I had a friend of a friend be forced to take (and pay for! Thanks America!) A pregnancy test when she had to go to the ER, despite her telling them she physically couldn't get pregnant because she is trans, I swear in some cases it's like they just don't listen to patients at all ðŸ˜
As an emergency physician I promise it's not something we do on purpose to harm anyone. It's because people lie to us all. the. time.
I've had patients who were lesbian, with their partner, swear up and down that they only had sex with women who were pregnant not once but twice. I diagnose surprise pregnancies quite frequently. It's not that I don't trust you, it's that I can't fully trust anyone.
Edit:
I appreciate the thougtful comments I'm receiving on this. To help clarify - in the emergency department if I'm ordering a urine hCG I'm probably seeing you in triage, I have 5 to 7 minutes to see you, ask questions, perform an exam, and place orders. No I don't have time to review your prior records, I have 60 patients in my waiting room and 10 people after you to screen, 14 more checking in the next hour.
Respecting your autonomy, your sense of self, and being an ally are very important to me. But I've also had patients believe they had a hysterectomy when they didn't because health literacy is hard. If I'm seeing 60 to 80 patients in triage in a shift my first priority is minimizing mistakes and misses.
As an aroace person who has been sexually inactive my entire life and never goes to bars/parties/etc. where I could potentially have been drugged or blacked out and not remember or something like that:
I understand that people lie and this is why I still have to hand over a pointless piss cup as if I'm potentially the next Virgin Mary, but I should be able to opt out by signing a waiver that says "I accept the potential legal/medical/financial/etc. consequences if I'm lying about it being literally impossible for me to be pregnant right now."
Also ace. I'm almost 40 and have never even held hands, little less had sex.
I still pee in the cup.
9 times out of 10, they are running multiple tests on that sample anyway. You're not getting out of doing it. They're going to run blood tests on you, too.
At a certain point, I think fighting over this becomes more about people's personal pride than any sort of practicality or even the cost, and to the hospital, your pride isn't worth the cost of litigation.
I mean yeah, I still pee in the cup too. I know all the reasons everyone is trying to explain to me. I already know, I already get it. I'm allowed to be annoyed anyway.
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u/mysocksareinsideout MakeshiftEmery Jul 31 '26
I had a friend of a friend be forced to take (and pay for! Thanks America!) A pregnancy test when she had to go to the ER, despite her telling them she physically couldn't get pregnant because she is trans, I swear in some cases it's like they just don't listen to patients at all ðŸ˜