Women will always be asked to prioritise marriage and pregnancy just above everything else in their lives. No matter how successful a woman she, people always ask if she has plans to settle down or if she is married, when is she going to have a baby. But sadly, women’s sexual health is not paid much heed. She is also judged for asking for contraceptive pills, condoms and even sanitary pads at a medical store. And matters worsen when doctors also start asking sexist questions to women. Narrating a similar incident, a Twitter user said that she was asked to have a baby by a gynaecologist after she went to her for a prescription for a contraceptive.
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The Twitter user, whose handle goes by @payeldas1011 took to her feed to ask what was wrong with gynaecologists in India. She said that she had been to one to get a prescription for a contraceptive whose chemical composition was similar to that of the one she was taking in Germany. Now, she was taking the medicine for her endometriosis. Payal went on to say that the first thing the doctor told her was that instead of taking the medicine, she should have a baby as her career can wait!
Nowhere in her request did Payal ask for the doctor’s unsolicited opinion on pregnancy and having babies. In a following tweet, Payal also added that she loves India because clarifying this is also extremely important or people will gang up on her and call her a desh-drohi! She further went on to write that the ‘career can wait’ statement made by the doctor was of concern here.
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In response to the same tweet, someone told Payal that she should not ‘sensationalise’ such issues based on half information. To which, she responded by saying that the doctor asked her to have a baby despite knowing that she had endometriosis.
Also read: The Kapil Sharma Show’s Sumona Chakravarti Opened Up About Living With Endometriosis. We Need More Women To Talk About This
This is exactly the reason why women shy away from going to gynaecs to address their sexual health problems because they know they will be judged first, and helped later. Such behaviour should be called out by women without any hesitation.