this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2026
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[–] folekaule@lemmy.world 169 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (4 children)

While there is definitely an issue of women receiving worse treatment, the providers have good reasons to ask; namely there are a lot of tests where they have to know if you could be pregnant before they can run them, even an X-ray. If you just tell them you're pregnant up front, then they can save you a blood draw for an HCG test. Otherwise, they probably will, to make sure.

Edit: This blew up, so I wanted to clarify something. This is clearly a very common and frustrating experience for many women who may feel bullied into giving up private information. I don't want anyone to think that they must answer all the doctor's questions. You have a right to refuse to answer questions and to refuse care. Read the rest of the thread and stay informed of your rights.

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 52 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They have you do a pregnancy test in those cases regardless.

[–] folekaule@lemmy.world 52 points 2 days ago (5 children)

Yes, they can't take your word for it. I was just implying that if you already told them you are pregnant then they can save a step since the safe choice is to not do the test.

Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 34 points 2 days ago (11 children)

Right, but asking about a person's menstrual cycle is different than asking if they're pregnant. Just throwing that out there.

[–] folekaule@lemmy.world 23 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Oh yeah, and I definitively think the doctor in the comic is being rude and dismissive. I could see the question being used as a proxy for "are you possibly pregnant", though.

Also, almost all the intake questionnaires you get at the doctor's office are templates that they have to complete per policy. I just treat them like when they ask me if I have a loyalty card at the store.

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

almost all the intake questionnaires you get at the doctor's office are templates that they have to complete per policy.

Are you aware that “policy data collection” has no bearing on what information you actually need to disclose in order to get care? And that it’s prohibitively invasive in a way that it doesn’t need to be for no reason other than to collect incredibly intimate data? (Lots of women aren’t gunna answer your invasive questions, fuck off!) And that that data never ever is meant to help you, the person who is seeking care, but will help the state or maaaaaybe your possibly progeny, who might not ever exist?

Cuz like. You could show up with no ID and lie your butthole out about your life situation, and your care would be functionally identical (insurance notwithstanding), because they need to due dilligence it either way.

So the data collection about female fertility isn’t required, its just another way to keep women down when abortion legality is questionable or overturned.

I understand there are SOME reasons to ask that info, like abdominal or back pain, but thats not the usual complaint that gets the question.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah, you're less likely to get a false negative.

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If it's that important, they'll do a blood draw pregnancy test.

[–] Serinus@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Would you rather be asked a slightly rude question by a doctor or have a blood draw?

I mean, they may do the blood draw anyway, but asking the question saves time and money up front.

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago

I'm mostly here to combat the misinformation from people who have never been pregnant before spouting off "facts" like they're right.

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[–] emptiness@lemmy.blahaj.zone 38 points 2 days ago (2 children)

“No, I am not menstruating.” “No, I have never been pregnant.” I tell them I’m a trans woman. “No, they did not implant a uterus in me.” “Yes, I’m sure. 😅”

I’ve also made a mental note to not pee before doctor’s visits, in case they want me to pee for them.

Going to the doctor hits different now.

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 2 days ago

I routinely decline urine and blood tests because I got my tubes tied in my 20s and have been on merana for years, both clearly documented in my files. My doctors still somehow magically find a way to treat me without it.

Just food for thought :) I’m sure not every doctor is willing to respect your privacy, but some are :)

[–] folekaule@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That sounds exhausting. I'm sorry that you're met with so much ignorance and disrespect. I would probably complain to the patient ombudsman if this is a recurring issue.

I think there's been some spotlight on the sad state of women's healthcare in the news, but I've not seen much about trans care. I hope that improves, but I'm not optimistic under the current administration.

[–] thejml@sh.itjust.works 14 points 2 days ago

I'm not optimistic under the current administration.

That is what I like to call "a gross understatement".

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 2 days ago (3 children)

If that were the case, they would accept “my tubes are tied and I’ve additionally been on long term birth control since I was a teen and thus haven’t had periods or pregnancy risk in decades” or “I have not been sexually active in several years”

But they don’t, they say “just give us an estimate on when the last one was”

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Tubal ligation and birth control, while wildly effective, aren't 100%. Plus, there are probably other reasons they want to know about menstruation other than pregnancy. They're just checking a box, let 'em get on with it.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 days ago (3 children)

I had my uterus yeeted in 2015 and I kept getting asked until my hair was so white they were willing to accept that I couldn't remember.

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yeah this is what I mean. We don't have to answer this question just because it's a checkbox on a form at the doctor's office. Sorry it took so long for them to accept what you were saying.

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago (7 children)

While the comment immediately below this is basically “rofl thats not a problem!”

Lemmy is a trip.. supposedly heavily leftist, which strongly implies feminist, but actually anything but..

[–] Wataba@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago

At this point, im not at all convinced its actual leftism anymore. Its sounding more and more like Green MAGA everywhere I go.

On topic, I am still utterly appalled at how many stories I see about women's cancer being misdiagnosed by lazy/shithead physicians. I dont know what to do about it though, and frankly its depressing to see community after community willfully ignore the problem.

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[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Do you have to regularily answer when your last bowel movement was because it could be related?

No, of course not, not unless it seems -actually- related.

Thats not what women deal with. We are asked even when it is so wildly unlikely to be related (as comic above) as to be functionally impossible as a cause.

Because there’s a chance.

But no, sometimes there isn’t, and I will abort if I just happen to be wrong (something I tell my docs who are concerned I might be pregnant, because I have ZERO desire to have kids), give me my fucking healthcare.

[–] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

No, but they are strong signs that the person is unconcerned with the hypothetical existence of a fetus so early in its term that they have not noticed it yet.

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[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Tell them it was in march of 1623

Edit: not really, even justifiably annoying a person whose attention to your situation could save your life is a bad idea, but that’s what I always want to tell them

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 2 days ago

I kinda do that, if they really push against my “are you serious? Genuinely serious?” I give them a date when I was 16, which was like 25 years ago, because its the last time I can reliably say I had one that wasn’t just hormone withdrawal (which is the actual reason the pill gives “periods” in the week of placebo pills, it’s not a real period)

My docs and nurses would genuinely find that funny af tho (their patents are mostly old men, and they find my levity quite disarming and enjoyable because they see me frequently enough for my kind of humor to be a hit) so I am gunna do that the next time they insist.

[–] PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Honestly the technicians are probably required to fill out the date section of the form in order to proceed to the next tab. Doctors don't torture people for fun.

[–] folekaule@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

As someone who builds said forms: that is why we put "patient declined to answer" as an option along with "not applicable", "unknown" and other ways to get past the questions without having to put in a fake answer. "The computer won't let me keep going without you answering the question" is a weak-ass excuse.

[–] ApathyTree@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Doesn’t mean I won’t fight it, because they don’t actually need to know for most reasons. When they actually need to know, they have ways of asking that eliminate doubt, like “hey you are trying to get a uterine ablation, which causes scar tissue in your uterus that prevents proper implantation of fertile eggs. We need to be entirely sure you are sterile before you get this proceedure done, and that you recognize the implications”. (A proceedure I have tried to have done but it failed because my cervix is amazing!!!! Powerful warrior cervix wouldn’t let boiling liquid or energetic mesh in!)

I fight against their data collection bullshit for fun and for others, because there’s no chance whatever that I’m pregnant and I know that. (tubal aside, I haven’t had sex in years and prefer my life that way. My tubal, at this point, is mostly BC in case of rape, I’m otherwise just not generally sexually active). I don’t need some asshole doctor accusing me of getting an abortion because my periods are basically never to begin with.

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

It’s not a requirement to move onto the next form.

[–] Mouselemming@sh.itjust.works 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

These days in certain US states a court could use this date as a starting point to say the abortion pills you used a few months later were for a pregnancy that must have been over six weeks. Or the same doctor could deny you the pills. Even though you might just have very long or very short cycles.

[–] NathanRanch@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (5 children)

Does HIPPAA block this info without court action? Can an investigator just ask and be told?

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 days ago

It varies by state and then it varies by case. In some of these cases, it was the nurses that reported these women to the police.

Hundreds of US women charged with pregnancy-related crimes since fall of Roe

The report indicates there are far more cases of miscarriage criminalization than have made national headlines. In one widely covered case in late 2023, police charged an Ohio woman with felony abuse of a corpse after she miscarried into a toilet. In another, earlier this year, a Georgia woman who had been found bleeding and unconscious after a miscarriage faced one count of concealing the death of another person, and one count of throwing away or abandonment of a dead body. The charges against both women were ultimately dropped.

Nine cases discovered by Pregnancy Justice involved allegations that women had considered abortions, such as ordering abortion pills or looking for information about abortion online. Only one woman in those cases was charged with violating a criminal abortion ban, likely because it is legal in most states to “self-manage” one’s own abortion. US abortion bans tend to penalize providers and people who help abortion patients, not the patients themselves.

In 2025, lawmakers in at least 12 states – including Alabama and Oklahoma – introduced legislation that would treat fetuses as people, which would leave women who have abortions vulnerable to being charged with homicide. In several of those states, that charge would carry the death penalty.

“What our work has proven is that, unfortunately, anything is possible when it comes to policing pregnancy,” Sussman said.

What guarantee do you have that those rules won't be revised? Or that someone won't hack & leak it?

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

remember it's Hippa the HIPAA Hippo

[–] PlantDadManGuy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Yes this type of information is covered by HIPAA and should never be disclosed without a warrant.

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 days ago

Just because it shouldn't be disclosed doesn't mean it's never disclosed.

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