I’ve had two times where doctors did stuff that was painful, once deliberately.
I had a half dozen stitches. Doctor snipped one end, and pulled them all out at once. That woke me up.
Second time the doctor was doing minor surgery, pulled on something and I sat right up on the table. The doctor and the nurse both yelled Don’t Sit Up! Well, don’t do whatever the heck you’re doing.
Not that that discounts the treatment that women receive in general. I buy that they probably don’t get the same consideration as men.
Studies find that both women and Black people are under treated and given less pain treatment than white men.
Your wife has diagnosed hashimoto’s and no one will offer her synthroid?! That’s weird. Has she tried another doctor?
I worked for a thyroid doctor as a lab assistant for a year. He said that the amount of thyroid hormone people need is highly variable, and when he prescribed it, he started with a guess, and moved the dose up or down based on both blood work and how the person felt, and it usually took a while to find the right dose. He did also say that young men seem to need a lot more than old women, so maybe he also undertreated women. But…but… Not willing to even try it?
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I’m getting over treated here for something that i don’t believe is a real problem. That’s also awful when you just trust these medical professionals which with this one i believe she is out for money rather than looking out for my own good. I’m way more on guard now. I think I’m going to cancel the follow up ultrasound she had me schedule in 4 weeks. Initially i just trusted her, but in looking up the findings of the original ultrasound after that endometrial biopsy horror i see that nobody recommends a follow up ultrasound for it. I think with busy doctors, women likely get not enough care, but with less busy nurse practioners they get too much unnecessary care to make money
That article has personal accounts and a woman almost bled to death in one of them but all the accounts are awful.
Someone pointed out that for something as simple as a tooth filling which men get too you will get totally numbed, but for a torture procedure like an endometrial biopsy they give you nothing and also downplay how bad it is.
I hate needles, and as a kid, i begged my dentist to do my fillings without Novocaine. And mostly he did. (i remember one he said was too deep, and he insisted i get numbed.) In the case of fillings, i think the standards of pain management were developed before modern high-speed drills, and it used to hurt a lot more. Also (having had a lot of dental with without anesthesia) it matters a LOT how close they get to the nerve. A little surface filling is nothing, but i don’t think anyone could sit through digging out a really big hole without some kind of painkiller.
But yeah, dental work, which was developed with men’s sensibilities in mind, is the perfect arena, IMO, where you can have a wide range of pain treatment depending on your preferences. There are dentists near me who even offer sedation for a routine cleaning.
An endometrial biopsy should always have pain killers and not just tell you to pop a couple tylenol before. The pain of that isn’t taken seriously and every account I’m reading now is horrible. It also shouldn’t be done at all if not absolutely necessary. I’m angry. At least I stopped it. I’d think someone associated with nyu and in the same office as this highly regarded md is reliable, but nope.
Yes as a kid I also would forgo novocaine if told it wasn’t a deep filling. Now I get novocaine regardless. Im a wussier adult for dental work. As a kid I hated how numb novocaine made you after more than the filling itself for some reason.
That sounds like it probably hurts comparably to getting an IUD inserted. Both involve shoving something into the cervix, which isn’t designed for that, and having foreign objects poking around in the womb. If sucking up some of the endometrial tissue is separately painful, it’s even worse than an IUD.
It also looks like it’s probably a test worth getting, given your symptoms. At least, that’s what doctor Google tells me.
I still do. My dentist is good about doing as much pain management as i want, though.
I’d also allow for the possibility that she’s doing it primarily as a CYA measure. 
Yes sucking up tissue is apparently the worst part and i made them stop before it.
I disagree that this is worth getting. My ultrasound showed that my endometrium is normal. Why would I then need an endometrial biopsy? Perimenopausal women have periods that can be irregular. Did you not? If this is a very common issue why would you get a torture test that makes you bleed to rule out cancer?
Also my first ultrasound showed a small cyst and a small fibroid and google tells me they are small enough and common enough that you do nothing. Why would I need a followup ultrasound 4 weeks later for the cyst? Ultrasounds are far less invasive than biopsies, but they arent fun, and arent free, so i dont want to do it again unnecessarily. I don’t trust this woman.
I’m dubious of this claim. She was way too pushy for this test where the chances of it being cancer were extremely small. Endometrial cancer is rare as it is for women not in menopause, plus my ultrasound was normal and women my age tend to have erratic periods and that’s normal. It wasn’t even that bad. Just lasted too long and started too early. When I went to an MD for something similar a year ago she said to watch it for a few months rather than get any tests at all and if it still was eradic to get an ultrasound. She never mentioned a biopsy at all. It mostly regulated for a while after that so I didn’t do anything. I liked that doctor but she is mostly a surgeon and the wait to see her for an annual visit is insane. I somehow saw her for a one off visit because I think they were confused when I called them thinking she was my regular doctor when she wasnt.
The best gyn I ever had was a gay man after a woman misdiagnosed something simple repeatedly. Everyone loved him. He left private practice for teaching sadly. All my bad experiences were with females.
I like my dentist. She would probably skip the novocaine if i asked, but i want the novocaine. Now if I could get doctors I actually like and trust that would be great.
In my entire life, i only ever had regular periods when i was on the pill.
If you had excessive bleeding, and a normal ultrasound, “wait and see” seems like a reasonable step. But if i had excessive bleeding for some stretch of time, yeah, I’d want a biopsy. My doctor is actually pretty good about stuff like that. His field is studying the statistics of how different treatments and tests affect outcomes, so he usually has good advice about what tests are worth doing when. Sadly, I’m between gynecologists, though. My excellent gynecologist is now teaching, and she had to cut back her practice, so she’s now only doing maternity care. My last appointment was literally her very last gyn appointment.
I’m confused. If you were never regular why did you never get a biopsy? It wasn’t excessive, just long, and it only happened one month, not repeatedly. It was light on the extra days. This does not seem like a reason to jump into an invasive test to me and I have a feeling experienced doctors wouldn’t. Of course I’m bleeding now because she made me bleed with that damn test that I didnt even finish.
A biopsy is not some easy test to just do and I wasn’t really warned how bad it was ahead of time.
What really seals it for me that she is too proactive are the online views on the ultrasound when the findings were within the range of do nothing but she wants a followup ultrasound 4 weeks later. For what reason?
I sent her a message through the patient portal asking why this biopsy is necessary after the ultrasound for my endometrium was normal and why I need a followup ultrasound when the findings on the original don’t indicate I need one. Sent it late last night. Will wait for her reply before I drop her entirely and cancel the followup ultrasound which right now I’m very likely to cancel.
I need to get to the bottom of this fatigue and this has nothing to do with it. Planning to escape to my parents house again and do a virtual visit with my pcp’s physician assistant where I give her a list of exactly what blood tests I want since they have been entirely useless in that regard and then hopefully can get an appointment with an endocrinologist there where I have a connection. Might not be able to get one with a rheumatologist there though. People keep mentioning rheumatologist over endocrinologist. I have appointments with both in June in manhattan but that’s too far away.
Nobody biopsies a 14 year old girl with an irregular period. And if it never becomes regular, well, that’s just your normal.
Also, the timing of my bleeding was extremely irregular, but the amount varied between low normal and very low. The only time i ever bled excessively from my uterus was for a couple days after the birth of each child. (Especially after the second one, when i passed a LOT of blood.)
probably TMI
Including a single blood clot that filled my hand. I was sort of holding myself together to use the toilet, because of the incision pain, when it slipped out.
Friends who’ve bled excessively have had all sorts of tests I’ve never had. Some ended up having their uterus removed, either due to cancer or just to stop the pain.
You keep saying excessive. I think you misunderstood my experience. It wasn’t excessive bleeding. My period started early at 18 days which alarmed me and then when it should have stopped it instead got very light but didn’t stop until 16 days. Overall the total amount of bleeding probably wasn’t much or any more than a regular period. It just didn’t entirely dry out like it should have until 16 days later. I think it got confused due to being so early, but total blood wasn’t excessive
Oh and no pain at all associated with this. I rarely have any pain during my period these days. In my teenage years I did. Now not really.
Yeah, that’s not what i thought you were describing. That happening once doesn’t seem like a compelling reason for a painful biopsy.
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I have found that on average male gynecologists tend to be gentler, although I like my current female gynecologist just fine.
it wasn’t just that he was gentler. he also seemed more knowledgeable, and wouldn’t put me through unnecessary tests. i need a knowledeable doctor who i can actually get appointments with and who doesn’t try and give you unnecessary tests.
at least i assume. i only went to him for one small issue that was massively misdiagnosed by a female gyn and he correctly diagnosed me. not to mention, i initially went to a walk-in clinic for said issue AND the inexperienced doctor there correctly diagnosed me but told me to see an actual gyn which i did and who gave me crazy reasons i had this issue that were all wrong and prescribed antibiotics i flat out didn’t need that i got sick from.