on policing women's bodies

[harborshore]

I debated filtering or friendslocking this, because it involves a conversation about body hair, but fuck it, it's important.

Today I was told I may have hormonal issues--or rather, that I may have more male hormones than is usual. Note the 'may have'.



So I went to a doctor because of breast and lymph node pain. He checked on that. The good news is that I don't appear to have cancer. But then he proceeded to tell me that since I have some unusual hair growth (read: some hair under my chin I haven't gotten around to plucking and a few stray hairs on my boobs--and I don't shave my armpits) he thinks I may have some extra testosterone floating around which may be causing the pain problems as well. This doctor isn't an endocrinologist or a gynecologist, but he THINKS it may all go away if I go on birth control. I mean. Dude. He didn't even base this on blood tests that showed unusual levels of testosterone or anything.

And I just. What. My mother has hairs on her chin. My sister does as well, and she has hairs on her boobs, same as I do. (She, by the way, also happens to be one of the most conventionally attractive women I know, and none of her string of boyfriends have minded that she has them.) But it's a sign of hormonal problems? I mean, first of all, HOW do we define a problem? I don't think that's a fucking problem, I think my breast pain and my period cramps and my other kinds of pain are a problem. I now have a referral for hair growth. I mean what. I took it because he said he'd put in a note that they hurry it up (it's to a place I already have a referral to, for the other kinds of pain), but I still can't believe it happened.

So, this is what happened: a few stray hairs on my boobs were startling enough that this dude thought I should be referred to a doctor. I came to him for pain. I'm so angry I could--women have hair too. WOMEN HAVE BODY HAIR.

Comments

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

No, I know it's not an off-the-wall idea in terms of the fact that increased body hair growth can be an indication of an increase in testosterone, but, uh, if every single woman in my family has the same "problem" and if the hair growth in no way started at the same time as the pain, then either we all have always had higher levels of testosterone than normal or there's something else going on here. And I'm 27 and my sister's 24, and the body hair is not a new thing, so it's not like it's something that has changed with age either (unless you count the actual appearance of it for the first time).

Also, I had hormonal testing done the first time I sought help for the cramps, at which point I had the same amount of body hair, so I actually know it's not what he's suggesting.

[mahoni.livejournal.com]

Did you tell him you'd had hormonal testing done? (I'm just curious what he said if you did. :)

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

I didn't tell him, no. I honestly didn't even remember it at the time, I was really thrown by everything about the whole experience.

And also he was offering me a potential diagnosis that he flat-out told me wasn't within his level of expertise and he was basing it on five minutes of interaction with me and two minutes of seeing me without a shirt? Like, I trust that if there had been signs of cancer, dude would have seen it, because breasts are what he does.

I just wanted a confirmation that it wasn't cancer. That's why I was referred to him by another doctor, who was fairly sure it wasn't, but wanted to make sure. Mastalgia--pain in breasts--especially pain that follows the menstrual cycle, is really common among women (2 out of 3 have it), and it's usually caused by a slightly lowered level of progesterone. Which I do have. There's no real treatment for it. But that would have been a slightly more sensible conclusion, no? Because I did tell him that part.