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observers-journal · 10 months

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Some healthcare advice for my lovely ladies here..

I was just reading this New York Times article about how women of color experience Perimenopause and Menopause differently from the conventionally established standards according to the White Race.

Clearly, women from different races have very different experiences, duration, and intensity of symptoms. Just a gentle reminder to all my wonderful women here: do not ignore what your body tells you. Healthcare systems are biased to ignore women's pain, doctors have limited understanding of our anatomies, and these issues are far worse when we account race into the equation as well. Speak up if your doctor doesn't take you seriously.

Also, always remember to get scanned for breast and cervical cancers. Keep an eye out for anything unusual. Love y'all! ❤️

The article is behind a paywall. Please message me if you want to read the whole article!

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inkskinned · 4 months

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you have to go to work so you can pay for your doctor, who is not taking your insurance right now, and if you say i can't afford the doctor's you are told - get a better job. it is very sad that you are unwell, yes, but maybe you should have thought about that before not having a better job.

(where is the better job? who is giving out these better jobs? you are sick, you are hurting - how the hell are you supposed to be well enough for this better job?)

but you go to the doctor because you had the nerve to be hurt or sick or whatever else. and they tell you that it is because you have anxiety. you try your best. you are a self-advocate. you've done the reading (which sometimes pisses them off worse, honestly). you say it is actually adding to my anxiety, it is effecting my quality of life. so they say that you are fat. they say that all young people have this happen to them, isn't it a medical marvel! they say that you should eat more vegetables. they say that you probably just need to lose a little more weight, and that you are faking it for attention.

(what attention could this doctor possibly give? what validation? that's their fucking job, isn't it?)

there is always a hypochondriac, right. someone always tells you about a hypochondriac. or someone who is unnecessarily aggressive during the worst days of their life. or someone looking "for a quick fix". or some idiot who wasn't educated about how to properly care for themselves who just abandons their treatment. and again, the hypochondriac, the overly-cautious hysteric. these people don't deserve to be treated like humans (right), and since you might be one of these people, you also don't get treated like a human. because those people can really fuck with the system, you now have to pay for it. and besides. you're actually probably faking it.

(more often than not, you find a 2:1 ratio of these stories. for every "hypochondriac", there are 2 people who knew something was wrong, and yet nobody could fucking find it. the story often ends with pointless suffering. the story often ends with and now it's too late, and it's going to kill me.)

you are actually just making excuses. someone else got that procedure or that diagnosis and he's fine, you should be fine too. someone else said they watched a documentary about other inspirational people with your exact same condition, maybe you should be inspirational, too. you're just too morbid. your pain and your experience is probably just not statistically concerning. it is all self-reported anyway, and you're just being a baby.

(once, while sitting down in the middle of making coffee, you had the sudden, horrible thought - i could kill myself to make the pain stop. you had to call your best friend after that. had to pet your dog. had to cry about it in the shower. you won't, but that moment - god, fuck. the pain just goes on and on.)

you know someone who went in for routine surgery and said i still feel everything. they told her to just relax. it took her kicking and screaming before they figured out she wasn't lying - the anesthetic drip hadn't been working. you know someone who went in for severe migraines who was told drink water and lose weight. you know someone who was actively bleeding out and throwing up in the ER and was told you're just having a bad period.

in the ER there are always these little posters saying things like "don't wait! get checked today!" and you think about how often you do wait. how often the days spool out. you once waited a full week before seeing the doctor for what you thought was a sprained wrist. it had actually been broken - they had to rebreak it to set it.

but you go into the doctor. the problem you're having is immediate. the person behind the counter frowns and says we're not taking your insurance. you will be paying for this out-of-pocket.

they send you home with tylenol and a little health packet about weight loss or anxiety or attention deficit. on the front it has your birthday and diagnosis. you think about crying, and the words swim. it might as well say go fuck yourself. it might as well say you're a fucking idiot. it might as well say light your money on fire and lie down in it. and the entire fucking time - the problem persists.

it's okay. it's okay, it's just another thing, you think. it's just another thing i have to learn to live with.

#spilled ink #warm up #can you tell what i'm mad about today specifically #i will say that there are a LOT of things that go into this. like a lot. this is ungendered and unspecific for a reason #it isn't just sexism. it's also racism. and ableism. and honestly classism.#and before a healthcare professional reads this as a personal attack: i understand ur burnt out #we are ALSO burnt out. your situation is also dire. this is not an attack on you.#this is a commentary on the incredible amounts of bigotry that lie at the heart of capitalism #where people have to pay money out of pocket to be told to fuck off.#your job is important. so is our humanity. and if you cannot accept that people are fucking mad as hell #at the industry - you are probably not listening .#anyway at some point im gonna write a piece about sexism specifically in medical shit #but i don't want terfs clowning in it bc they can't understand nuance #> it is true that ppl w/a uterus are more likely to experience medical malpractice & dismissal globally #> it is also true that trans people experience an equally fucked up and bad time in the medical field #> great news! the medical industrial complex is an equal opportunity life ruiner :)#(if you find it necessary to go into a debate about biology while discussing medical malpractice #i want to warn you that you're misunderstanding the issue. because guess what.#cis MEN might experience this. particularly black men. particularly disabled men.#so YES having a uterus can lead to more trouble for you. but this happens a LOT.#instead of fighting those ALSO experiencing your pain.... try working WITH them.#which btw. is like. actual feminism.)

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magnetothemagnificent · 2 years

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I am begging people to understand that reproductive rights is as much the right to become and remain pregnant as it is to terminate a pregnancy.

Encouraging all people capable of being pregnant to get their tubes tied or get a hysterectomy isn't the solution you think it is.

Most people who get abortions do so because they want to be able to get pregnant in the future.

Back-alley abortions often leave people unable to become pregnant again, even if they want to. Legal, safe abortion ensures that a person can terminate a pregnancy while still retaining the option and ability to become pregnant again.

PoC, disabled people, and trans and intersex people have historically been barred from the right to get pregnant and reproduce. These marginalized groups have faced sterilization and maternal mortality for a long time.

If you think reproductive justice is only about the right to *not* be pregnant, you are woefully misinformed.

Reproductive justice means people should be able to control their own bodies, whether it means ending or preventing a pregnancy, or becoming pregnant and remaining pregnant.

Reproductive justice means that healthcare providers should and must address the barriers and dangers PoC, disabled people, and trans and intersex people face when it comes to obstetrics and gynecology.

Reproductive justice means lowering the maternal mortality rate for black people in America.

Reproductive justice means not sterilizing disabled people and providing safe options for disabled people who want to become pregnant.

Reproductive justice means acknowledging that trans people may want to become pregnant and not mandating they be sterilized in order to legally transition.

Reproductive justice means not sterilizing intersex babies and children in the attempt to make them fit into a dyadic, binary sex.

Reproductive justice is not just about abortions.

#reproductive justice #roe v wade overturned #american politics #abortion #forced sterilization #eugenics #racism #healthcare #pregnancy #current events #ableism

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atavist · 5 months

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An ob-gyn in Virginia performed unnecessary surgeries on patients for decades. He took their reproductive organs, gave them false cancer diagnoses, and did other terrible harm. When his victims learned the truth, they fought back. Issue no. 146, DAMAGES, is now available:

[Debra] requested her medical records and was stunned to find discrepancies with what Perwaiz had said to her during appointments. Most glaringly, she didn’t see any mention of precancerous cells on her cervix; the tests Perwaiz performed on her had come back normal. “If I was normal,” Debra said, “why did I have a surgery?”

There were other inconsistencies. One form from an appointment described Debra complaining of back and pelvic pain, which she told me she never did. Another document dated the day before her surgery stated that she “insisted on having those ovaries removed through the abdominal wall incision and not vaginally,” and that the “consent obtained after entirely counseling the patient [was] for abdominal hysterectomy.” In fact, she had requested the opposite surgical approach, and she recalled no such conversation with Perwaiz; the only time she’d spoken with him in the lead-up to her procedure was in passing in the hospital hallway.

Debra was sure she had a malpractice case. She went to several lawyers, but none of them would take her on as a client. “So many men—man after man saying, ‘You had a decent amount of care, and that’s all you’re afforded,’ ” she said. Frustrated, she came up with a new plan: “I said, ‘Alright, I’m going to learn how to sue this bastard myself.’ ”

#atavist journalism healthcare medicine doctors medicalmalpractice reproductivehealth racism justice virginia truestory #cancer women womenshealth history

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genericpuff · 13 days

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hi this is your obligatory reminder from a Mi'kmaq-Saulteaux pal that:

1.) the ribbon skirt is a traditional ceremonial garment worn by many First Nations women to celebrate their connection to Mother Earth and reclaim their Indigenous identity from and in spite of colonization;

2.) the RCMP was literally founded as a colonial police force meant to drive Indigenous / First Nations peoples out of their territory to make way for settlers (see: the "starlight tours")

3.) racism towards indigenous people in Canada is still alive and well (the last residential school didn't close until 1996) and so the RCMP adopting ribbon skirts is not only incredibly tone deaf towards their own history and the role they played in wiping out Indigenous culture, but insulting to the practice of ribbon skirts and what they mean to many Indigenous people across the country

4.) when a government entity limits who can comment on their posts, that should tell you exactly where their priorities and intentions lie.

#P.S. canada is just as bad as the US when it comes to institutionalized racism #we even have the red vs. blue two party system and all the problems that come with it #canada has just done a better job at depicting itself as some kind of wonderland #even our “free healthcare” is a joke #many of us do not have family doctors and have no way of seeking treatment or basic aid #how about we stop running oil pipes thru indigenous land before adopting the ribbon skirt into the RCMP uniform as a form of “reparation"

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progressivemillennial · 6 months

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alwaysbewoke · 2 months

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lifewithchronicpain · 6 months

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At the beginning of the month, this local news clip started making the rounds online. It shows a woman in a courtroom, charged with a grim crime: abuse of a corpse. The corpse here, it was her own fetus. Brittany Watts is the woman facing these potential charges. She had a miscarriage at home. Suddenly, that information was very, very public. Watts looks frail and overwhelmed in front of the judge. Her lawyer rubs her back to comfort her. Mary Ziegler is a law professor who has been following the Watts case closely. She’s written books like Roe: The History of a National Obsession and Reproduction and the Constitution in the United States. She says cases like this one will tell you a lot about how the limits of reproductive rights are being tested right now. “We’ve been promised by a lot of legislators that the laws are not intended to target women. But the visual of someone like Brittany Watts being prosecuted for something like this was pretty striking.”

#abortion rights #women's health #women's rights #healthcare #abortion #racism #sexism #classism #ableism #article

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allthecanadianpolitics · 1 month

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Alberta Health Services is investigating after an undocumented woman says she was denied an emergency C-section at an Edmonton hospital last month.

Perla Estrada, 35, said a doctor told her to go to the hospital on March 25 after an ultrasound revealed she had low amniotic fluid and needed a C-section.

She said at the Royal Alexandra Hospital, she was told she had to pay $5,000 upfront for the procedure and that no doctor there would see her unless she did so.

As an undocumented person without medical insurance, Estrada said she expected to pay for the cost of her hospital care after the birth, but she did not have enough money to pay the amount upfront.

She later went to the Misericordia Community Hospital, where she had the C-section and gave birth to her daughter Violet. [...]

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland, @abpoli

#cdnpoli #healthcare #healthcare access #immigration #racism #xenophobia #Edmonton #Alberta #Royal Alexandra Hospital #reproductive rights #reproductive health

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mindblowingscience · 8 months

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Black children may have more severe asthma episodes than white children but are less likely to be transported to the hospital by emergency medical services (EMS), according to a new study. A baseline understanding of how prehospital treatments and transport for children with asthma varies by patient race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status will aid in future research and efforts to improve equitable pediatric asthma treatments, the researchers say. Asthma, a lifelong disease with symptoms that include wheezing, shortness of breath, and tightness of the chest, affects about 25 million people in the United States and is a leading cause of death among children. Non-Hispanic Black children are about three times more likely to die from asthma-related causes than their white counterparts, according to 2020 data.

#asthma #anti blackness #anti black racism #Medicine #Racism in healthcare #racism #stem #healthcare #uspoli #usa

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odinsblog · 1 year

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FROM BIRTH TO DEATH, Black Americans fare worse in measures of health compared to their white counterparts. They have higher rates of infant and maternal mortality, higher incidence of asthma during childhood, more difficulty treating mental health as teens, and greater rates of high blood pressure, Alzheimer's disease and other illnesses.

The Associated Press spent the past year exploring how the legacy of racism in America has laid the foundation for the health inequities that Black people face.

Links to each article beneath the “Keep reading” cut

Why do so many Black women die in pregnancy? One reason: Doctors don't take them seriously (link)

Black children are more likely to have asthma. A lot comes down to where they live (link)

Black kids face racism before they even start school. It's driving a major mental health crisis (link)

High blood pressure plagues many Black Americans. Combined with COVID, it's catastrophic (link)

A lifetime of racism makes Alzheimer’s more common in Black Americans (link)

Medical Racism in History (link)

#medical racism #racialized misogyny #structural racism #black history #racism #politics #inequality #healthcare #medical #two americas #double standards #from birth to death #systemic racism #environmental racism

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djuvlipen · 10 months

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Here is a VERY good article in Romanian about medical racism against Romani women. I am going to run it on Google Translate because I don't speak Romanian and add the translation in a reblog in a second. I would recommend anyone who speaks Romanian to read it as it's a very essential reading.

#Roma #medical racism #Romania #medical malpractice #healthcare denial

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genderoutlaws · 11 months

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Why has there been soooo much biphobic discourse this pride?? When has infighting ever helped us anyways

bruh literally i’ve unfollowed so many ppl on twitter this year over just insane takes hating on bisexuals fr no reason, idk why that was the pick for who to clown on this year lmao. love u tho bisexuals

#also Never infighting never helps with anything lol #like idk intracommunal discourse of a kind can be good in the way that like #its good to talk abt like racism and misogyny and transphobia and biphobia within the community #but im so tired of every year ppl spinning a wheel like ‘who will be Not Valid this year’#bitch who the fuck gives a shit theyre taking away our healthcare

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nando161mando · 4 months

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