Questions for female patients

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Ok so i'm going to have to register with a new doctor. But I noticed on the form questions for female patients. What contraception are you using? I find this extremely annoying. I'm very tempted to write. 'no sexual contact, never got pregnant yet '

Or maybe I could write "being quirky and having no social skills."

I remember getting a lecture from a nurse when I was 23 for not going for a smear. 'you're 23 you really should have had one by now' I just glared at her. Yes I am aware by 23 young women are usually found attractive enough by men for them to want to engage in activity whereby they can transmit hpv, but no one has been kind enough to help me on the way to obtaining this virus so you don't need to inspect me to see if i've got it.

I feel unloved enough without being made to feel like a freak by a medical form. But i'm going to have to go through this depressing process so I can get to see a doctor and get some anti-depressants to help me deal with exactly this sort of thing in my life where I am reminded how far from the norm my life is. Ah the irony.

I have one 'to unhealthy to possibly produce a child.' but other then that I really don't like sex so I don't plan on doing it anymore.....before that I was on birth control for a year and then just used condoms after that.

You could just put N/A for non-applicable. Even if you wrote 'none' that wouldn't necessarily lead to the presumption that you had or hadn't had sex - lots of sexually active women are not on regular contraception, either because they use condoms, natural methods, or are trying to conceive.

You are definitely not a freak. If you don't want to discuss your personal life with your doctor you are well within your rights to say 'I don't feel comfortable discussing this'.

Like another poster said N/A is the way to go there and if they ask why tell them you aren't sexually active. As for the pap smear, it's not just for women who are having sex and it's not just for HPV. There are many things that can go wrong down there that need to be watched for.

They won't look down on you for not having sex, when my 18 yo daughter recently went for her birth control to be refilled (she's engaged and as only been with one guy ever) there was a new doc in the practice and she saw him. She likes me to go with her to the doctor and just step out if she needs a pelvic but this time she didn't, it was just a refill after six months as normal. He started giving her the talk about abstinance. So, some of the docs will be pretty happy about you not being sexually active. It's also not as unusual as you think at your age.

Do they ask the same question of new male patients? If they don't, I'd make a political issue out of it on the grounds that it's highly discriminatory.

Considering that males only have one option for birth control, which has no effect on their overall health, I wouldn't think they would ask that. Women usually get a pelvic exam yearly. Birth control is discussed during that. Men don't get a yearly exam for anything down there and the only time whether or not they use condoms would come up is if they may have an STD. It's not a political issue at all and couldn't be, because it's asked due to the different ways our bodies are made and due to the fact that women have a yearly exam of their reproductive organs to screen for cancer.

They ask women about birth control so they can write it down in the chart and discuss other options if the patient wants to, or write a refill for birth control pills or a diaphram. They ask it because they don't know who is or isn't sexually active and it's just more efficient to ask what type of birth control they use than to ask first if they are sexually active and then ask about birth control. If she's not sexually active she will say "None, I'm not having sex".

It's purely a medical issue, and has nothing to do with politics or discrimination or sexism or any other kind of ism you want to bring into it. It's medical. If guys went in yearly to have their penis examined, the doctor would ask if he uses condoms.

I agree with Oliveoilmom. The next question on the form is when did you get your last pap smear and what was the result. It doesn't apply to a man.

My issue is not really with the questions, it's more about my social anxiety. I always expect people to react negatively to anything I say and as such like to avoid having conversations where I may have to tell the other person out of the ordinary that may mean I have to explain the subject further.
Back when I still lived in Britain I did talk to a female doctor about getting a pap smear. I don't know if things are done different in the USA. What I said was, "from the information in the leaflet I was sent it seems that I don't need one." she said, "oh we completely respect that," and explained what happens when they do the pap test. And that was that.

I was amused that she respected my lack of ability to make connections with other human beings. (just to clarify I know she was saying she respects if people want to be abstinent, but I could be bothered explaining my real reasons to her.)

It's just one of those annoying things. They have to ask so they can judge odds of you being pregnant, and do their job, because some patients aren't smart.

Don't take it personally. They need to know if you're on the OCP because certain antibiotics will stop it working properly (= pregnancy). It can also interfere with the metabolism of other medications you may be prescribed.

They may ask it as a separate question because many women forget that the pill still counts as a medication. If you're aren't on anything, or it's an irrelevant question, just write 'n/a'.

Well that was a lot of fuss about nothing. The Nurse was really nice. She said I don't need to have a pap smear if i'm not sexually active. If I get an appointment reminder sent to me I should just phone the hospital and say i'm not sexually active and that's all.

I would just write N/A and skip over to the next question.

That's probably true.

Perhaps writing "N/A, Virgin" might get the message across?