Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Routine--Urine Pregnancy Tests Preop

Updated 3/2017-- all links (except to my own posts) removed as many no longer active.

At the surgery center and hospitals that I operate in, every woman with a uterus gets a urine pregnancy test. It is difficult to tell the woman who is scheculed for a tummy tuck or breast lift that she is pregnant. They have gone through the mental checks-and-balance sheet and decided they don't want any more children. And if they are younger (scheduled for an augmentation mammoplasty), may not be "ready" to start a family. So I find it difficult (and the nurses tell me even more stories--the woman who came to have a tubal only to find out she was pregnant............). I'm not sure what the "score" is. Some are happy instantly. Some are shocked, but went I check on them later (a day or so) are happy. Some are angry or scared. Some never find the news happy, even a week or so later. I have always been the one who goes and tells the woman, never leaving it to the nurses. I don't enjoy it. Though it can turn out to be a happy event. You just never know. And this happens to me or another surgery every month or so.


More Information:
Sensitivity of Over-the-Counter Pregnancy Tests: Comparison of Utility and Marketing Messages by Laurence A. Cole; Jaime M. Sutton-Riley; Sarah A. Khanlian; Marianna Borkovskaya; Brittany B. Rayburn; William F. Rayburn (MedScape Article)
Web MD--Home Pregnancy Tests

2 comments:

Vijay said...

I personally find early pregnancies to be the most beautiful tiny things that I see at work. I don't think I can say the same for all my patients. If you had the number of Medical Terminations of Pregnancy that we have in India, you would have to agree that not all of our women think that these are beautiful or needed.
Thanks for the link RLB.

rlbates said...

The ultrasound photo on your post Vijay is beautiful.