sick of the whole "pre-pregnant" bull that women have to put up with

[prole_for_peace]

i am having a mri tomorrow and they call and tell me i have to get a pregnancy test before they will do the scan. SUCKS!! men can just GO and no problem.

last year i had carpel tunnel surgery on each hand. the first time i went did the whole pre-admittance thing with the blood work and ekg and preg test...all ok

the next time i went in to pre-admit and after the blood work and ekg was told that it was too far in advance (10 days) of my surgery and i had to come back in a few days for the pregnancy test. inconvenience much?

i am always fairly busy at work and it is a pain in the ass to have to take off, go to the hospital, sit and wait to pee in a cup (or have blood drawn like today).

i have asked "what if i sign something saying that i swear i am not pregnant and if i am that i am not having it?" i was told no dice. and, since this was a catholic hospital, i DO NOT think they were amused.

[melnjones]

1. I hate that...

I don't remember what procedure I was going to have done, but I remember the nurse asking me if there was a possibility of me being pregnant. I told her no. She didn't believe me and proceeded to ask me several more times, with a frustrated expression on her face. Pissed me off. I mean, even if there had been a chance of being pregnant and I was lying, deal with it, it's my damn body. Maybe explain that the reason they have to ask is because _____________, maybe some added danger to me if I was pregnant or whatever. Give me some freaking credit. I definately felt like having sex must just be what any woman is supposed to do, married or not. Heaven forbid I not fulfill my womanly duty in life. How is it that we can be shamed both for having sex and for NOT having sex? Truly amazing.

[Samurai_Writer]

2. I always told them I was a lesbian... seemed to work

Of course, now that I'm 45 and have had my tubes tied for 5 years, they don't do the pregnancy tests on me anymore. But when I was in my 20s and 30s, I would tell them there was no possible way I'd be pregnant, because I only dated women. OK, so I lied... I date both men and women. But it worked.

[bleedingheart]

3. I tell them I had my husband neutered so they don't bother me

I also add that my husband no longer scratches up the furniture or marks his territory ...so it is an added benefit...that typically gets a few laughs...my husband thinks I am pretty silly.

[Warpy]

5. HAHAH!

I thought I was the only one who did that. Clyde is my housemate. He's got brown hair and blue eyes and he's drop dead handsome.

[bleedingheart]

6. what a cutie

[politicat]

4. Odd... last year when I was having the work done on my knee,

they just asked if there was any chance I could be pregnant. I said no in all cases, and never had any problems.

But I also refuse to use Catholic hospitals. I use community hospitals only. (I'm lucky that we have several in the area.)

[Branjor]

8. In my community here....

the local public hospital was bought by a catholic organization - the St. Barnabas Health Care Corp. It is creepy how many public hospitals the catholic church is buying.

[prole_for_peace]

12. we have two hospitals: one catholic and i think one is another

religious affiliation that i can't remember. and the catholic (christus) is a really good hospital even though i don't agree with their pro-birth agenda

[bleedingheart]

7. I do want to tell you a "horror" story about what happened to a friend

...she and her husband had been married about 10 years...she was about 28 years old and the older she got the more her hypochondria got worse....

So...she was feeling ill, having some other problems and so her GP told her..."it's nothing..probably the flu"...and told her to call him if it got worse...but she wouldn't let it go...

So...he orders a bunch of tests including a radioactive contrast test....and lo and behold...her problem was a pregnancy...and she had to abort because the doctor was pretty sure that the odds of her having a normal pregnancy were not good.

[prole_for_peace]

11. but if, deity forbid, i was to get pregnant i would terminate it.

neither i nor my so want children. i try to tell the medical people that i am not having any children but they don't listen.

[Solly Mack]

9. I can't get pregnant. My medical records state this plainly

and they STILL give me a pregnancy test before a procedure.

I get so pissed.

[bliss_eternal]

10. I've never had to do that...

They ask if there is any chance that I may be pregnant, I tell them no--they note it on the chart and we move on. This was also at a Catholic facility/hospital...

I don't understand why they have to give a pregnancy test prior to performing the procedure, and not just take you at your word? I've had an ekg, an mri, a mammogram and chest x-rays and never took a pregnancy test first. :shrug: This is even when I had a different insurance than we do now.

edited to add: I would think if a woman stated that if she were pregnant she would assume the risk and not hold the hospital liable they may be inclined to oblige. I'm thinking it's about their risk. But it still strikes me as odd, that so many here have been told they must do the same, and that I haven't... Oh well.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

13. During my grad student and college professor days,

I often heard women students complain that if they went in for any abdominal complaint, the doctor's first guess was "complications of pregnancy."

I experienced this myself, once when I fainted in the dorm shower, and once when I had an attack of spastic colitis. Literally the first things the ER staff asked were, "Are you sexually active?" and "When was your last period?"

In fact, when I tore a tendon in my leg, I half expected the doctor to suspect that it was a complication of (non-existent) pregnancy.

[Warpy]

14. That just tells you how risky pregnancy is

and that tells ME it needs to be VOLUNTARY.

[bliss_eternal]

16. Absolutely...

I don't completely understand why in so many cases it isn't voluntary. :shrug: It bothers me that it isn't. For me, it seems another case of not giving women choices and telling them "you don't know your body..."

I also suspect that in these days of managed care, it is more about them covering their ass than it is about giving a woman what she needs or wants as part of her care plan.

[bliss_eternal]

15. Thank you for sharing this, Lydia--

you just jarred my memory. A college friend told me a similar story when she went to the doctor for an abdominal complaint.

Before she could even finish telling the physician what was going on, he insisted to the point of badgering her, that she was pregnant. She was furious. Of course, he didn't flinch or apologize for his behaviour after running the test and finding out she was not...

:wtf:

So, I shouldn't have been so surprised by the original post considering this and the immediate assumptions made by the medical world. :eyes:

[geniph]

17. There are many things that can cause gamete damage in men,

so why aren't men expected to behave as if they're always "pre-procreative" as well? Stop drinking, it damages sperm production and causes germ cell damage. Stop wearing tight pants. Quit taking hot tubs. etc. Why is every fucking thing having to do with reproduction totally the woman's responsibility EXCEPT the decision of whether or not to carry the pregnancy to term?!

:mad: