It insane to me how often women are not given pain management for gynecological procedures, because many many years ago a male doctor who's never had a vagina, cervix, or uterus decided that there weren't enough nerve endings up there to hurt significantly. I think it's time to put this fallacy to bed. It most definitely does hurt, and people who have literally no experience with female equipment don't get to decide this for me. Trust me docs, you don't want to taste your own medicine on this.
@RickiTarr as soon as the say “you may experience some discomfort” I’m like, give me something for pain NOW because I’ve learned that’s the code for “this is going to hurt like hell for a time as yet to be determined”.
@RickiTarr I knew an ED clinician who faced a tardy, indifferent male surgeon who became furious because she ordered pain meds for a patient with ovarian torsion in severe pain after she waited hours for the surgeon to come to examine her for surgery. My friend was livid because he dismissed the patient's pain as not serious and accused her of interfering with an accurate exam by him of "how serious" the condition was. She said that male docs routinely rx pain relief for men w testicular torsion. But not for people with freaking ovaries!
@RickiTarr I know, right? I mean, chainsaws were invented to aid childbirth. ( Sure, not the sort of chainsaws we see these days, and sure, mostly when the mother was dying, but still....)
@RickiTarr The weirdest thing about that to me (besides the obvious WHAT??) is that nerves feel both bad and good things. And I can’t imagine any man thinking that women don’t feel anything up there when a man is up there, if you knowwhaddimean. So…what??? Misogyny in medicine is horrible and I can’t believe we are still dealing with it.
@RickiTarr It's pretty horrifying that white male doctors have spent the last few centuries just looking at women and BIPOC people in general and arbitrarily deciding " yeah I'm pretty sure they don't feel pain" all screams to the contrary...
@RickiTarr I refuse to see a male doctor for anything other than a minor issue. Even then, not if I can help it. Especially male drs over 50, they are often clueless about women's health.
@RickiTarr The last time I had an IUD inserted, the gyno gave me some anesthetic in there and I was like... WHAT. You're telling me I didn't have to almost puke and pass out every other time?!?!?!
@RickiTarr A cervical softener was a big aid to my wife on the initial implantation of hers as well. Removal a decade later without it was... worse. The internets tell me Misoprostol/Cytotec is the likely thing used but perhaps there's other options.
Misoprostol also causes pain. It dilates the cervix and it's basically what the cervix goes through at delivery. Obviously, no baby coming through but it ain't fun.
Yeah ... my experience with the IUD (due to scar tissue from endometriosis and a former procedure) was easily as painful as the transition phase of labor. For three days after the procedure. Then the edge came down and I just had "regular pain" for about 4 more days.
I'm still pissed ... about a decade later.
Edit: I should note that my gyno was female. Grrrr.
@stephanie@RickiTarr
I had to have an epidural to have my IUD inserted (one of those progesterone releasing ones inserted to try to sort out my extremely heavy periods) & I'll need another one to take it out now I need to prevent my Breast Cancer coming back. I can't have smear tests without one either.
@RickiTarr
When I was nineteen I had cervical dysplasia. So I got cryotherapy on my cervix. It didn't hurt while freezing but the thawing out hurt quite a bit.
I was crying a little and the male doctor said, "C'mon, it doesn't hurt."
Then he left the room and the female nurse, who was holding my hand, said, "Don't listen to him - this can hurt!" Apparently some people feel pain, others don't.
@RickiTarr@ahimsa_pdx And yet it happens so so often. “That didn’t hurt. I never said that. I told you about that. You don’t really think that.” All the time and all over the place.
Every smear test or intimate examination I’ve had done for IVF was carried out by a female health professional. Sometimes I’ve had no pain, sometimes it’s been unbearable. The most painful one I remember they had attached a picture of Robert Pattinson to the ceiling ‘to take your mind off it’…hmm, is it slightly twisted to cause pain in that area while having no choice but to stare at a male vampire’s face?
@RickiTarr And women docs can be even WORSE in this sick hazing kind of way, like "well I went through worse, I've had three kids so quit belly-itchin'."
To a sobbing teenager in a paper gown.
This is why I don't go to doctors anymore. Just let me die.
@RickiTarr One (woman) doctor icily instructed my mother to "STOP SHIVERING!"
It did not inspire a lot of confidence in her medical credentials, I tell you hwut.
I read an article a while back about an oncology prof who made all his students spend overnight visits in a teaching hospital just undergoing the first basic screening tests, as patients.
I honestly think everyone should be who wants to form an opinion on this should be made to go through the labor pain on the simulator once.
If its a couple whos visiting cause they have already concieved, let the husband go through it and they can form an informed decision on whether epidurals/alternatives are required.
Periods are hell for some women, the nerve of these 'iTs nOt tOO mUch, mY mOthEr this, oLDen dAys tHat' crowd.
@RickiTarr Back in January, my IUD had slipped and was partially embedded in my cervix. The nurse practitioner, a uterus haver herself, just yanked it out, casually saying "you're gonna see a lot of blood in the next 24 hours", that's it. No meds, no recommendations to rest, nothing.
I have had a female gyn do this to me. I was in so much pain going home that my friend called the hospital and yelled at them for allowing me to leave in such pain.
I ended up having to have an iron infusion because I lost so much blood and her office would not call me back for over a week.
She is no longer my doctor and I am filing a complaint.
@Mary625 Holy shit! My MIL recently had a uterine biopsy and they gave her nothing for pain and she hurt for days after only for them to call her and say the sample wasn't big enough, this time she demanded anesthesia, and they acted like she was being dramatic.
@RickiTarr Oddly, of the several times I’ve had gynecological procedures, I had the best care from the only male doctor I’ve seen. Only one who helped with pain management and apologized if I even seemed to wince. I was so sad when he went into hospital administration.
@RickiTarr On a side note, I WAS slut-shamed by a gynecologist when I was in college. She racked up bills for EVERY STI test under the sun. Negative on all of them, and I didn't know whether to be triumphant or pissed off.
@RickiTarr I only see female gynecologists and still have never been offered pain relief for Mirena insertion and biopsies. The sexist attitude towards pain relief gets taught to all providers in med school…but I cannot understand why female providers don’t change their practice once they graduate.
@RickiTarr@ImmedicableME Mmm. It’s just a guess. I could see tut-tutting if one doctor is prescribing pain meds to most of her gyn patients while her colleagues rarely do.
@RickiTarr reminds me that babies weren't given any anaesthetic during surgery because someone decided they didn't have a developed nervous system.
I was horrified when I discovered this, so I'm not shocked by your toot, disgusted by the attitudes of health care professionals, but not shocked 😞😞
@RickiTarr Just because your penis isn't long enough to have ever reached the nerve endings at the top of the vagina doesn't mean those nerve endings don't exist, doc.
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