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Doctors
(sh.itjust.works)
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this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2025
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Aren’t some prescriptions different if you’re pregnant? And some women may not realize it. Gets dialog started. X-rays can be an issue too, immediate injections could put a fetus at risk. I mean what’s the point of this comic? Making fun of a doctor doing his job? Are women taking offense to a simple seemingly routine question?
Its satirizing the tendency for doctors to be more dismissive of women having pain than men, for example. This would be more of a problem with non-visible causes of pain, especially ones that predominantly effect women such as chronic migraines. This comic takes extrapolates this to comedic effect by using a gunshot wound instead.
But pain meds would be different if you’re pregnant or not.
I think a lot of people are taking benign questions as straight insults to them.
Yes do women experience this? Yes. Do men, yes. Is it a valid question for every women that comes across… also yes.
I guess the period question takes it from what you’re saying, and takes it to a different punch line, and what’s that punch line? I get what you are saying, but comic also clearly has a shift to a different point.
Sure, there are valid medical reasons. This comic isn't about that. It's about the outright dismissal of women's problems. It's not about changing treatment based on pregnancy status despite the mention of pregnancy - it's about the ignoring the problem exists at all to be fixed.
The comic isn't showing an outright dismissal, though. The doctor hasn't arrived at a conclusion just by asking a question that seems unrelated.
Doctors do that kind of digging all the time. It's not worth it to explain all the interactions and interconnectedness just to get some basic questions answered, so doctors will often just ask weird questions out of the blue.
Of course they do. Still not the point of the comic and plenty of people immediately understood the point. There doesn't need to be another 4 panels to explain what they'd be.
It’s not a 4 panel comic! They tried using extra panels to introduce more context, and that’s where they fucked up.
They did try explaining lmfao.
They did add 4 panels, and that’s exactly what everyone else has an issue with there. The point of the comic isn’t clear, since they’re addressing multiple issues and just fucking it up.
It's crazy you're atill trying to dismiss the issue
I think they're trying to say it doesn't fully satirize the issue. The doctor isn't necesarily dismissing anything just by asking the question. They're saying the joke is malformed, not that the issue cannot exist.
Huh. The doctor ignored a mugging and a gunshot. Are you intentionally trying to misunderstand it?
Here's an idea, instead of asking the very clearly annoying to women question of "And when was your last period?" Maybe ask "Ok, before we start the examination, is there any possibility that you are pregnant?" And, ya know, treat women as human beings instead of like a walking incubator that you have to check the dials on.
It's still crazy that my wife who has had a hysterectomy is asked that question every time. It's in her records, they just don't bother reading.
"I know you had a hysterectomy but let's just take a pregnancy test anyway." - doctor in the ER
In the words of Dr house "people lie". They should take the woman's word on things like this. However, it just takes being burnt once or twice, to not trust the answer from anyone else.
Life uh finds a way
Routine means it’s asked to everyone to mainly not discriminate, but its also to absolve liability, but if they don’t ask and somehow that was missing from a chart. Yeah they can get in shit.
It’s not crazy, it’s a question that’s asked to every women since treatments and even diagnosing can be different depending on where they are in a cycle and if they are pregnant.
The woman next to me in the hospital was asked if she could be pregnant right after the nurse checked her birth year at more than 80 years ago. We all had a little laugh at that one.
Records can be looooong especially the older you get and the more you visit. I'd honestly much rather just speak to the doctor. I feel a lot more cared for if a doctor is speaking to me one on one about my body and my health than if they are just reading a log of info and then coming to some conclusion.
I mean, if you can't be fucked to read medical records, please don't seek out a career in medicine
Making it the FIRST question is part of the "your role as a vessel for a fetus is more important than your existence as a person" attitude that is far too common.
And I've experienced it myself, even after having yeeted my uterus because it was trying to bleed me to death.
It's also a way in certain states of ensuring that, if she were pregnant, and it's been 6 weeks since the start of her last period, she couldn't legally seek an abortion.
There's plenty of time later on in the exam to say, "I'm going to inject a local anesthetic while I dig the bullet out of your arm. Any chance you might be pregnant? When was your last period?"
I think it's not about minimizing someone as just a vessel for a fetus, it's about the reality that menstruation and pregnancy just have huge medical implications in general, in lab results, diagnostic approaches, and in treatment options. With such a wide variety of possible impacts, it may be easy to forget to check 'just in time' in very decision that might matter.
Suppose would someone rather get asked that awkwardly once for a whole visit, or potentially get asked repeatedly as they prepare to perform particular tests, interpret results, or think about prescribing medication.
It's not fair that such a huge biological thing is incurred by one sex and not the other, but it is just a possibility they have to deal with.
To refrain from asking to avoid that awkwardness increases risk of missing that situation and malpractice for failing to take that pretty basic biological reality into account.
Ninety percent of the time it has no bearing on anything the doctor will be doing and yet it's almost always the first thing they ask women. At least move it farther down the form! It's fucking tiresome.
Should they ask every one of you men the date and time of your last ejaculation? Sure, it's intrusive but ejaculatory issues are an under-discussed issue, perhaps it should be the first question for every man, to make sure it gets done as you say.
99% of the time I drive, my car insurance has no bearing on the outcome of my trip, but I really appreciate it that 1% of the time it does.
While not ejaculation, we do get probed (less literally now) over potential prostate issues, groin hernias, and erections. But only for routine visits, since these issues while significant, have little bearing on diagnosing and treating other health conditions.
Women draw the short straw since imaging and drugs all have to take a potential pregnancy into consideration so it's a key piece of data for all sorts of medical events. Particularly risky when a fetus is hardest to be aware of early on.
The point of this comic is to express frustration about a current and long-standing issue I've heard many women express frustrations about, which I understand to be: doctors not really listening to them when they list specific issues or symptoms, and "railroading" them into it not being something to worry about, or putting it down to them being a woman.
The question can be seemingly routine, but as a guy who doesn't experience this kind of thing when I go to the docs I can certainly imagine how frustrating it could be to encounter these questions upfront and to feel unheard, especially by a medical professional when I'm worried about something.
What do you mean you don’t experience this? Every doctor I’ve been to asks seemingly unrelated questions, a lot of issues can and do stem from somewhere else, or maybe something you are missing.
A doctor shouldn’t just take what you say and run with it, that’s a horrible doctor.
I also go to as a support to a lot of my wife’s appointments, the period question is always one of the first, and again, lots of seemingly unrelated questions, but most are just routine for everyone who comes in, regardless of of concern. It also gives them data and graph points for when there may actually be issues. And now they have base points. What doctors are you seeing that aren’t doing this?
I mean I don't experience being asked when my period was or having symptoms I report being flippantly put down to "being a woman".
Hey you fucking acorn, the joke is that the doctor is ignoring the obvious gunshot wound in her arm and is implying that she's making up/exaggerating symptoms because she's preggers. If the doctor was doing his job, he'd be doing something about the gunshot wound, not musing about what the real problem is.
How do you fix a gunshot wound? Pain meds and an xray. What does those do to an unknown fetus? So they ask before making a malpractice mistake. This question is ROUTINE!
Those are the first questions to ask while addressing the gunshot wound. The creator of this comic seems to not understand this and ruined the point of their comic by conflating different issues in one comic.
Yes, you fucking acorn, but the problem is that making the injury something where "doing the job" will likely include an x-ray makes the author look like a moron instead of the doctor. The joke is understandable, it's just badly executed.
When the ER or urgent care always insists on discussing pregnancy 'just in case' when a woman is not able to get pregnant it means they are focused more on something other than the actual problem at hand.
Flowchart medicine. Er, so to speak.
It's more common in the U.S. and other countries where women's reproductive rights have been eroded/never existed.
There's a few reasons, and none of them have to do with women's health. How do I know? I'm a woman in Canada who's been to the hospital a lot for both pre-existing conditions and unrelated emergencies, I never get asked this question.
First, the comic making light of how women's problems are dismissed and blamed on hormones, when multiple medical and psychological studies over the last century indicate women are no more emotional than men, and menstruation doesn't effect mood outside of unusual conditions.
Second, it's about reproductive rights. How women's immediate health problems are ignored in favor of protecting an unborn child they may or may not want. It's further infantilizing because doctors ask about the last period, which indicates nothing, instead of just asking about pregnancy.
I go to most of wife’s appointments, it’s one of the first questions she’s asked at every appointment. This is in Canada as well. Treatments and diagnosis change if you’re pregnant or not. It’s a standard question that’s asked and would be asked to start the proper triage. And things can change from the last appt 3 months ago, so they need to know asap if prescriptions need to change.
Have you considered this could be the reason she gets asked if she's pregnant?
As in, not an emergency. In an emergency the first imperative is to stop the immediate health threats, in this case the gunshot wound. The doctor doesn't need to know about menstrual health do his ABCs.
Also, as someone with extensive experience with Canadian healthcare, and I've held certifications up to OFA 3 (not a big deal, but it did qualify me to intubate, immobilize, take a health record, etc.) I've been to emergency rooms in four different provinces and I've been on enough different meds to fill a small pharmacy. At most I get asked if I could be pregnant, but that comes after my immediate conditions have been managed and we start discussing meds.
I think either your wife has a shitty doctor, the doctor actually asks if she's pregnant and you're deliberately misquoting to support your argument, or she's seeing her regular doctor for a checkup - where menstrual health is a reasonable thing to ask about and/or has a related medical condition regarding her period.
And completely missing the point of the comic, which is about how the immediate health issue is being dismissed for the reasons I already stated.
It’s funny that you need to result to insults to try and attempt to make your point. It’s a routine question and just because some doctors forget doesn’t mean you can ignore the other side of the fence with your rant.
No doctor will ask if someone is pregnant, that’s inviting malpractice.
I’m not missing the point of the comic, people are trying to point out the creator fucked ip by trying to address more than a single point, and fucked up the entire thing in the process.
Adding the benign routine question at the end changes the entire tone, unless you’re the one that incorrectly thinks this is a non-routine question and is only asked in places ruining reproductive rights, which IS NO THE CASE. As countless people have tried to explain I. This thread.
I am a woman who has been to the doctor. I get asked "Are you pregnant or breastfeeding," all the goddamn time.
Weird you think disagreement is an insult.
Countless men who have never been a woman in a doctor's office don't get it. Lemmy is about 73% men. They're missing the point for the same reason this comic exists, because women's experiences are minimalized in healthcare.
All the panels are related, that's how a narrative works. A lack of media literacy doesn't make it wrong, because women get it without needing an explanation. Unless the guys in the comments are actual doctors, they're just a large volume of unsupported opinions. It is not routine to ask about a period in an emergency, the medical emergency is the context.
Again, the comic isn't about pregnancy, it's about dismissing women's pain and blaming problems on hormones.
Source
Another source
Yet another source
edit: You know, as a mod of a community, I can see all the votes there, right? I'm just glad you found a healthy outlet.
Go bloviate somewhere else
There’s more comments and links supporting what I’m saying over what you are.
Did you... did you read them? Or did you lose the plot after four statements?
I won't respond, you have the last word if you like.
Some Doctors have a tendency to accuse women of being pregnant and that being the cause of their problems without ever investigating further. Regardless of what the problem is. Pregnancy tests are pretty common for women going to see the doctor, it's a routine to ensure they're not pregnant before prescribing most medication or ordering imaging. That's not something the doctor would ask for a gunshot wound to the arm. The nurse would collect a urine sample after the doctor has already left.
Most women know whether or not they could possibly be pregnant.
I suspect that the author of this comic gets asked these questions by doctors without understanding why they ask, and it can be confusing.
Why is it important whether she's pregnant? Because treatment options vary and also if the doctor accidentally causes an abortion, there can be legal, sometimes even criminal, consequences.
Why not just ask if she's pregnant and call it a day? Well, they can ask, but patients might not know or they might lie. Roundabout questions are more definitive.
Why not just run a pregnancy test? They do, but it's better to know sooner.
When every single fucking ER visit for someone who knows they are not pregnant due to not having sex or not being physically able to get pregnant starts with a pregnancy test 'just in case' instead of addressing the issue you came in for it is clear that they aren't going to listen to you about the real issue.
Rape in their sleep? There’s always situations where something can happen unknown.
Fuck a doctor for covering their bases and asking benign routine questions eh?
I'm in Canada. I've been to the hospital more than most people. I've never been asked about my period when it wasn't something directly related, and I get put on a lot of meds. Sometimes they ask if I could be pregnant, but that's it.
Asking about the last period when immediate concerns have nothing to do with reproduction is about how women's health and concerns get shafted in ~~some~~ most countries.