I hope this text doesn’t come off as a vent or a rant because I am genuinely seeking advice here. For a little bit of context, I started my period young and always had awful periods. Like so bad that I became anemic to the point of almost needing blood transfusions, passing out from pain, throwing up, anything you can think of I had it. By the time I was 14 my doctors just assumed that I had endometriosis, but because the only way to officially diagnose it is laparoscopic surgery. They wanted to put me on birth control to see if it helped first. It was trial and error, but eventually, I found one that did.
Throughout the years, it was like my birth control slowly stopped being effective for me and stopped making my periods lighter and making my cramps hurt less if that makes any sense. After that, my doctors would switch me to a different birth control. In the past seven years I’ve been on the patch, two different forms of the pill, and currently an IUD (kyleena). I’ve had the IUD for almost 3 years now but I’ve always been worried about it coming out of place. Recently, I have had severe cramping and periods twice a month, skipping a month, and just completely a random. I scheduled an appointment with my gynecologist and I wanted to discuss getting my IUD out and a Nexplanon put in.
I didn’t mention anything about that whenever I scheduled the appointment. I just scheduled the appointment and put in the comments that I was having pain and was concerned about my IUD out of place. When I got to the appointment and the woman took me back to the actual office (CMA or RN I’m unsure) I mentioned this to her just so maybe she could let the doctor know and she said that the doctor didn’t do that. I was confused on what she meant and she asked me where I got my IUD at. I was confused why she was asking this question as I had been asked that question at this gynecologist multiple times even though I got my IUD by that gynecologist. I told her that the gynecologist I was seeing that day was the one who put it in and she told me that I was “probably one of the last people he gave an IUD to.” I asked her what she was talking about and she told me that he “no longer gave birth control to people to prevent pregnancy for religious reasons.” Meaning that he didn’t give it to people for his own religious reasons.
While I currently use my birth control to prevent pregnancy, I initially went on it for my awful periods. Also two things can be true at the same time. I told her that for me it was still a medical necessity because of how much pain I would be in without it and she said that there was a 99.9% chance he wouldn’t give it to me unless he deemed it medically necessary and I explained that every doctor I had seen before him slapped birth control over an endometriosis diagnosis instead of actually looking into it via laparoscopic surgery. She almost seemed in a hurry to rush me out of the office, but I somewhat insisted that may be his religious views to not give me birth control and instead deem it “medically necessary” might make him look into the enemy trichinosis diagnosis anymore so she left the room and he came in later.
When he came in, I explained the same thing to him and he told me that the only reason he gave the IUD to me in the first place was that “I thought you were only using it for pain.” up until this point I had been genuinely respectful about his point of view. My dad is a pastor and I’m not one to argue about religious beliefs, so if it’s against his belief to perform that then I’d rather just find a different doctor who will then argue with him about it, but the fact that he said that to me felt very dismissive so I explained to him again. The two things can be true at the same time. I can be using it to prevent pregnancy and be using it for pain.
The appointment didn’t end terribly and we discussed options for an ultrasound to see if the IUD was in place and a plan for a laparoscopic surgery to see if endometriosis was in fact there. He also stated that he would replace the IUD if necessary. He said the ultrasound technician wasn’t there today and that I needed to schedule a follow up at the front desk but when I scheduled the follow up, it wasn’t for 10 more days. I’ve never wanted to ask for special treatment, but I’ve genuinely been in pretty severe pain over this for the past month and I felt like not only was it dismissed, but there was no urgency whatsoever. I called my primary care physician, and the front receptionist answered, and I basically explained the whole thing asking if my primary care physician could perform what I was asking for. I wasn’t even trying to get my gynecologist in trouble, but it sounded like she started to write down a report because they all work within the same public health company.
So I guess the advice I’m asking for here and what threw me off the entire time is that while I wouldn’t argue with him about his religious beliefs and what he wants to practice I don’t think he’s legally allowed to refuse me that service while he’s working for a public practice. Can anyone confirm this?
TLDR: my gynecologist works for a public practice and is trying to deny me birth control because of HIS religious reasons