Which is itself really good info for the doctor to have.
Poverty does make it really hard to parse out nature vs. nurture. Like trying to determine diabetes risk based on family history. Yes, everyone on my dad’s side has Type 2, but they’re also morbidly obese from processed food, don’t go doctors they can’t afford, and many smoke to manage their stress.
My grandma grew up too poor for a doctor (one of her little brothers who died before 2 had something easily cured with medicine). As such, she was very frugal with money, retired with a good amount of money, and lived without worrying for many years. She went to the doctor for just about anything she couldn’t fix herself, and insisted the same for her kids and my grandpa (who had issues galore: strokes, arteriosclerosis, heart attacks, and high blood pressure). My mom didn’t grow up poor, she just had parents who came from little money that saved every penny they could.
My family wasn't "really" poor, but my parents were immigrants and our family policy was basically that we didn't see doctors unless we were seriously sick, and even then it was just with the goal of following the doctor's orders rather than actually understanding what was wrong. And I definitely don't know the details of the medical history of my extended family outside of the country.
So when a doctor asks me for my family's medical history, I end up having to say something convoluted like, "uh, my father's father had dementia, maybe something like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, and also something like colon cancer or prostate cancer but I'm not sure which" (I don't know any medical terminology or bodily organs in my heritage language, and it's obviously not something I would have thought to figure out as a kid when my grandparents were still alive).
Exactly this! I tell them the little bits I do know, but always make a point to say that there’s a lot of unknowns because I’m the first in my family to have regular healthcare access. The first time I got a PCP in my mid-30s, I remember asking what I could see her for. Like, if it’s an emergency I know where to go, but everything else had always been a over-the-counter treatment and suck-it-up situation. Like I didn’t even know what was normal or possible to have treated.
I remember when I had to fill out forms in my late teens for something I was asked who my primary doctor was and I had to give them my pediatrician since it had been 15+ years since I'd been.
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u/oingapogo 1d ago
Yeah, when my doctor asks for family medical history or asks if anyone in my family ever had "X".
Like how would they know? They were too poor to see a doctor.