harborshore (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
harborshore) wrote2012-07-10 01:26 pm
harborshore) wrote2012-07-10 01:26 pm
on policing women's bodies
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.
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.
no subject
I hope you can find somebody to help you pinpoint the source of the pain without diverting the attention to other things, and without presenting solutions without first verifying the source of the problem. *hugs*
no subject
That would indeed be very nice. The doctor I've been referred to (the old referral for pain) is by all accounts amazing and specializes in exactly this kind of thing, so I have hope. *hugs back* ♥