Another weird thing at that OB-GYN’s was their insistent desire to know how I “identify religiously.” I do identify religiously but not at an OB-GYN’s office, so I gave the receptionist a weird look.
“It’s in case we need it for medical purposes,” she explained.
I just spent a year with a maternity center of a Catholic hospital, and they managed to pursue all kinds of medical purposes on me without inquiring about my religious identity.
It’s not that I mind these questions a whole lot but I am weirded out.
Clarissa's Blog 
They didn’t inquire because if you’d croaked at a Catholic hospital, you’d have been given last rites from a hospital priest in any case…
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I would still dump this MD, though, I think. Yes the questions are allegedly innocent, we need to know your religion so we know what kind of last rites to give, we need to know your number of lifetime sexual partners because we think that is a way to deduce medical facts and the only way to deduce these facts (in my case, I have had an HPV test, rather than have questions asked) — but they’re ultimately offensive and not all MDs ask them. Perhaps if a third weird question is asked, seriously consider dropping.
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Last rites?? They are surely of a very low opinion as to their own standard of care if patients are expected to drop dead at a routine yearly visit. And they are not even the ones located on Terminal Street. 🙂
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I would ask why they ask this question and see what answer they give and how they explain it.
That, I think, will tell you more than anything whether or not you want to stay with this physician’s practice.
Usually with Catholic hospitals they offer the same standard of care to Catholics as they do non-Catholics.
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The question seems highly intrusive to me. Medical reasons for knowing your religious (or lack of) persuasion? I don’t think so! If anyone medical asked me such a question I would suggest that they mind their own business. Next they’ll be asking who you’ll vote for.
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I generally don’t like giving this sort of just about in your face advice to people I don’t know intimately, but I have to agree with Z, you should think about looking for another doctor. Just reading about your visit is giving me the creeps. You deserve better.
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The alternative is a doctor who is obsessed with selling patients Botox injections and a doctor who is equally obsessed with selling weight loss shakes. At least, here nobody tried to sell me anything. Yet. :-)))
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A doctor who tries to sell to you anything is unethical, and you should drop him/her like a hot potato.
I don’t see how the religious question is a big deal, though. I once had a hospital receptionist ask me (when I was a patient, not when I was a physician) what my religion was. I said, “None.” She gave me a funny look, and then said, “I thought all nuns were women.” I was amused, not offended. 🙂
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What is weird is the answer, “for medical reasons.”
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“A doctor who tries to sell to you anything is unethical, and you should drop him/her like a hot potato.”
“I don’t see how the religious question is a big deal, though. ”
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Do you have an internist or family practioner who could do some of the basics for you (e.g., pap smears) so that you could limit your time with this overly intrusive ob-gyn?
I can’t bear to have doctors I don’t have any rapport with. I’ve been fortunate to have a couple of my doctors for decades, others I’very dropped like hot potatoes. But I am in a biggish city and have many choices.
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On the way into A&E many years ago, one of the staff thought I might be a goner and decided to ask …
“What’s your religion?”
“Zen Buddhist.”
“Really? You don’t look Buddhist …”
“How’s a Buddhist supposed to look?”
“Er …”
“Besides, do you have any idea how hard it is to get blood stains out of saffron-coloured robes?”
That was good for a laugh at least. 🙂
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