I have never been pregnant. I did, however, have a fancy New York job and an expensive New York gynecologist who did not detect a fibroid at its early stages.
Then I went to graduate school in a state school in Florida.
Then I didn’t have health insurance anymore.
The state school in Florida could afford to pay for my tuition and give me a small stipend for my 20 hr per week adjuncting job, but it could not pay for adequate health insurance.
A friend of mine, who had been poor all her life, schooled me on the ingenuity of poor people: go to Planned Parenthood for your regular checkups, she said. If there’s something wrong, then go to a good gynecologist.
I already had a good gynecologist whom I couldn’t afford. She failed to detect a dangerous cyst. Planned Parenthood caught it.
The expensive gynecologist also failed to detect a huge fibroid, which missed diagnosis under the supervision of my expensive New York gynecologist, too. The fibroid did not elude Planned Parenthood.
I have never been pregnant. I did have a uterine cyst that was cancerous removed before it turned dangerous. I did have a fibroid the size of a grapefruit that was removed when it was so large that it caused problems from incontinence (at age 29) to other things I’d rather not mention in public. It was because of Planned Parenthood that I’m still alive to tell you about it.
And I’ve never been pregnant.
Author | Laura Valeri 