It's like those guys in Australia who downed those ulcer germs in pursuit of empirical SCIENCE

[foxfirefey]

Best GYN I ever had, a man, heard me complain about the Provera an earlier one had prescribed me and how I wasn't taking it again, EVER, and said "A lot of my patients complained about it. So I was curious, and I took a month of it to see what everyone was talking about. You're all absolutely right. I have never prescribed it since then. We'll try something else."

rikibeth has a hardcore doctor.

Comments

[hatman]

I've certainly had my share of experiences with doctors who didn't listen and didn't understand. Like I said, I appreciate the idea in the abstract.

There also seems to be legitimate reason not to use the medication, or to try other options first.

When you get down to the mundane reality of it, though... It's still horrible medical and scientific practice. The fact that it's sometimes given to men (as an off-label use, if I'm reading correctly between the lines?) doesn't really improve things that much.

[foxfirefey]

It's only a bad medical practice--I don't really know if anything happening there is really in the realm of science? One anecdote does not science make! Unless you're referring to the discovery of Heliobacter pylori.

[hatman]

Bad science is the experiment he did. A single subject. A subject who (not being female and not being in need of hormone therapy) does not fit the parameters of the experiment. And then extrapolating from that to the general population of people who do fit the parameters.

OTOH... Hearing a patient complain about bad reaction to a given medication and responding to that with "Okay, then I won't give it to you. Actually, I've had a lot of patients with that reaction, which is why I haven't given it to anyone in years." is good medical practice. That much of the story, I'm all for.