on policing women's bodies
Jul. 10th, 2012 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
harborshoreI 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.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-10 02:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2012-07-10 02:33 pm (UTC)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.