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Oct 23 12 tweets 3 min read Read on X
Misogyny in medicine is focusing more on what a man might WANT than what a woman NEEDS.

I NEEDED a hysterectomy and was told I wouldn’t survive pregnancy.

“Informed consent” for surgery looked like this:

“Don’t you want to be a Mom?”
“You may want BIOLOGICAL children”
/1 🧵
“What if you meet a man who wants babies?”

“What if he leaves you because you can’t bear his children?”

“Men went their OWN babies - what if you can’t do that?”

“You will feel like less of a woman.”

/2
Brought boyfriend in to try and change their minds. Them to him:

“Will you still love her if she’s BARREN?”

“Do you want kids?”

“What if you change your mind & want kids - will you LEAVE her?”

Him: “Save her life what I want doesn’t matter” (he understood the assignment) /3
The assumption through the entire process - as I got sicker and sicker - was that I should WANT to risk my life for the CHANCE to bear a child.

That if I didn’t WANT that - I would change my mind when I met the “right man” /4
Apparently the “man of my dreams” will be so spectacular and the love so all consuming that I will be all too happy to put my life on the line to give HIM babies.

Needless to say I found that incredibly offensive. I was dying. I was incredibly sick. I needed surgery. /5
This is NOT “informed consent”. This is misogynistic and patriarchal bullying.

Informed consent would have been ensuring I knew it wasn’t reversible and would mean I could never have children. Letting me know risks of complications. Risk of prolapse. Risk of early menopause /6
None of that was covered. It was ALL about men and babies.

I actually did have a severe post operative complication that I was woefully unprepared for because “informed consent” failed me.

We must do better. Women need autonomy over their body. Inform us. Work with us /7
Don’t put the needs of a man before of our own. Don’t treat us like incubators.

We are MORE than our ability to bear children. I lost my womb at 24 and I’ve never felt like less of a woman, less of a person. I’ve never regretted it.

Medicine needs to do better /end
One of the worst parts was that when I ended up having a complication - I was gaslit & ignored again. Told I didn’t know my body AGAIN. I needed my boyfriend to get them to even run tests.

Now - decades later - I’m still dealing with issues from the surgery and complication.
I can never know how different things might have been had they acted faster - but I DO know I was never able to fully trust the medical profession again.

My article on this is 👇🏼 - and I’m working on a future one about informed consent (or lack thereof)

disabledginger.com/p/my-most-dang…
this was in Canada - where we have better overall access to reproductive health than our neighbours to the south. They still delayed my care for THREE years. I was in & out of hospitals, getting regular blood transfusions with zero quality of life.

Fight for bodily autonomy!
Some ppl are saying this was ok because doctors must ensure a woman understands she might change her mind & regret it.

I understand informing her - but this was medically necessary. You don’t put someone’s life at risk “just in case”. I wrote more 👇🏼

disabledginger.com/p/pregnancy-wi…

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More from @broadwaybabyto

Oct 23
Many disabled and chronically ill people find themselves labeled “difficult” or “non compliant” simply because they’re advocating for what they need.

Some examples:

😷 you request staff wear a mask

🧵/1
😷 You decline to remove your mask (ie for oral temperature check that could be performed other ways)

😷 You decline a specific drug and/or treatment because you know it will harm you (example - fluoroquinolones are contradicted for EDS patients and not all doctors know this) /2
😷 You push for additional testing because you feel something has been missed

😷 You request a med be administered different way (eg- a slow drip over 30 min instead of pushed all at once - VERY important if you’re blood pressure is unstable and/or your prone to anaphylaxis) /3
Read 6 tweets
Oct 22
What happened to curiosity in medicine? Did it ever really exist?

A 🧵 contrasting two doctors appointments - one with a doctor willing to work collaboratively, listen and ask questions - the other lacking in curiosity and only interested in doing things “by the book.” /1
The first appt was for a strange infection that wasn’t responding to treatment.

Dr: “Have you been tested for HIV?”

Me: “It was negative.”

Dr: “You sure? Let’s test again.” It comes back negative again.

“That’s weird. Oh well. Best of luck.” /2
That was IT. No follow up. Zero curiosity. No testing to determine WHY I had an infection only seen in AIDS patients when I did not have AIDS. They wouldn’t run an immune panel to take a look at my CD4/ CD8 count. It was just “sorry about your luck but this is not my problem.” /3
Read 10 tweets
Oct 21
I remain stunned by how few men I see speaking out about Gisele Pelicot.

We NEED you to condemn this behaviour. To hold your fellow men responsible.

Too many men participated in these atrocities & what’s galling is of the men who declined … no one sought help /1 🧵
Not one of them went to the police - or even to Gisele herself - to let them know a woman was being repeatedly drugged, raped and assaulted and her HUSBAND was arranging it.
/2
They did nothing. They declined to actively participate and then patted themselves on the back for being “good men” /3
Read 5 tweets
Oct 21
Back when masks were still mandated in hospitals - I had to go for an echocardiogram. It was being done in a clinic for HIGH RISK heart patients.

I assumed that meant I would be well protected - only to end up having to fight for my own safety multiple times.

🧵/1
First - if you’ve never had an echocardiogram - they can last approximately 45 min and during that time the technician is VERY close to your face. You have to do a lot of deep breathing as well.

It is certainly not a low risk activity. /2
As such I made sure I was wearing my fit tested N99 mask AND wore a face shield for extra protection.

I’m immune compromised with heart issues - I need all the help I can get.

The shield keeps me from touching my face and protects me if someone coughs or sneezes on me /3
Read 20 tweets
Oct 20
“Everyone dies someday! Get out and live!”

I’ve lost count of how many people have said this to me. People who assume I’m “choosing” to stay home in bed or who think fear of Covid is the only determining factor to my not socializing more.

This is NOT a choice 🧵/1
I can’t even begin to tell you how much it hurts - because is shows just how little people understand chronic illness.

To us - our baseline is EVERYTHING. We don’t risk it unless we absolutely have to. /2
Since I’m on severe end of the spectrum - my baseline isn’t great. I’m almost fully dependent on carers to survive. To cook, clean & even help me bathe. To get me to and from doctors appointments. To manage appointments for me. To get my meds and ensure I take the right ones /3
Read 13 tweets
Oct 20
A study came out recently that showed a single COVID infection increases your risk of serious cardiovascular events for 3 years post infection.

That’s terrifying - but there’s a bigger discussion being missed.

That finding means a Covid infection makes you a “vulnerable”. 🧵/1
First off - the study didn’t show that after three years your risk returns to pre-COVID levels. It’s three years because that’s all the data we have.

For all we know your risk never goes back to where it was before. /2
The increased risk factor was after ONE infection. Now I don’t know about everyone else - but I don’t know many people who are stopping at one infection.

Most have had it at LEAST three times - and because we aren’t mitigating it at all - are getting it annually (or more) /3
Read 20 tweets

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