A Dumb Question

[taffimai]

Whenever I go to the doctor, they ask me if there's any chance I could be pregnant. Now, as I do not have sex with men, I find it pretty easy to answer this question.

But I've never understood how straight, sexually active women in the second half of their cycle are supposed to answer that question. Because even if they're using birth control, it's only 99% effective, so there's always a chance they could be pregnant, but they haven't missed a period yet so they wouldn't really know. Is this just code for, "have you missed a period?"

Just curious.

Comments

[dameruth.livejournal.com]

The variation on that that really used to bug me, back in college, is the way the Student Health Center seemed to assume every young woman who came to see them WAS pregnant, no matter what. They would even diagnose you as such -- "you're probably pregnant, there's a lot of that going around," almost -- even if you went in with very non-pregnant symptoms. It got so bad, you'd hear people joking about it (e.g., "Damn, I think I'm getting a sore throat." "Uh-oh! You must be pregnant!")

Student Health would persist in this even if you informed them that it was unlikely-to-impossible. I haven't led the wildest life, and for many years was able to answer the "do you think you might be pregnant" question with, "Only if it's the Second Coming of the Messiah," which usually just confused the medical staff. Later, I would frequently answer with, "The last time I had sex we used protection, it was six months ago, and I've had my period right on time that whole while." To which they would usually respond, "Are you SURE about that?"

Gah. No, lady. Every female college student on campus regularly drinks herself into a stupor at frat house parties and wakes up the next morning wondering where their underwear went. *Grumph!*

'Course, then there was the time my (married) friend, who was a student, and had been *trying* to get pregnant went in for confirmation of her home test. Apparently, when the results came back, the staff freaked,a nd started trying to "counsel" her about her "options." My irritated friend told them about six times that this was a *wanted* child, and was very irritated that they wouldn't listen to her.

There was a reason we all called the place "Stupid Health."

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

Hee! Yes, we had the same thing: you went to the Health Center and had a 99% chance of either being diagnosed with mono or being told you were pregnant. I think it's fairly universal.

[halfspokenwords.livejournal.com]

It must be. A few years ago Student Health convinced me I had mono-- before they did a blood test, which was (of course) negative. It was that much worse because I had gone there specifically to make sure I didn't have mono, so I couldn't even dismiss it out of hand.

[taffimai.livejournal.com]

*facepalm* I swear, they must get mono meds kickbacks or something.