this post was submitted on 20 Oct 2026
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Right, but asking about a person's menstrual cycle is different than asking if they're pregnant. Just throwing that out there.
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.
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.
Yeah, you're less likely to get a false negative.
If it's that important, they'll do a blood draw pregnancy test.
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.
I'm mostly here to combat the misinformation from people who have never been pregnant before spouting off "facts" like they're right.
Yes, but there are other physiological reasons why it may be pertinent. For instance, the clotting factors in your blood may behave somewhat differently depending on which phase of the menstrual cycle you are in, or in relation to several ovarian or hormonal conditions that would affect menstruation and present with changes to the menstrual cycle. That could ultimately be relevant to the treatment for a traumatic injury. But you wouldn’t know that, because you are not a physician
I get what this comic is pointing out, and I understand that many women receive subpar care, but your doctor asking you about your menstrual cycle should NOT be a sticking point for you as a patient. It is frequently relevant, and most doctors are not just asking questions for the fun of it. Overall, medicine is continually advancing, and we are seeing much more research done on female bodies. The majority of graduating physicians are now female, and that scale continues to tip farther and farther each year.
If you find yourself getting annoyed at the questions the doctor is asking you, take a deep breath and try to answer them honestly while continuing to advocate for your needs. Refusing to answer your doctor’s questions rarely does you or your doctor any good
I routinely have to educate my doctors on my various health issues, I will maintain my level of skepticism when it comes to these things after years of medical abuse before I finally received a diagnosis.
Doctors aren't gods. They are fallible. It is a relationship between patient and doctor and they should respect that over checking a box on a form for federal funding.
All of those things might be relevant if they actually bothered to study how those things happen and change throughout the cycle.
They do not. Laughably do not. I encourage you to verify for yourself that women’s issues are not even studied. Only wothin the last year we got a crash test dummy built to be female from the ground up, rather than a re-scaled male dummy.
None of those things are considerations. None of the realities for women are considered. Mostly because none of those things are remotely known because nobody studies women.
Super fun cycle!
It's true that a lot of research in the US until the last few decades focused on men. However, any research on the general population has been required to include women since around the 1990s if funded by the government.
There's been a massive push to catch up on research topics related to women since then. Policies, regulations, and applications follow slowly after research but looking at sex differences is pretty much standard in human research now. Still a whole lot of catching up to do of course.
I work on NIH's women's research initiatives so I know a bit about this but it's easy enough to confirm for yourself. Search PubMed for systematic reviews or meta-analyses from the last 15 or so years on basically any human or public health related topic and you'll very likely see references to women or sex differences.
Furthermore, you know what kind of data helps progress medical research? Patient data. For instance, knowing where in the menstrual cycle a woman is when she experiences a traumatic injury might later help inform larger demographic studies regarding healing outcomes and hormonal health. Often patients do not see or understand the larger picture, and the things that don’t make sense to them do in fact have a rationale
Verify for myself? I am a woman. I also work in healthcare. I know how frustrating it can be. However, the vast majority of doctors who I know (which I’d imagine is probably a few hundred more than the average person) do actually care about women’s health. There is absolutely a great deal more research that is needed and more work to do to reduce health disparities, but many physicians today are actively engaged in that work. The research is happening. It is slow and it will take a long time, but it is happening.
Ok, do they study those things and apply those findings to actual healthcare?
No? They still barely pay lip service to half the population?
Cool. Handy.
Many of them do, yes, but it sounds like nothing anyone says will change your mind.
Reality would, but hasn’t. So, yeah “nothing”.
A handful of people being somewhat decent doesn’t change the medical reality for women across the globe no matter how much you want some small progress to do that. Sorry.
And nobody should be expected to ignore their own healthcare reality just because some people are vaguely trying to be better in a way that has zero impact on anyone but that niche research group.