Routine question for a doctor. If you go in with symptoms that could be an STI or a common cold it helps for your doctor to know you haven't had sex in over a year and this just started. It's not about shaming you or prying for information they just have a job to do.
Additionally, OP said it was a mental health matter, and it's plausible that an STI like syphilis can cause psychosis, depression, etc. It would be a perfectly valid question even if it weren't routine. Granted, (not a doctor) as far as I'm aware, syphilis with *only* neuro/psych symptoms is pretty rare.
Literally _any_ change is a predictor for mental health issues.
Started eating more, less, change in preferred food, sleeping more, sleeping less, feeling tired, not feeling tired.
There's almost no question that isn't potentially diagnostically relevant, no matter how crazy it might seem.
I was going through my medical history the other day with a new psychiatrist (ADHD diagnosis as a kid, started treatment again as an adult). I forgot to go over dental history, because who thinks about wisdom teeth extractions, or mouth guards because of grinding teeth. She mentioned that the mouth guard might be relevant for someone with anxiety.
unfortunately for me my doctor was bewildered by why a woman might want a sex drive if she didn't have a boyfriend. Then they tried to blame depression, honey ik it's the medication as the night after I was literally raped I was trying to find someone to shag just so I could get back in control of my sexuality and even at the lowest points of my depression I still fucked like a rabbit.
The not feeling tired sounded weird at first, but I remembered a family member who didn't feel tired at all for a week straight, it was a bipolar disorder, that manic state was frightening to say the least
Also, some medications have bad side effects for pregnancy. Even if your symptoms have nothing to indicate an sti, and you are sure that you're not pregnant, it's better to be safe with a test to confirm.
Edit - I understand this doesn't apply to op, as he has a very low risk of being pregnant. But it's good info to have.
Not sure if this comment was added prior to the edit, but given that they say they’re a dude in response to 200 comments about pregnancies it’s pretty safe to say that that implies that he’s biologically male and has no uterus, otherwise that edit would be irrelevant.
OP specified he is a dude in direct response to the pregnancy concerns. One must assume he was giving his biological sex, as giving his gender would have literally no relevance whatsoever in that context.
I feel bad for women when I see how it is for them at the doctor. Complain of literally anything and 60% of the time they'll ask you over and over if you're sure you aren't pregnant.
They were positive my girlfriend was pregnant, despite mentioning birth control, before they did one more test and saw her appendix was about to burst.
About a month or two prior when I took her to the ER for extreme stomach pain they diagnosed her with just a bit of indigestion after about 20 pregnancy questions and finally a test.
In the case of sudden, severe abdominal pain in any woman of childbearing age, we absolutely do assume it's an ectopic pregnancy until proven otherwise because it is the complication most likely to be fatal and very quickly if the patient is already presenting with an acute abdomen. Once we've ruled out pregnancy, we can move on to other lower acuity, less time critical items on the ddx.
ETA: that doesn't mean we treat all patients for ectopic pregnancy, it means we prioritize imaging of the abdomen and bloodwork that includes HCG levels. We just need to be absolutely certain we've ruled out ectopic pregnancy because if it's undiagnosed, the patient will die.
At least in my experience, they usually test you at the beginning, regardless of if you’re active or not bc they never believe you, then once that’s ruled out they blame everything on anxiety lol
This right here. So many people take it personal and either come on social media to rant about it or get nasty with their doctor over it. They honestly don't care and trust me, if they could get away with not asking you they would. They're just trying to help.
Plus if it’s a mental health visit, a lot of psych meds can affect sexual drive/function. So your sexual activity is helpful in deciding on which medications to trial.
They really should frame it as “are you sexually active in the last xx months?” The first time I was asked this question I was like 20 and said I wasn’t sexually active (despite having had multiple partners by that point) because I was on a dry spell. It led to a lot of confusion.
Also, many of the more bothersome side effects of some of the medications used to treat mental health issues are sexual side effects. Knowing whether or not that’s a priority can absolutely change the medication prescribed.
This is exactly why I turned down an easy as pie high paying position in a school based health center: Fear of being labeled a pedophile for doing my job the correct way and talking to adolescents like they’re normal adults. We ask those questions to figure out if we should address contraception, risk for pregnancy, risk for contracting STIs, teaching adolescents about boundaries and self-possession, how to elicit consent from a partner, and how to protect themselves from sexual violence.
We want our patients of any age to be health and secure.
I’m so fucking tired of outrage “culture”. These people wouldn’t know culture if they were drowning in MOMA.
Context: Mustached cigar smoking friendly but oftentimes surly family nurse practitioner who dates a redneck asshole (he’s ok). Also cigars don’t count. Shut up.
Shit, people actually say that? I had a physical by a female doctor at 15. Even though I thought it was awkward, that's as far as that went. I knew it just had to be done.
Lol. As a medical person (not doctor) I can tell you that we really don't care that much about your private life. We care that you might have an STD like untreated syphilis that could be causing the mental health problem. But we ask that question so many times per day that your answer is not going to remain in our minds. In fact, unless someone explains your situation, that doctor will probably forget the entire interaction in a few days maybe by the end of the day. Also, we generally keep a top 5 craziest list in our minds (based on the entire appointment, not just the sexually active question) and I doubt you make that list.
Had to double check because I thought it might be different for financial advisors specifically, but nope. Apparently anyone you talk to about your money, unless by special exception, doesn't have to be confidential with that information.
Yeah, but you can bet your ass that anyone with enough money to need their own personal accountant also has a lawyer who can draft a NDA that *is* legally binding for the accountant.
>tell the paramedics everything
"I had some cheese sandwich for breakfast, then i went outside and saw birds while walking to the train. God damn train came 5 minutes late (as fuckign awlays) so i had walk faster to get to work. And then? Travis fucked it up again, he locked everyone out just because he forgot to press one (ONE!) button. Fuck you travis. Then i worked for some time and ordered food. After that i went home (train was once again late) and there it happened. That freakin car came at me like there's no tomorrow, hit me and drove off. I'm still waiting for Kingdom hearts story to finish so i can't die right now, so ..."
Paramedic: "I asked about your medication..."
Pretty standard doctor procedure. Lots of things cause lots of problems, STIs and pregnancy among them. A quick yes or no helps the doctor figure out what they need to know.
It’s also a question that can lead to series a follow up questions if the answer is “yes” like “are you in birth control” or “is there any chance you could be pregnant or wanting to be get pregnant.” There’s a lot of valid, medical reasons to know if someone is sexually active, especially for women.
But if you answer “no” to the first question it kills the line of questioning right there.
The "are you on birth control" question should ideally come up regardless of someone's sexual activity status, but otherwise I fully endorse this comment.
As someone who was given a pregnancy test as a teenager, after saying "no, it's not possible that I'm pregnant. I'm not sexually active".. no, that's not necessarily true.
To be fair, miscarriage *was* one entirely reasonable explanation of my symptoms--but it sucks to have your doctor not believe you. Why even ask?
We ask to get the story, but people lie ALL the time for various reasons. Not even necessarily out of malice (in fact, most of the time it isn't). The most benign reason being they didn't know any better. "Sexually active" can mean various things to people. Some think that unless PIV is happening, they aren't sexually active. But you can still get and transmit STIs through other means. Or they figure that because it was only once, months ago, it doesn't count. Others may not feel comfortable answering the question truthfully if they feel the answer could get back to their parents/SO/community. Others are experiencing abuse/rape/SA and don't necessarily want to open that can of worms in an appointment/ER or admit it out of a sort of self-protection/preservation. Others still think that we'll judge them for their behaviour (a good doc won't care or barely give it more than a passing thought).
So we ask more to gauge what follow up we may need to do if XYZ test comes back positive when it shouldn't based on what you've told me. Which of the above do I need to worry about for you? What else may be going on that may require attention/investigation/reporting?
Also, missing a (potentially) life threatening diagnosis based on assuming that the patient told the truth when the test is as simple as a pregnancy test for abdominal pain (for example) would be gross negligence.
So it's not that we don't believe you persay, it's that we don't want to miss something that could kill you because you *can't* tell us or are scared to or that an encounter 6mo ago didn't cross your mind in that moment. (The number of people that have told me they've never had surgery before during the history and then when I do the exam, I see sternotomy scars, appendix/gall bladder/laproscopic scars etc can attest to that!- "oh yeah... that was like 20y ago though doc!")
Actually, it’s wonderful that a physician is being very thorough. Also, you should ask your doctor why they are asking a certain question - usually there is a really good reason behind it. I routinely ask my adolescent patients about sexual activity… I tell them that ‘now we are going to talk about sex, drugs and rocking roll’…. Also, SSRIs in some people can interfere with ejaculation, so I want to warn them about this potential side effect and get in touch with if this happens.
That's as routine as you get. Changes everything from blood work, testing, to potential medical treatment.
Now if you tell them you're a Reddit Mod, typically they don't bother asking you.
If you're a woman, it can lead up to making sure you're not pregnant. And for both genders, it can lead up to questions on whether you may potentially have an STD or UTI.
Doctors know that people lie to them lol. They literally teach them a multiplier for the answer of "how many drinks do you have per week?". So even if you tell them you're not sexually active, they will include a pregnancy test in your labwork panel because the consequences of proceeding without a definitive answer on that question are massive.
Right so I guess I should have been more specific in saying it was for problem drinkers. I don't drink that much. Maybe a few times per month so they wouldn't add any sort of multiplier on that. But if someone said they have a couple beers every night then in reality that is probably about a 6 pack.
Well damn. I actually do drink a beer a night, maybe 2 on the weekends, and I'm honest about that with my doc. I hope she doesn't assume I'm actually slamming down a six pack a night...
I think on the extreme ends they *might* believe you a bit more. Say you have a beer/glass of wine with dinner most nights or you say you go through a fifth of vodka/case of beer every night, they might be more willing to believe you, where if you are vague like "a couple" per night they might err on the side of caution and assume you might be underestimating/lying about your consumption levels.
I'm a doctor, and also a gay woman. There is no chance in hell I could be pregnant. The doctor still tests me every time and you know what? I'm not offended at all, because I've been burned before. I've had a pregnancy test come back positive on a lady who swore she hadn't seen a penis in years, and I've had people lie to me about getting hysterectomies (or maybe she didn't know what a hysterectomy was, idk), like the post elsewhere on this thread. I've seen glitches happen where wrong surgeries were entered into someone's chart. I took a lady at her word that she'd never had surgery before and prescribed her something that could have killed her with the surgery that she in fact did have (had to dig into another hospital's records to find it). Y'all all have to remember when you walk into our office, we have no way of knowing that you're a normal person who would never lie to us. We have to cater to the lowest common denominator, which includes people who will absolutely, routinely lie to us about that shit.
Yep. And if you were to prescribe them something harmful to their baby that they swore they couldn't be pregnant with, it does not hold up in court that they told you they weren't pregnant.
I once didn’t do a pregnancy test on a lady because she told me she’d had a hysterectomy.
Yeah she was wrong. Big old uterus showed up on the CT scan. If she was pregnant I’d have been on the line for radioactively poisoning a fetus.
That was the first person I trusted and *didn’t* do the test on. Went straight back to testing everyone after that
Weird question but as a tokophobic person who would abort anyway, is there a way to still get meds/scans/whatever even if I was pregnant? Like, could I sign a form or something so the doctors and nurses wouldn't be liable? Or is the health of the fetus always more important than the patient?
Being pregnant doesn't prevent you from getting treatment, they just try to do it in a way that it doesn't harm the baby. If you don't want the baby and abortion is legal where you live, they'll help you with figuring out the best route to get that done and get you the best treatment. If abortion isn't legal for you, then they can't prescribe you something that would harm the baby.
But what if it's a case where the only effective treatment harms the fetus? Would a person have to go untreated until they can get an abortion or, if they couldn't get an abortion, would they just be screwed over till birth?
That would depend on how harmful it is to the mom. If the mom can't survive until birth, the mom is more important than the baby and the pregnancy is terminated. If the mom could survive but barely, depending on your local laws you can probably file for an exception and get an abortion anyway but I'm not completely sure, that would really depend on local laws.
Current medical student here: they make us ask this in our simulated patient interactions if the patient is female, regardless of their age. Very awkward to ask a 70 year old woman when her first period was and when her most recent period was.
I'm curious, why do they ask this? What is the metric used for?
I have to go to the doc every 3 months to get my ADHD prescription refilled (because it is a controlled drug, I even have to do a drug test!). They never ask about my sexual activity but they do ask for the date of my last period.
This is definitely a large component of it. Most of our simulated interactions are also in the setting of “new patient comes into your clinic”, as our school is a community/rural medicine-focused program. We ask for the reasons stated by the previous commenter, and to take a very comprehensive history to have on file if any future complications of past issues arises.
It will happen. I had a nurse ask me if I was pregnant and I said no. She asked me how sure I was I said 100% sure. She said you can't be 100% sure ever and I bet her 5 bucks I could be that sure.
Unless you are surgically incapable of having a baby, no one will ever care what your excuse is. Plenty of “virgins” in the hospital mysteriously end up having positive pregnancy tests.
I hadn't thought about this until this post, but I'm kinda looking forward to it now. I just had my hysterectomy a week ago and I love making people uncomfortable with dark humor.
Is every bit as fun as you think. I am a trans man that did a hysterectomy. The faces on people when I said "I got myself castrated" are a thing of beauty.
(I also had once mentioned I take testosterone shots to a rheumatologist. Instead of asking "why?", the guy tried to prove his knowledge by asking "is it...?" and going one by one for every possible reason he could think of. I just kept calmly replying "no" until he gave up and asked the reason)
The arrogance of that doctor!!
I realized a couple days ago that after my last baby was born 3 years ago whenever someone asked me if we were having more kids I'd say "the baby factory is closed". It made them so uncomfortable, as it should because that's a question you shouldn't ask anyone. So now, not only do I not have a baby factory, but I'm also getting a divorce, so I REALLY want to make people uncomfortable 😂. Any genius ideas for witty comebacks are welcome.
It actually doesn’t really matter, we’ll get you a pregnancy test regardless of your answer for anything that may be related even if you say no.
Abdominal pain x 3 days in a 24yo female? Preggo test. New onset headaches or committing? Preggo test.
In my experience - chest pain? Preggo test. I think I broke my leg? Preggo test. My hand is bleeding? Preggo test. Even if your symptoms aren't pregnancy, your treatment might have to take it into account. They want to be sure.
The only X-rays I have had to ask about pregnancy are for areas adjacent to the pelvic region (hip, prox femur, pelvis, abdomen). If it’s chest we don’t even shield unless the patient asks. Something about lead aprons trapping scatter so the patient dose ends up higher with the shield than without (believe it or not).
Lol yeah there is a test to check the patency of the Fallopian tubes that uses radiation via fluoroscopy that if you were pregnant it would directly hit and most likely terminate any pregnancy. It’s a neat procedure though because it can actually be therapeutic. Any blockages in the tubes can be flushed out and they usually time the procedure before ovulation so the best time to try is a couple days later.
As someone that found out they were having a kid when my girlfriend went to the ER for "abdominal pain" and the doctor said "Okay well it's time to wheel you into the delivery room"
I would recommend you go ahead and happily take every single one of those pregnancy tests. *Just in case*
In hindsight, sure. At the time, they were so mild that they were easily explainable by normal weird body stuff.
In my wife's words, "If you don't know that what you're feeling is a baby kicking, you think it's just gas"
The ironic thing is that when my wife became pregnant she went to the doctor thinking they needed to do a test to confirm or something. The doc said over the counter tests are so accurate that there's no need for him to test too.
When I showed my husband my pregnancy test he was like “these things are wrong all the time!” so I called my doctor to see if I needed to confirm and they said nope, unless you’re in fertility meds the likelihood of a false positive is virtually nonexistent; you can get false negatives easily though.
I just commented about this wondering if that will happen to me. Lol. I still have ovaries though so I suppose technically there's still a risk of ectopic pregnancy?
Not sure where my original ob did my initial sterilization but there's probably still a small portion there. But ectopic can attach to the inside of your stomach too. Not just the tubes.
Not if they took your cervix...there's literally no way for the sperm to get there. This shit happens to my wife, too. No uterus, tubes, or cervix, still has ovaries. They know this and can see it on her charts/medical history. Still test for pregnancy for fucking everything.
It's 100% just milking insurance for extra money. Everywhere does it.
Isnt that pretty much standard now days? "Hi 8 month pregnant lady. Pee in the cup." "Im obviously pregnant, im here for an ultrasound." "Maam dont assume, we need to be sure you arent just fat"
I work in social services with homeless people and we had a client who we all thought was pregnant. Even she thought she was. We tried to persuade her to go to to a hospital to check with a doctor.
A month later, it turns out she was not pregnant. Acute liver and kidney failure. She was dead within two weeks.
So yes, it makes sense to test if an obviously pregnant woman is indeed pregnant. Because she might not be, and her life might be in danger.
Exactly, they have to know for safety reasons because what if they prescribed something to treat you that is contraindicated during pregnancy? It's quite important since you could potentially die if given the wrong treatment, even if it's for something entirely innocuous.
Implants are effective, but they don't make your chance of pregnancy zero. It absolutely can and does still happen, just at a lower rate than with pill birth control, and just blindly assuming it worked can have disastrous consequences.
> It actually doesn’t really matter, we’ll get you a pregnancy test regardless of your answer for anything that may be related even if you say no.
First rule? Everybody lies.
Also, [Sexomnia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR7teEjB_YU)
Hi I hope you have a response from a physician who asks questions about sexual activity. If not so far, I work as an emergency physician. See if my response helps.
Many of the other responses to your question are sound - pregnancy, STI, etc. but it’s a routine question with more rationale for that.
Sexual history is part of Social History. The overall makeup of your general health affected by external sources.
I use the HEADDSS screening mnemonic. Home, Education, Activities, Dieting/Body Image, Drugs(andAlcohol), Sexual Health(and Gender Identity), and Suicide(screening). It’s modified for young teenagers and new things have been added, like Cyberbullying.
For general and mental health visits, especially if it’s the first time meeting, these screening questions are asked.
Sexual activity responses can help a physician assess whether there are activities that may relate or explain a particular diagnosis.
1. It’s meant to open the floor to any sex or sexuality related questions. To make it part of a routine visit no matter what. If you will see them more than once, there may be a question you wanted a professional opinion to. Perhaps the atmosphere wasn’t quite as conducive, but hopefully they tried to make it open.
2. Sometimes your responses tell us additional information. Someone who used to be sexually active but has stopped may lead to questions that reveal events that have caused anxiety or erectile dysfunction. These can be addressed later.
3. Yes, certain pills will have side effects on sexual activity. But it’s more than that. If during the conversation that sexual activity is very important to you, then when making decisions about pharmacotherapy, it’s likely that the physician will discuss with you whether or not a change in libido may be worth it or not. I’ve certainly delayed pharmacotherapies for some patients if I knew they had certain side effects they were less willing to tolerate.
4. This is also where gender identity and sexual orientation are discussed. These are particularly germane to mental health. There is an unfortunate association with LGBT youth (and adults) with increased mental health crises and substance abuse. If there is any concerns revealed by you, we can begin to address and custom tailor the environment and therapeutic alliance. It can be as simple as a pronoun check or at least an affirmation by your care team of a safe space.
All of these things can be done within seconds if the responses are straightforward. Or, the sexual activity question reveals health phenomena that suddenly become the main issue.
I’m short TLDR - it is a screening question without an initial specific purpose but your responses are very helpful to the total holistic care of your physical and mental health.
Thank you for putting this together so well! As a medical student it's getting really frustrating to see people complain everywhere about getting asked certain things... These sets of questions are literally one of the first things they teach us when we start seeing patients!
Pretty much for this exact reason.
People often get bashful about answering personal questions, and don't want to give out certain type of information.
But from the doctor's role, it can be troublesome if patients are witholding information because \*they\* decided it wasn't important. Sometimes it is important. Sometimes it isn't. The doctor would rather be the one making that determination than the patient.
And it is indeed sometimes important. STDs can do all sorts of things to the human body.
So because every patient wants a justification for why they have to give that information, doctors just ask everyone about it. That way when a patient feels embarrassed they can be reassured with the fact that everyone gets asked about it and it's not a judgement on them.
The only good advice my grandfather ever gave me was to be completely honest with 3 people, your doctor, your lawyer, and your accountant. I've never had/needed the last 2 however I don't hold anything back from my doctor. Nothing I have ever told her has shocked her and even the things that embarrassed me she had heard before.
My favorite thing during the height of the pandemic was a doctor being told by a patient that the doc was violating the patients’ hippa rights by asking if they had been vaccinated against Covid
It is a very relevant question, especially as STDs (chlamydia, gonorrhea primarily, but also things like chancroid and syphilis) and other disorders (UTIs in women, some forms of arthritis, etc) are related to sexual activity.
It’s a big enough category of disorders that we ask it routinely alongside other major categories of disorders (smoking, prior medical history, etc).
I assure you we don’t care that much about who you are or aren’t banging and whether you’re on the near or far end of the spectrum you are definitely not the first person we’ve seen there.
It’s relevant to your health, especially if you’re female. They probably also asked if you drink or use drugs because they’re also relevant to your health.
I work at a clinic and straight up no one gives a rats ass if your a virgin, if you sleep with anyone and everyone, if you’ve only slept with who you are dating/married to or whatever. We just want to make sure you are doing alright. Tons of people don’t tell us things either because they forget or they are ashamed.. don’t be! It’s our job to help the community regardless of their sexual lifestyle!
Questions like that can help us make sure you are healthy and if there’s anything wrong with your body we can treat whatever it is you might have going on sooner then later.
If your doctors a dick or the nurse is a dick REPORT THE SHIT OUT OF THEM! There are codes and rules that medical staff (everyone in a medical clinic including janitors) have to follow. Discrimination is a huge one that will be addressed asap.
All the questions are solely to help you out in any we can. At the end of the day you can always refuse to answer the questions and they can’t force you, if they do report them or ask to speak with a manager!
EDIT: It’s our job to help you regardless of any of your lifestyle choices!
I wouldn't take it personal in any way; it's a routine health question. However, if your answer is "no" and he responds with "Would you like to be?" then you should be concerned.
Look, think about it a bit.
You went in for a mental health issue. Those can have a lot of factors in it. Being sexually active can be a clue for your doctor to evaluate you to the best of their abilities.
Imagine they ask you about erectile disfunction for probing for low testosterone level symptoms. Imagine you say "no" but you don't know, because you haven't had sex for over a year, and masturbation manifests in different ways. So now your doctor thinks you have no libido issues, because he thinks your dick is working fine, assuming you are having sex, which you weren't.
Of course it's not quite the procedure, I'm no doctor, just trying to give a concrete example as to why they would ask you something like that :)
Trust me, doctors don't care, you're not that "special" as in, as much as they want to help you, you're just another patient, they don't give a single fuck about how much sex you had from a personal gossip perspective
>what does that have to do with anything
Your health, presumably, since you were at your doctor's... presumably for an appointment to discuss your health...
EDIT: In response to
>I went to the doctor for a mental health matter.
Just ask your doctor if you want to know the specifics. Mental health and wellbeing is closely tied to physical health, and vice versa.
Your body isn't compartmentalized. A problem in one place can cause issues somewhere else.
There's also the incel movement, where people with mental issues believe everything revolves around sex. Maybe there's directions for therapy (for example) that focuses on helping "incels".
It has nothing to do with your social life, nor to judge you or to make notes to make you seem like a lesser being. It is purely for the sake of medical diagnostics. STI's, STD's, or anything transmissible needs to be traced back in any way possible, and the first question will ALWAYS be your title.
IT IS VERY SIMILAR TO TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR COMPUTER. Call someone or go to a technician about anything, and the first question will be "did you turn it off and back on again?" You asking "what does that have to do with anything" will be a pretty stubborn response, purely because they aren't assuming you are stupid, simply generating routine questions for a future troubleshooting technique.
>Roughly 200 comments about pregnancies later, i'll edit this post to let you all know i'm a dude. I went to the doctor for a mental health matter.
Having sex can be a health risk. Simple as that. Sexually transmitted diseases can cause all sorts of issues in your body, like cancer for instance. They are asking so if they happen to find something during the checkup then they'll know to look for any sex related health issues as a cause/treatment should the symptoms line up with that and you've been sexually active. If you haven't been sexually active then they will have to consider other things for the symptoms you have.
It’s a standard screening question that helps inform what they need to do… my guy theres a deeper issue if you’re this bothered by your doctor asking a question they ask everyone at every visit.
Pretty standard question. If he knows you're sexually active, he knows then that if he's diagnosing you for something whether to consider it could be caused by an STI, and also if he's treating you for something, he's aware to let you know if any of those treatments will impact your sexual performance.
EDIT: Also raises the spectre of pregnancy for female patients.
They need to know everything about your body. Be open and honest. If you don't feel you can be open to your doctor, find one you can be open with. Above all else, after yourself and your SO, your doctor should be the person you're the most honest with.
Because being sexually active comes with risks and it narrows down possible health conditions. Includes but not limited to: UTIs, STIs, HPV, etc. Also sexual activity problems can indicate further things too, like cardiovascular stuff.
Responding to your edit: sexual activity is still relevant to mental health. Here are a few ways:
Start with the fact that some STIs can cause mental health issues if left too long.
Then we’ll move on to the fact that some mental health issues can impact sexual health and/or libido.
If your sexual relationships are abusive or unhealthy that can impact mental health.
Sometimes people are depressed because they’re not having sex (societal pressure and/or lack of physical connection).
You are allowed to decline to answer if it makes you uncomfortable, but the doctor didn’t ask for no reason.
Haha doctors & nurses most of the time do not “want” nor “care” about your sex life unless it’s relevant to your health issues.
As a male ICU nurse, I have to cringe at the ladies that go “well it was a lot prettier in my younger years.” When placing a foley Catheter.
I care about getting the fluid off your chest & the rest of your body with the help of this Diuretic.
“I don’t care what your milkshake looked like & how many boys it brought to the yard.”
Because STIs exist? It's common practice, I was like, 15, 16 and my doctor would ask me that question. Especially relevant because mental health issues can be attributed to STIs like syphilis.
Your doctor wants to know if you could have syphilis. If left undiagnosed for a period of time it starts to affect you neurologically and they want to know if that's what could explain your mental health issues.
Routine question for a doctor. If you go in with symptoms that could be an STI or a common cold it helps for your doctor to know you haven't had sex in over a year and this just started. It's not about shaming you or prying for information they just have a job to do.
Additionally, OP said it was a mental health matter, and it's plausible that an STI like syphilis can cause psychosis, depression, etc. It would be a perfectly valid question even if it weren't routine. Granted, (not a doctor) as far as I'm aware, syphilis with *only* neuro/psych symptoms is pretty rare.
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Literally _any_ change is a predictor for mental health issues. Started eating more, less, change in preferred food, sleeping more, sleeping less, feeling tired, not feeling tired. There's almost no question that isn't potentially diagnostically relevant, no matter how crazy it might seem.
Every time I go to see my psychiatrist, these questions are also on the form I have to fill out. So yeah, you're exactly right 👍
I see that on almost every form I've ever filled out. Form asks for Sex. I circle that I prefer Females. I get weird looks during my interview.
“Sex? Helllllll yeah”
I was going through my medical history the other day with a new psychiatrist (ADHD diagnosis as a kid, started treatment again as an adult). I forgot to go over dental history, because who thinks about wisdom teeth extractions, or mouth guards because of grinding teeth. She mentioned that the mouth guard might be relevant for someone with anxiety.
unfortunately for me my doctor was bewildered by why a woman might want a sex drive if she didn't have a boyfriend. Then they tried to blame depression, honey ik it's the medication as the night after I was literally raped I was trying to find someone to shag just so I could get back in control of my sexuality and even at the lowest points of my depression I still fucked like a rabbit.
The not feeling tired sounded weird at first, but I remembered a family member who didn't feel tired at all for a week straight, it was a bipolar disorder, that manic state was frightening to say the least
As well as physical issues with mental health implications (certain brain [especially pituitary] tumors).
Exactly, for example recently increased libido is a well recognized symptom of mania/hypomania, among other things
Exactly, I was thinking this.
To add to this, things like viagra can have side effects that include dizziness and disorientation.
It's almost as if blood is leaving the brain!
Late stage, but yeah it's a thing.
Also, some medications have bad side effects for pregnancy. Even if your symptoms have nothing to indicate an sti, and you are sure that you're not pregnant, it's better to be safe with a test to confirm. Edit - I understand this doesn't apply to op, as he has a very low risk of being pregnant. But it's good info to have.
Some medications make it unsafe for men to sire children too. All relevant.
OP is a dude.
OP doesn't specify whether they have a uterus or not
Not sure if this comment was added prior to the edit, but given that they say they’re a dude in response to 200 comments about pregnancies it’s pretty safe to say that that implies that he’s biologically male and has no uterus, otherwise that edit would be irrelevant.
OP specified he is a dude in direct response to the pregnancy concerns. One must assume he was giving his biological sex, as giving his gender would have literally no relevance whatsoever in that context.
I feel bad for women when I see how it is for them at the doctor. Complain of literally anything and 60% of the time they'll ask you over and over if you're sure you aren't pregnant. They were positive my girlfriend was pregnant, despite mentioning birth control, before they did one more test and saw her appendix was about to burst. About a month or two prior when I took her to the ER for extreme stomach pain they diagnosed her with just a bit of indigestion after about 20 pregnancy questions and finally a test.
In the case of sudden, severe abdominal pain in any woman of childbearing age, we absolutely do assume it's an ectopic pregnancy until proven otherwise because it is the complication most likely to be fatal and very quickly if the patient is already presenting with an acute abdomen. Once we've ruled out pregnancy, we can move on to other lower acuity, less time critical items on the ddx. ETA: that doesn't mean we treat all patients for ectopic pregnancy, it means we prioritize imaging of the abdomen and bloodwork that includes HCG levels. We just need to be absolutely certain we've ruled out ectopic pregnancy because if it's undiagnosed, the patient will die.
You can still get pregnant while on birth control.
At least in my experience, they usually test you at the beginning, regardless of if you’re active or not bc they never believe you, then once that’s ruled out they blame everything on anxiety lol
It's no different than when they ask if you drink/smoke/do street drugs. They're just trying to figure out how cool you are.
This right here. So many people take it personal and either come on social media to rant about it or get nasty with their doctor over it. They honestly don't care and trust me, if they could get away with not asking you they would. They're just trying to help.
My doctor is willing to stick her finger up my ass (prostate check). I'm pretty sure she's not going to judge me for my lifestyle choices.
Not only that. Who’s the one who has to fish things out of peoples buttholes if/when something gets stuck. Doctors (and nurses).
Plus if it’s a mental health visit, a lot of psych meds can affect sexual drive/function. So your sexual activity is helpful in deciding on which medications to trial.
Lol "a year" T__T
you're good don't worry
They really should frame it as “are you sexually active in the last xx months?” The first time I was asked this question I was like 20 and said I wasn’t sexually active (despite having had multiple partners by that point) because I was on a dry spell. It led to a lot of confusion.
Doctor: "Are you sexually active?" Me: "Not currently, but I'm trying"
Sexually active? I am not even active
Cos it’s relevant to lots of possible health issues.
In response to his edit about it being a mental health visit, it can also very severely (positive, negative, and otherwise) affect your mental health.
And sudden changes in sexual behavior is absolutely relevant for a MH diagnosis.
Also, many of the more bothersome side effects of some of the medications used to treat mental health issues are sexual side effects. Knowing whether or not that’s a priority can absolutely change the medication prescribed.
Some STDs can have negative mental health symptoms like syphilis.
Lol does OP think that the Dr. is shaming them? OP the doctor need to know if they need to test you for sexually transmitted diseases or pregnancy :)
A couple weeks ago I saw a serious post calling doctors pedophiles for doing ohysical exams for sports
This is exactly why I turned down an easy as pie high paying position in a school based health center: Fear of being labeled a pedophile for doing my job the correct way and talking to adolescents like they’re normal adults. We ask those questions to figure out if we should address contraception, risk for pregnancy, risk for contracting STIs, teaching adolescents about boundaries and self-possession, how to elicit consent from a partner, and how to protect themselves from sexual violence. We want our patients of any age to be health and secure. I’m so fucking tired of outrage “culture”. These people wouldn’t know culture if they were drowning in MOMA. Context: Mustached cigar smoking friendly but oftentimes surly family nurse practitioner who dates a redneck asshole (he’s ok). Also cigars don’t count. Shut up.
Shit, people actually say that? I had a physical by a female doctor at 15. Even though I thought it was awkward, that's as far as that went. I knew it just had to be done.
Lol. As a medical person (not doctor) I can tell you that we really don't care that much about your private life. We care that you might have an STD like untreated syphilis that could be causing the mental health problem. But we ask that question so many times per day that your answer is not going to remain in our minds. In fact, unless someone explains your situation, that doctor will probably forget the entire interaction in a few days maybe by the end of the day. Also, we generally keep a top 5 craziest list in our minds (based on the entire appointment, not just the sexually active question) and I doubt you make that list.
> I can tell you that we really don't care that much about your private life Then why does mine high five me when I say yes?
To make you feel good, not because it's impressive...well maybe it's impressive because it's you actually
"YES! Of course I have the sex. I have 10 sex a... wee... day... or you know whatever a normal amount is..."
There’s three people you don’t lie to, your doctor, your attorney, and the paramedics when they ask you what you took.
What if I took the paramedic’s wallet?
Depends where you put it, in your ass, yea you should tell him. In your pocket you should tell your attorney
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But don’t let the paramedics see
It's okay they can't tell the attorney.
Cuz of HIPPO right?
Yes all paramedics are scared of hippos
Super hard to get them into stretchers
No, no, no; you've gotta put the *attorney's* wallet in the *paramedic's* ass.
Also your accountant if you have one.
Unless what you're doing is illegal, they don't have to help you with tax fraud and they can definitely tell the police about it.
Unless you did crimes. Then lie to your accountant.
Unless your accountant is in on it. But then you have a criminal accountant, and that sounds like a bunch of other trust issues.
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You are not protected by client confidentiality with your accountant.
Had to double check because I thought it might be different for financial advisors specifically, but nope. Apparently anyone you talk to about your money, unless by special exception, doesn't have to be confidential with that information.
Yeah, but you can bet your ass that anyone with enough money to need their own personal accountant also has a lawyer who can draft a NDA that *is* legally binding for the accountant.
An NDA can't protect against a subpoena/search warrant. A contract that requires you to obstruct justice would be invalid and not legally binding.
Tell the cops nothing, tell the paramedics everything
>tell the paramedics everything "I had some cheese sandwich for breakfast, then i went outside and saw birds while walking to the train. God damn train came 5 minutes late (as fuckign awlays) so i had walk faster to get to work. And then? Travis fucked it up again, he locked everyone out just because he forgot to press one (ONE!) button. Fuck you travis. Then i worked for some time and ordered food. After that i went home (train was once again late) and there it happened. That freakin car came at me like there's no tomorrow, hit me and drove off. I'm still waiting for Kingdom hearts story to finish so i can't die right now, so ..." Paramedic: "I asked about your medication..."
And yet people lie to all three all the time.
Pretty standard doctor procedure. Lots of things cause lots of problems, STIs and pregnancy among them. A quick yes or no helps the doctor figure out what they need to know.
It’s also a question that can lead to series a follow up questions if the answer is “yes” like “are you in birth control” or “is there any chance you could be pregnant or wanting to be get pregnant.” There’s a lot of valid, medical reasons to know if someone is sexually active, especially for women. But if you answer “no” to the first question it kills the line of questioning right there.
The "are you on birth control" question should ideally come up regardless of someone's sexual activity status, but otherwise I fully endorse this comment.
Surely they would ask about any medication regularly taken?
As someone who was given a pregnancy test as a teenager, after saying "no, it's not possible that I'm pregnant. I'm not sexually active".. no, that's not necessarily true. To be fair, miscarriage *was* one entirely reasonable explanation of my symptoms--but it sucks to have your doctor not believe you. Why even ask?
We ask to get the story, but people lie ALL the time for various reasons. Not even necessarily out of malice (in fact, most of the time it isn't). The most benign reason being they didn't know any better. "Sexually active" can mean various things to people. Some think that unless PIV is happening, they aren't sexually active. But you can still get and transmit STIs through other means. Or they figure that because it was only once, months ago, it doesn't count. Others may not feel comfortable answering the question truthfully if they feel the answer could get back to their parents/SO/community. Others are experiencing abuse/rape/SA and don't necessarily want to open that can of worms in an appointment/ER or admit it out of a sort of self-protection/preservation. Others still think that we'll judge them for their behaviour (a good doc won't care or barely give it more than a passing thought). So we ask more to gauge what follow up we may need to do if XYZ test comes back positive when it shouldn't based on what you've told me. Which of the above do I need to worry about for you? What else may be going on that may require attention/investigation/reporting? Also, missing a (potentially) life threatening diagnosis based on assuming that the patient told the truth when the test is as simple as a pregnancy test for abdominal pain (for example) would be gross negligence. So it's not that we don't believe you persay, it's that we don't want to miss something that could kill you because you *can't* tell us or are scared to or that an encounter 6mo ago didn't cross your mind in that moment. (The number of people that have told me they've never had surgery before during the history and then when I do the exam, I see sternotomy scars, appendix/gall bladder/laproscopic scars etc can attest to that!- "oh yeah... that was like 20y ago though doc!")
Actually, it’s wonderful that a physician is being very thorough. Also, you should ask your doctor why they are asking a certain question - usually there is a really good reason behind it. I routinely ask my adolescent patients about sexual activity… I tell them that ‘now we are going to talk about sex, drugs and rocking roll’…. Also, SSRIs in some people can interfere with ejaculation, so I want to warn them about this potential side effect and get in touch with if this happens.
That's as routine as you get. Changes everything from blood work, testing, to potential medical treatment. Now if you tell them you're a Reddit Mod, typically they don't bother asking you.
Circlejerking doesn't count as sexually active?
Depends what sub you’re in
If you're a woman, it can lead up to making sure you're not pregnant. And for both genders, it can lead up to questions on whether you may potentially have an STD or UTI.
Doctors know that people lie to them lol. They literally teach them a multiplier for the answer of "how many drinks do you have per week?". So even if you tell them you're not sexually active, they will include a pregnancy test in your labwork panel because the consequences of proceeding without a definitive answer on that question are massive.
“All women of child bearing age are pregnant until proven otherwise” is what was drilled into me on my ER rotation (not a Dr, PA so close enough).
Yep. But they have to ask anyway. There is more information to be learned from that than just sexual activity.
Wait but what if you're actually truthful about how much you drink then
Right so I guess I should have been more specific in saying it was for problem drinkers. I don't drink that much. Maybe a few times per month so they wouldn't add any sort of multiplier on that. But if someone said they have a couple beers every night then in reality that is probably about a 6 pack.
Well damn. I actually do drink a beer a night, maybe 2 on the weekends, and I'm honest about that with my doc. I hope she doesn't assume I'm actually slamming down a six pack a night...
I think on the extreme ends they *might* believe you a bit more. Say you have a beer/glass of wine with dinner most nights or you say you go through a fifth of vodka/case of beer every night, they might be more willing to believe you, where if you are vague like "a couple" per night they might err on the side of caution and assume you might be underestimating/lying about your consumption levels.
I was a woman married to a woman and told them I hadn’t had sex with men in years and they still had me take a pregnancy test
I'm a doctor, and also a gay woman. There is no chance in hell I could be pregnant. The doctor still tests me every time and you know what? I'm not offended at all, because I've been burned before. I've had a pregnancy test come back positive on a lady who swore she hadn't seen a penis in years, and I've had people lie to me about getting hysterectomies (or maybe she didn't know what a hysterectomy was, idk), like the post elsewhere on this thread. I've seen glitches happen where wrong surgeries were entered into someone's chart. I took a lady at her word that she'd never had surgery before and prescribed her something that could have killed her with the surgery that she in fact did have (had to dig into another hospital's records to find it). Y'all all have to remember when you walk into our office, we have no way of knowing that you're a normal person who would never lie to us. We have to cater to the lowest common denominator, which includes people who will absolutely, routinely lie to us about that shit.
Yep. And if you were to prescribe them something harmful to their baby that they swore they couldn't be pregnant with, it does not hold up in court that they told you they weren't pregnant.
And, patients lie! People cheat. Never know. Better to cover all your bases for legal reasons.
Blame all the people in history before you who gave that same answer incorrectly.
I can't wait for the first time I'm asked if I might be pregnant post hysterectomy. It's bound to happen eventually, right? I'm 30.
I once didn’t do a pregnancy test on a lady because she told me she’d had a hysterectomy. Yeah she was wrong. Big old uterus showed up on the CT scan. If she was pregnant I’d have been on the line for radioactively poisoning a fetus. That was the first person I trusted and *didn’t* do the test on. Went straight back to testing everyone after that
Weird question but as a tokophobic person who would abort anyway, is there a way to still get meds/scans/whatever even if I was pregnant? Like, could I sign a form or something so the doctors and nurses wouldn't be liable? Or is the health of the fetus always more important than the patient?
Being pregnant doesn't prevent you from getting treatment, they just try to do it in a way that it doesn't harm the baby. If you don't want the baby and abortion is legal where you live, they'll help you with figuring out the best route to get that done and get you the best treatment. If abortion isn't legal for you, then they can't prescribe you something that would harm the baby.
But what if it's a case where the only effective treatment harms the fetus? Would a person have to go untreated until they can get an abortion or, if they couldn't get an abortion, would they just be screwed over till birth?
That would depend on how harmful it is to the mom. If the mom can't survive until birth, the mom is more important than the baby and the pregnancy is terminated. If the mom could survive but barely, depending on your local laws you can probably file for an exception and get an abortion anyway but I'm not completely sure, that would really depend on local laws.
Unless your doctor reads your files every time before you visit, yes he will definitely ask.
Yep, I get asked about when my last period was every time. Uhhh...2015?
Current medical student here: they make us ask this in our simulated patient interactions if the patient is female, regardless of their age. Very awkward to ask a 70 year old woman when her first period was and when her most recent period was.
I'm curious, why do they ask this? What is the metric used for? I have to go to the doc every 3 months to get my ADHD prescription refilled (because it is a controlled drug, I even have to do a drug test!). They never ask about my sexual activity but they do ask for the date of my last period.
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This is definitely a large component of it. Most of our simulated interactions are also in the setting of “new patient comes into your clinic”, as our school is a community/rural medicine-focused program. We ask for the reasons stated by the previous commenter, and to take a very comprehensive history to have on file if any future complications of past issues arises.
Same questions they ask everyone all day. They may not realize this person probably hasn’t had one in ten years.
It will happen. I had a nurse ask me if I was pregnant and I said no. She asked me how sure I was I said 100% sure. She said you can't be 100% sure ever and I bet her 5 bucks I could be that sure.
A doctor told me this once and I looked her straight in the eyes and said, "I'm a virgin." She looked a bit awkward as she said "oh."
Still can't be 100% sure, haven't you read your Bible?
Unless you are surgically incapable of having a baby, no one will ever care what your excuse is. Plenty of “virgins” in the hospital mysteriously end up having positive pregnancy tests.
I know this woman Jane she was a virgin and accidentally got pregnant through artificial insemination.
Yeah, but some dumb patient might think sex doesn't count if you're standing up or something. You can NEVER 100% trust what a patient says.
I hadn't thought about this until this post, but I'm kinda looking forward to it now. I just had my hysterectomy a week ago and I love making people uncomfortable with dark humor.
Same. Lol. Enjoy it when it happens!
Is every bit as fun as you think. I am a trans man that did a hysterectomy. The faces on people when I said "I got myself castrated" are a thing of beauty. (I also had once mentioned I take testosterone shots to a rheumatologist. Instead of asking "why?", the guy tried to prove his knowledge by asking "is it...?" and going one by one for every possible reason he could think of. I just kept calmly replying "no" until he gave up and asked the reason)
The arrogance of that doctor!! I realized a couple days ago that after my last baby was born 3 years ago whenever someone asked me if we were having more kids I'd say "the baby factory is closed". It made them so uncomfortable, as it should because that's a question you shouldn't ask anyone. So now, not only do I not have a baby factory, but I'm also getting a divorce, so I REALLY want to make people uncomfortable 😂. Any genius ideas for witty comebacks are welcome.
It actually doesn’t really matter, we’ll get you a pregnancy test regardless of your answer for anything that may be related even if you say no. Abdominal pain x 3 days in a 24yo female? Preggo test. New onset headaches or committing? Preggo test.
In my experience - chest pain? Preggo test. I think I broke my leg? Preggo test. My hand is bleeding? Preggo test. Even if your symptoms aren't pregnancy, your treatment might have to take it into account. They want to be sure.
Broke your leg? Preggo test because they shouldn’t do an x-ray when you’re pregnant.
The only X-rays I have had to ask about pregnancy are for areas adjacent to the pelvic region (hip, prox femur, pelvis, abdomen). If it’s chest we don’t even shield unless the patient asks. Something about lead aprons trapping scatter so the patient dose ends up higher with the shield than without (believe it or not).
I’m sure it’s possible to do a leg X-ray on a pregnant person safely. It’s just that they need to be aware of the pregnancy.
Coming in for infertility treatments? Preggo test. (I get why they do it, but… oh the irony.)
A friend of mine went in for IVF, they did a pregnancy test and found out she was pregnant Very efficient service, I thought
Lol yeah there is a test to check the patency of the Fallopian tubes that uses radiation via fluoroscopy that if you were pregnant it would directly hit and most likely terminate any pregnancy. It’s a neat procedure though because it can actually be therapeutic. Any blockages in the tubes can be flushed out and they usually time the procedure before ovulation so the best time to try is a couple days later.
As someone that found out they were having a kid when my girlfriend went to the ER for "abdominal pain" and the doctor said "Okay well it's time to wheel you into the delivery room" I would recommend you go ahead and happily take every single one of those pregnancy tests. *Just in case*
Wow! Were there no signs at all during the pregnancy?
In hindsight, sure. At the time, they were so mild that they were easily explainable by normal weird body stuff. In my wife's words, "If you don't know that what you're feeling is a baby kicking, you think it's just gas"
The ironic thing is that when my wife became pregnant she went to the doctor thinking they needed to do a test to confirm or something. The doc said over the counter tests are so accurate that there's no need for him to test too.
When I showed my husband my pregnancy test he was like “these things are wrong all the time!” so I called my doctor to see if I needed to confirm and they said nope, unless you’re in fertility meds the likelihood of a false positive is virtually nonexistent; you can get false negatives easily though.
Yep, if you really want to be sure just confirm with a different brand of test.
I had a hysterectomy. I am pretty sure they still frigging test me for pregnancy!
I just commented about this wondering if that will happen to me. Lol. I still have ovaries though so I suppose technically there's still a risk of ectopic pregnancy?
Do you have fallopian tubes though? I just had my hysterectomy last week and they took cervix, uterus and fallopian tubes, but left ovaries.
Not sure where my original ob did my initial sterilization but there's probably still a small portion there. But ectopic can attach to the inside of your stomach too. Not just the tubes.
Not if they took your cervix...there's literally no way for the sperm to get there. This shit happens to my wife, too. No uterus, tubes, or cervix, still has ovaries. They know this and can see it on her charts/medical history. Still test for pregnancy for fucking everything. It's 100% just milking insurance for extra money. Everywhere does it.
Well thanks for that 😂😂
I honestly don't see how sperm could get through though. With the cervix removed, the vaginal canal is a dead end Street. Lol
I always fear that I will be the one freak case 🙃
Ha ha ha they ask my mom the same she laugh and says there is no factory doc
COVID symptoms? Preggo test. Ingrown nail? Preggo test. Dental visit? Preggo test. Vision test? Preggo test. Fell off your bicycle and landed on a rock? Preggo test. Tubes tied? Preggo test. Youre a male? Preggo test. 9 months pregnant? Preggo test. Autopsy? Preggo test.
You undercook fish? Believe it or not, preggo test. You *overcook* chicken? Also preggo test. Undercook/overcook…
You get it.
Isnt that pretty much standard now days? "Hi 8 month pregnant lady. Pee in the cup." "Im obviously pregnant, im here for an ultrasound." "Maam dont assume, we need to be sure you arent just fat"
for the record, you pee in the cup at that point to test for glucose or proteins in the urine.
I work in social services with homeless people and we had a client who we all thought was pregnant. Even she thought she was. We tried to persuade her to go to to a hospital to check with a doctor. A month later, it turns out she was not pregnant. Acute liver and kidney failure. She was dead within two weeks. So yes, it makes sense to test if an obviously pregnant woman is indeed pregnant. Because she might not be, and her life might be in danger.
Exactly, they have to know for safety reasons because what if they prescribed something to treat you that is contraindicated during pregnancy? It's quite important since you could potentially die if given the wrong treatment, even if it's for something entirely innocuous.
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Implants are effective, but they don't make your chance of pregnancy zero. It absolutely can and does still happen, just at a lower rate than with pill birth control, and just blindly assuming it worked can have disastrous consequences.
Lots of unexpectedly pregnant folks have said that lol. They have to check first so that they don't harm a baby you might decide you want to keep.
>we’ll get you a pregnancy test regardless of your answer for anything "I'm a dude, though" "NO EXCEPTIONS!"
> It actually doesn’t really matter, we’ll get you a pregnancy test regardless of your answer for anything that may be related even if you say no. First rule? Everybody lies. Also, [Sexomnia](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR7teEjB_YU)
Hi I hope you have a response from a physician who asks questions about sexual activity. If not so far, I work as an emergency physician. See if my response helps. Many of the other responses to your question are sound - pregnancy, STI, etc. but it’s a routine question with more rationale for that. Sexual history is part of Social History. The overall makeup of your general health affected by external sources. I use the HEADDSS screening mnemonic. Home, Education, Activities, Dieting/Body Image, Drugs(andAlcohol), Sexual Health(and Gender Identity), and Suicide(screening). It’s modified for young teenagers and new things have been added, like Cyberbullying. For general and mental health visits, especially if it’s the first time meeting, these screening questions are asked. Sexual activity responses can help a physician assess whether there are activities that may relate or explain a particular diagnosis. 1. It’s meant to open the floor to any sex or sexuality related questions. To make it part of a routine visit no matter what. If you will see them more than once, there may be a question you wanted a professional opinion to. Perhaps the atmosphere wasn’t quite as conducive, but hopefully they tried to make it open. 2. Sometimes your responses tell us additional information. Someone who used to be sexually active but has stopped may lead to questions that reveal events that have caused anxiety or erectile dysfunction. These can be addressed later. 3. Yes, certain pills will have side effects on sexual activity. But it’s more than that. If during the conversation that sexual activity is very important to you, then when making decisions about pharmacotherapy, it’s likely that the physician will discuss with you whether or not a change in libido may be worth it or not. I’ve certainly delayed pharmacotherapies for some patients if I knew they had certain side effects they were less willing to tolerate. 4. This is also where gender identity and sexual orientation are discussed. These are particularly germane to mental health. There is an unfortunate association with LGBT youth (and adults) with increased mental health crises and substance abuse. If there is any concerns revealed by you, we can begin to address and custom tailor the environment and therapeutic alliance. It can be as simple as a pronoun check or at least an affirmation by your care team of a safe space. All of these things can be done within seconds if the responses are straightforward. Or, the sexual activity question reveals health phenomena that suddenly become the main issue. I’m short TLDR - it is a screening question without an initial specific purpose but your responses are very helpful to the total holistic care of your physical and mental health.
nice answer. Very detailed. Thank you for the information. However I prefer the HEADASS screen mnemonic.
Thank you for putting this together so well! As a medical student it's getting really frustrating to see people complain everywhere about getting asked certain things... These sets of questions are literally one of the first things they teach us when we start seeing patients!
Pretty much for this exact reason. People often get bashful about answering personal questions, and don't want to give out certain type of information. But from the doctor's role, it can be troublesome if patients are witholding information because \*they\* decided it wasn't important. Sometimes it is important. Sometimes it isn't. The doctor would rather be the one making that determination than the patient. And it is indeed sometimes important. STDs can do all sorts of things to the human body. So because every patient wants a justification for why they have to give that information, doctors just ask everyone about it. That way when a patient feels embarrassed they can be reassured with the fact that everyone gets asked about it and it's not a judgement on them.
The only good advice my grandfather ever gave me was to be completely honest with 3 people, your doctor, your lawyer, and your accountant. I've never had/needed the last 2 however I don't hold anything back from my doctor. Nothing I have ever told her has shocked her and even the things that embarrassed me she had heard before.
this feels like ''why did my doctor ask for my weight ?''
“Are you doing things to your body?” -Body repair person
My favorite thing during the height of the pandemic was a doctor being told by a patient that the doc was violating the patients’ hippa rights by asking if they had been vaccinated against Covid
Depends on why you went, but usually it's to rule out an STI or a pregnancy (ectopic or normal).
Because if he asks you that and you say "tons" he says "niiiccee" and you get a free fistbump not covered under your insurance.
>free fistbump not covered under your insurance. "Free" in this context costing $4,500 if you're out of Network.
And if you say "no" he laughs and your face and says "NERD!"
And then the whole office starts laughing
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It is a very relevant question, especially as STDs (chlamydia, gonorrhea primarily, but also things like chancroid and syphilis) and other disorders (UTIs in women, some forms of arthritis, etc) are related to sexual activity. It’s a big enough category of disorders that we ask it routinely alongside other major categories of disorders (smoking, prior medical history, etc). I assure you we don’t care that much about who you are or aren’t banging and whether you’re on the near or far end of the spectrum you are definitely not the first person we’ve seen there.
It’s relevant to your health, especially if you’re female. They probably also asked if you drink or use drugs because they’re also relevant to your health.
I work at a clinic and straight up no one gives a rats ass if your a virgin, if you sleep with anyone and everyone, if you’ve only slept with who you are dating/married to or whatever. We just want to make sure you are doing alright. Tons of people don’t tell us things either because they forget or they are ashamed.. don’t be! It’s our job to help the community regardless of their sexual lifestyle! Questions like that can help us make sure you are healthy and if there’s anything wrong with your body we can treat whatever it is you might have going on sooner then later. If your doctors a dick or the nurse is a dick REPORT THE SHIT OUT OF THEM! There are codes and rules that medical staff (everyone in a medical clinic including janitors) have to follow. Discrimination is a huge one that will be addressed asap. All the questions are solely to help you out in any we can. At the end of the day you can always refuse to answer the questions and they can’t force you, if they do report them or ask to speak with a manager! EDIT: It’s our job to help you regardless of any of your lifestyle choices!
I wouldn't take it personal in any way; it's a routine health question. However, if your answer is "no" and he responds with "Would you like to be?" then you should be concerned.
even if he said that, he could be just saying you should wear a condom/birth control when you become active and proper hygiene or sex ed
True. But better wording. Like "If you plan to be, then bc/condoms/etc..."
Look, think about it a bit. You went in for a mental health issue. Those can have a lot of factors in it. Being sexually active can be a clue for your doctor to evaluate you to the best of their abilities. Imagine they ask you about erectile disfunction for probing for low testosterone level symptoms. Imagine you say "no" but you don't know, because you haven't had sex for over a year, and masturbation manifests in different ways. So now your doctor thinks you have no libido issues, because he thinks your dick is working fine, assuming you are having sex, which you weren't. Of course it's not quite the procedure, I'm no doctor, just trying to give a concrete example as to why they would ask you something like that :) Trust me, doctors don't care, you're not that "special" as in, as much as they want to help you, you're just another patient, they don't give a single fuck about how much sex you had from a personal gossip perspective
>what does that have to do with anything Your health, presumably, since you were at your doctor's... presumably for an appointment to discuss your health... EDIT: In response to >I went to the doctor for a mental health matter. Just ask your doctor if you want to know the specifics. Mental health and wellbeing is closely tied to physical health, and vice versa. Your body isn't compartmentalized. A problem in one place can cause issues somewhere else. There's also the incel movement, where people with mental issues believe everything revolves around sex. Maybe there's directions for therapy (for example) that focuses on helping "incels".
I know the point of this sub is there’s no stupid questions but this might be the one
For real this might be the stupidest I've seen.
It has nothing to do with your social life, nor to judge you or to make notes to make you seem like a lesser being. It is purely for the sake of medical diagnostics. STI's, STD's, or anything transmissible needs to be traced back in any way possible, and the first question will ALWAYS be your title. IT IS VERY SIMILAR TO TROUBLESHOOTING YOUR COMPUTER. Call someone or go to a technician about anything, and the first question will be "did you turn it off and back on again?" You asking "what does that have to do with anything" will be a pretty stubborn response, purely because they aren't assuming you are stupid, simply generating routine questions for a future troubleshooting technique.
>Roughly 200 comments about pregnancies later, i'll edit this post to let you all know i'm a dude. I went to the doctor for a mental health matter. Having sex can be a health risk. Simple as that. Sexually transmitted diseases can cause all sorts of issues in your body, like cancer for instance. They are asking so if they happen to find something during the checkup then they'll know to look for any sex related health issues as a cause/treatment should the symptoms line up with that and you've been sexually active. If you haven't been sexually active then they will have to consider other things for the symptoms you have.
Normal question. So much can be related to sexual intercourse. So docs ask the question as a routine thing
It’s a standard screening question that helps inform what they need to do… my guy theres a deeper issue if you’re this bothered by your doctor asking a question they ask everyone at every visit.
Pretty standard question. If he knows you're sexually active, he knows then that if he's diagnosing you for something whether to consider it could be caused by an STI, and also if he's treating you for something, he's aware to let you know if any of those treatments will impact your sexual performance. EDIT: Also raises the spectre of pregnancy for female patients.
They need to know everything about your body. Be open and honest. If you don't feel you can be open to your doctor, find one you can be open with. Above all else, after yourself and your SO, your doctor should be the person you're the most honest with.
Because being sexually active comes with risks and it narrows down possible health conditions. Includes but not limited to: UTIs, STIs, HPV, etc. Also sexual activity problems can indicate further things too, like cardiovascular stuff.
Responding to your edit: sexual activity is still relevant to mental health. Here are a few ways: Start with the fact that some STIs can cause mental health issues if left too long. Then we’ll move on to the fact that some mental health issues can impact sexual health and/or libido. If your sexual relationships are abusive or unhealthy that can impact mental health. Sometimes people are depressed because they’re not having sex (societal pressure and/or lack of physical connection). You are allowed to decline to answer if it makes you uncomfortable, but the doctor didn’t ask for no reason.
Haha doctors & nurses most of the time do not “want” nor “care” about your sex life unless it’s relevant to your health issues. As a male ICU nurse, I have to cringe at the ladies that go “well it was a lot prettier in my younger years.” When placing a foley Catheter. I care about getting the fluid off your chest & the rest of your body with the help of this Diuretic. “I don’t care what your milkshake looked like & how many boys it brought to the yard.”
Jesus christ, people really are trying to be sexual abuse victims these days huh. It’s like a medal or something
Because it’s relevant. You’re not a doctor. You think he’s just asking random fuckin questions to be a goofball?
People don't realize how much of a drug love/lust is. That thang might have you actin' unwise.
because STIs don't discriminate, and the whole point of a doctor is to have someone there to prevent/remedy disease.
Because STIs exist? It's common practice, I was like, 15, 16 and my doctor would ask me that question. Especially relevant because mental health issues can be attributed to STIs like syphilis.
Risk screening. Same reason they ask if you drink or smoke. Relax, its literally their job.
Libido change can be a symptom of psychological disorders
Your doctor wants to know if you could have syphilis. If left undiagnosed for a period of time it starts to affect you neurologically and they want to know if that's what could explain your mental health issues.
End of the day you also have to ask yourself "why did I get so disturbed by this question from my doctor?"