Yes outliers exist and no it would not be a reasonable question for a doctor to ask how much you bled during your last period while they’re treating you for a gunshot wound lol

Your unborn kid wouldn’t survive if you sacrificed your life in this scenario, but ok.

IMHO, and not being a doctor or even in the medical field, I think obesity is America's #1 health problem. Every time I'm in the doctor's office, every time, I'm the only non-fat person. Now imagine the doctor's experience. "Fat people keep coming in with problems and I can't figure it out!" I can see how they get blinded after awhile.

Another thing I've noted, next time you see someone in a leg cast, they won't be skinny unless they're obviously a teenage athlete. You won't be able to unsee it.

So I can't blame docs for wanting to eliminate the issue before them. I feel ya though. I'm a functioning alcoholic. Try getting treated for anything once you admit that.

"Doc, I've been drinking a 12-pack of light beer a day for 20-years, this symptom is completely new."

"Have you thought about cutting down?"

🙄

I'll leave you with this thought: Installing satellite for a little old preacher man in South Chicago,

"Shalafi, you ever hear the term 'little old man' or 'little old lady'?"

"Of course."

"Why you think that is?"

Funny enough for a preacher, his take was that we didn't evolve to be tall or fat and our bodies can't handle it into old age. 25-years later, that's still a compelling take.

Not to mention weight is 100% required for accurate medication dosing.

Its also valuable to understand trends. I got real sick once, and kept going back to the dr. Had they not taken my weight every visit, we wouldn't have been able to track that i lost almost 30 pounds in a month

Obesity has a lot of social factors to it, too. The only cheap food is junk food, you have to drive everywhere, and your job is sedentary, and you don't have money to play hockey... I mean, there's a lot that goes into it. Making everything an individual medical issue is bad policy.

Have a little (or a lot of meat) on your bones is protective for bone breaks for people with osteoporosis, so you might see some leg casts on old skinny people.

But the main thing is, yes, to do a thorough workup and not stop at the first and most obvious possible cause of a symptom. The second thing to do is recognize that the person probably is a) aware of the problem and b) has all the same information you have. I've never been surprised by what a doctor told me, neither that I was overweight, or that I change change my diet, or that I should get more exercise. So why waste that time and also endanger the relationship with that?

I think nowadays at least we have GLP-1, which I've got some doubts on, but at least it's something that's more likely to work than Another Diet.

Yesterday I was standing in the baggage claim customer service desk at the airport, and the woman in front of me was asking about a missing bag. The guy asked to see the bag she had with her and asked her what was inside. She said “Why would you need to see my bag? It has nothing to do with you. The tags on it are clearly from a different airline, and it wasn’t involved in this flight in any way.” She was just holding it for a friend who stepped away.

He just kept insisting “I need to see your bag.” “Why?” “I need to see your bag.” “I’m not showing you my bag, it’s none of your business.” He kept reaching for it.

I thought it was absolutely insane and couldn’t wrap my head around it. Eventually I realized it was because she was a woman that he was being such an obstinate prick. She eventually capitulated, and in my male privilege I thought “Uh uh, make a scene! What’s he going to do? He isn’t a cop!”

Life can be bullshit sometimes.

We peaked at Doom (1993)

First you have to run this gauntlet of humiliation:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvgMM_IBAyU

I see the exhaustion with my wife, because she doesn't move around. It feeds on itself. "I'm too tired to walk a mile." Then you will always be too tired to walk a mile.

So few of us get exercise that my doc is happy when I answer "several" to, "How many times a week do you get your heart rate up?" And I'm not talking about "real" exercise, just simple shit like dragging my kayak in and out the swamp, or paddling like mad to get out the sun, or lifting heavy stuff working around the yard.

My little kids screamed while hiking when I told them the creek was 1.2 miles. "A MILE!?" When I was their age we started gym class with a mile jog and then did other stuff. (Two months later they could make that trip with no pain or fatigue.)

As with my comment above on obesity, I can't blame docs for wanting to eliminate obvious issues. If my windshield is filthy and I'm complaining to the mechanic about my dim headlights, he's going to start with the obvious. Cleaning the windshield won't fix the headlights, but it will help and allow him to focus on troubleshooting further. (OK, that's kinda sloppy but you get the idea.)

Well, not every condition, but see my comment above as to what I've observed in life.

They’re just checking a box, let 'em get on with it.

I don't answer that question unless it's pertinent to why I'm seeing a doctor in the first place. We don't have to give them this information every time.

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.

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.

Women have been faced with the choice of saving themselves or their soon-to-be-born child. OP is saying they would opt for the latter. That would be an edge-case, but it can happen.

Punched that question into ChatGPT to see what it spit out. Yep, only a thing in extreme edge cases. It's almost always, "Baby's gonna die anyway, save yourself." But there were some rare instances that weren't impossible.

It’s actually fairly relevant to your overall physiological functioning, hence why they want to know. Not sure why it’s such a sticking point for your doctor to ask a question about your physiological functioning, regardless of whether or not you think it’s relevant. Being a woman myself and a nurse, I understand that medical care is often lacking for women, but doctors assessing where you are in your menstrual cycle is not the reason why. In fact, I would be way more wary of a physician who doesn’t ask

I'm aware - I've been cut open on a surgery table in order to save my child.

We're talking about in the case of a patient coming in with a gunshot wound. Doctors are typically going to focus on saving the person in front of them before thinking of saving the clump of cells inside of the patient.

"Did you read my chart?"

From my IT troubleshooting perspective, I've noted that many things my doc asks are for a sanity check on their part. Same reason I may ask "dumb" questions of an end user.

Only had one doc in life who could see me once a year and remember who I was, what my issues were, etc. That's damned unusual.

The US is also in the middle of rolling back women's rights to bodily autonomy and tracking women having miscarriages in order to imprison them.

I don't give a fuck about giving my last period date if I'm seeing the doctor for a gunshot wound. My doctors don't push for a period date if I don't want to give one either.

That's Parkinson's for ya. Except the pills are forever.

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.

Unless you have a stubborn parent, most people around you don't tell you to lose weight because it is a sensitive topic.
The truth is it's in the best interest of your health to lose weight and the doctors office should be the one place where you hear that regularly and hopefully any judgment is just perceived. The more consistent this is the less it should seem targeted or judged.
A lot of doctors don't do it anymore and you can probably find one. I get told this and it's a conversation starter for me to talk about obstacles and progress. I also get told by the dentist to floss more every damn time, but being so sensitive about this as to not see a Dr or dentist seems like an issue in and of itself. Talking about the sensitivity with someone might be the first step in being able to deal with the weight issue.

*Period of what question mark

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

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

Unless you have a stubborn parent, most people around you don't tell you to lose weight because it is a sensitive topic.

Hilarious.

Nothing to do with women, it's the doctors the problem.

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

Some of us had much heavier periods than that. I went to the doc once complaining of heavy periods that were making me anemic. She decided to do an exam, so I stripped off, took off my pad, and laid down. She was a little delayed coming back, and when she stuck in the speculum and opened it up I dumped 200ml of blood in her lap.

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.

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.

Yeah the "about" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence in my comment.

It's also pertinent to certain medication dosing regimens which are weight based, but I'm sure most people just get triggered with their self-esteem issues when they step on the scale so they assume it's for the doctor to poke fun at them for being fat.

You know I get the joke, I really do. But how hard is it to understand that many people with trauma require a CT scan prior to surgery, which absolutely can radiate and embryo and cause birth defects? Is it really so far-fetched that someone might be pregnant and not know or not want to admit it?

We little old ladies are little because we shrink, honey. I don't even have osteoporosis (yay) and I have excellent posture, but I've already lost an inch.

I've discovered that when you're old they start measuring again, like when you were a kid. And they replace "When was your last period?" with "Have you had any falls?"

(From now on, my reply to that one is going to be "I refuse to answer on the grounds it will jinx me," because I said No and then tripped in the middle of crossing the street the next day.)

Yes, there are medical reasons to step on a scale.

And if someone has had an eating disorder, stepping on a scale and being told to lose weight is the opposite of good medical practice.

Science has finally discovered what people have known forever: exercise doesn't release dopamine in all people.

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

Your wife might be anemic, it often goes undiagnosed in women.

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.

To counter with another anecdote, my 55-yo wife never gets asked. When I showed her the comic she didn't understand it. Being Asian, she has no white hair, wrinkles and hasn't had a hysterectomy.

See my other comment about my oh-so-rare doc actually remembering who I am as a patient, even after not seeing me for a year.

I went into the ER in Alabama about 20 years ago, and the nurse at intake didn't even look up when I said there was a hatchet stuck in my leg and started asking if I was a smoker and what my race was.

Good idea! She eats loads of rice, not much if any iron. Going to ask her. I have iron pills we can try as well. One other thing, we cook in cast iron almost exclusively, so that should cover iron intake?

But anyway, I've been so low on blood (bleeding hemeroids) that they damned near did a transfusion on me, still had plenty of energy.

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.

I brought spinal compression up in that interesting conversation! But as we both agreed, it's more than that. How many truly tall or truly large people you know in their 70s or 80s?

Anecdotally, the only large elderly person I ever knew was great-grandpa. I suspect he looked like the barrel-chested gangster in "Last Man Standing". :) He could barely walk in his 70s, BUT, made it to his mid-90s in bed. (Weirdly enough, I cannot find a pic of that actor!)

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.

Sorry, I drifted off topic from the original comic.

How many truly tall or truly large people you know in their 70s or 80s?

Most of my dad's brothers. Anecdotally, that's about 10 men right there.

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.

Most people have extremely limited medical knowledge. I envy them