I have been mistreated enough, I don't want to write this, I support the values planned parenthood claims.
I was offered treatments I declined that I was later told that they aren't allowed to offer. The most recent example is oral minoxidil. This has happened to me repeatedly over and over again, and glossed over when I ask why. Is that a treatment that's available? Depends who you ask!
I felt the sting of gaslighting 3 times with clinicians, and once by the woman who drew my blood; and she gave me this smile that said, "I know I lied, you know it, I won't have consequences, and, it was my pleasure to mistreat you!"
If you are marginalized you likely have seen this smile before in different contexts, communicating largely the same thing. "It was my pleasure to mistreat you without consequence. It's a smile cis white women make disproportionately in my experience.
At the pharmacy I arrive to learn I have been prescribed something different nearly everytime, without being informed, and I never know what it's going to cost. The doses have changed without me being informed, and the quantity of medications have changed without me being informed. Which means some days my insurance pays for the medication, others I have to pay. I am low income, cognitively disabled, physically disabled and I have just given up on ever expecting to receive consistent care. Only a mundane incompetence akin to playing Russian Roulette with my wallet. Mass.gov has an official list of standards for medications to be covered under medicaid/mass health, this should be easy for providers to understand with training. If you prescribe ___ for it to be covered you must prescribe 180/90/30 days, for ___ condition(s). There is no reason I should have to call, text, message or repeatedly explain this, only to have it happen again every time.
I have experienced mundane violations of my hippa rights, PPLM have been taken to court and lost before. They are still in violation, and it is systematic and illegal. We aren't talking about a little gossip either. If you check in for telehealth your hippa rights are violated, there's no option to exercise your right to refuse to sing away the rights to your information, allowing them to sell it for reasons not related to care. That's right when you sign any HIPPA agreement you are waiving your rights. There is no signature required for you to receive the right to freedom of speech, it's the same when dealing with hippa. Some serious corruption going on here. This is unacceptable. A hippa form should also inform you that you have a right to refuse to sign. Which is a hippa violation as well. You also have the right to receive care without retaliation if you exercised that right.
And the list goes on and on to the point I feel hollow and empty inside when I walk in the door. I know when I walk in those doors I am no longer a subject, but an object to be acted upon. I dissociate during every visit. I have tried over and over again only to realize that the medical trauma I have been through before PPLM was nothing compared to what I have experienced there. The scar of smiley faces that stab you in the back, lie to you, and sometimes abuse you with intention... I need therapy just to deal with what I have experienced here at planned parenthood. It's even harder to trust medical professionals now. There's no good reason a review should bring me to tears. There's no good reason I should dissociate or abandon myself to get care I need.
Oh, and get this, a cis woman told me that the person who decides what treatments are availing for cis women, and trans women, is a cis man... I have felt repeatedly that PPLM has left me behind as a patient, has failed to meet my needs, and maybe it's because the doctor that makes decisions for entire groups of people has never experienced the misogyny that cis and trans women face, and has never experienced the transphobia or dysphoria that trans women face.
Do better. Stop violating hippa, stop retaliating, have transparent, publicly ability standards that explain what planned parenthood can and cannot do. When someone says "I do not want to answer anymore questions understand NO MEANS NO! WTF! AND PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD PRESCRIBE THE SAME THING, SAME QUANTITY, SAME DOSE, UNLESS YOU HAVE INFORMED THE PATIENT THAT YOU ARE CHANGING THEIR MEDICATION!
A cis man deciding what is medically necessary for women is a no... read more