about feeling like cattle. http://planetsmilies.net/kaos-animal-cow-smiley-6119.gif

Especially when you have to navigate around the huge lump of baby to get to the bidness! That makes it an adventure.

[MedGirl]

Its annoying, and frustrating, but necessary. There's no real graceful way of saying "Well some of you bitches lie so we gotta test all of ya'll!" (well maybe slightly more graceful than that..)

This is a really tough point to deal with... in my experience the vast majority of patients don't lie, but a few do and this makes it hard for doctors to know when to take what they're hearing at face value.

I've seen some doctors resolve this for themselves by taking the (extremely misguided) view that all patients are lying... I've heard residents I work with call patients drugs seekers who were definitely NOT drug seekers and were truly in a lot of pain.

On the other hand, I also once had a patient tell me he had "10 of out 10" pain in his "brain and eyelids" as he was lying comfortably on his hospital bed and tell me the only thing that relieved his pain was morphine. A urine tox screen then showed he was in opioid withdrawal. I even heard a story of a patient who went as far as to pretend to be unconscious and let himself be intubated (!!) in order to get drugs... when he overheard the doctor say "oh I know this guy, he's a drug seeker, we're not giving him anything" he sat up pulled out the tube (to the astonishment of everyone else who thought he was on the verge of death), and huffed out of the hospital.

So yeah, most patients don't lie, but the ones who do make it really tough for everyone else to have a trusting relationship with their doctor.