IMO, all medical professionals dealing with someone like that should be like the first doc I had perform a gyno exam. My period was super irregular until I started birth control (literally it could be as little as 2 weeks or as much as 3 months between periods I had no idea).

Her: How many days has it been since your…

My friend had a gyno, refuse to look her in the eye call her fat, and balance her clipboard on my friend’s belly. She was 19 and horrified. My mom’s best friend had a male gyno tell her she “had a beautiful labia” and asked her to keep her pearls on. Pretty scary! I get papsmears by my GP who is in and out of there in…

That’s pretty stupid of her. Also, your blood pressure being higher than normal when it’s being measured by a medical profession is so common it has a name “The White Coat Effect”. What a silly woman.

Exactly. If they want women to go to the doctor, they should work on becoming more sensitive and less shame-inducing. The reason we feel shame is that we’re made to feel it....because we’re too fat or we fuck too much or we don’t get enough exercise or we aren’t aware of our cycles to the day. It’s always some fucking…

Once in college I went in for a routine check-up/STD test. I was in a monogamous relationship with my boyfriend (still am three years later!!) and when the nurse asked me about my sexual history and my current relationship I told her that I was monogamous with my boyfriend. She then went on to tell me that what my…

I’m old, but I always kept track of my periods so I would know when to expect my next one (more or less, my cycle averaged 25-29 days). I frequently would get cramps starting a few days before, so keeping track would allow me to look at my calendar and ball park when I should cut back on fiber (it made my cramps…

I’m 27. I have a calendar in my kitchen. I’m from the type of family that always had a calendar in the kitchen with all the family events, birthdays, appointments, etc on it. I grew up using planners because of after school activities/ volunteering/ babysitting, and my school system in middle school and high school…

I went to the ER once because I threw up blood, and the doctor basically told me I had no reason to be there because I had no history of problems, (I was 21. I have not been alive long enough to have a vast medical history.) and that next time unless it was A LOT of blood, I shouldn’t bother, implying I was wasting…

Go! Medicine is improving regularly!

GO. We internet strangers believe in you!

I’m 41. I used to, before my hysterectomy, use a calendar to keep track of the first day of my periods. I was being proactive with my gynecological health.

I had a Navy doctor who was giving me my pap go all Old Testament on me when I told him my periods were very painful and irregular. A few months later when I deployed to Iraq, I told the flight surgeon these complaints and he had my thyroid checked out. I was super hypothyroid and once I was on the thyroid meds…

And PS: And this was in an urban area of California at a Kaiser hospital, not some back-woods bible-belt conservative christian state.

My first visit at 18, the doctor shamed me for asking for a birth control prescription and refused to give me one until is asked to see another doctor. My mom had been a nurse in that office until she left medicine and had sent me on my own, since I was leaving for college in a few months. No one should be ashamed of…

My wife is an internist, and even she has complained about OBs.

I’m so sorry you had to deal with that doctor. She not only shouldn’t be a gynocologist, she shouldn’t be involved in medicine period. I kind of question whether she should be in any profession that involves interacting with other humans. (She also sounds like an idiot, because for all she knew, you could have used a…

Mine was annoyed that I didn’t know my average blood pressure. When she had to measure it my pulse was faster than usual because I was nervous, that was also my fault somehow.

I totally used to keep an app on my phone tracking my periods solely for this reason - I was sick of feeling like an idiot at the doctor’s office.

I get so confused when doctors ask me about this. Like really, you expect me to keep exact track of my period? Even when I’m on birth control, fuck, I don’t remember. Either it’s happening now or it’s not, that’s the best you’re getting.

Or for that matter, adult women? It’s an easy enough answer if you’re on the pill or the patch, but if you’re having a non-artificial period, there’s going to be some variance and I think a lot of women aren’t paying attention to the specific day so long as it comes that week. All that applies even more to women who…