Biologically male procedures only. EDIT: If the two people who downvoted this question could explain their reasoning, I would be super interested. No judgements. This is a safe space!
Do you snore? Get a sleep study and a CPAP - thats pricy! Need a colonoscopy? Gel shots in your knees? Any family histories that would warrant testing for cancer markers?
Just had Inspire surgery. How do you think I hit my maxes lol! What I do think I have also is arthritis.
If you’re beginning to struggle with joints, get on the PT, MRI route while it’s free.
I was curious so I looked up the inspire website… this has got to be the best accidentally hilarious medical video I have ever seen:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=BOnZjPD6n5Q
Who directed this monstrosity!?
I only made it to the 0:28 mark. That may have been the worst “acting” I have ever seen.
I’m curious, how did you find the surgery? Did it work well?
I’m still in the “ramp up” period, so I’m not getting the full effect yet. I need to get used to having my tongue muscle electrically stimulated, with increasing intensity, forcing me to stick my tongue out. It’s a very odd sensation at first. And it’s been rough going, not gonna lie. But I think with some timing adjustments it will do its thing. I have only heard good things from everyone else who has done it, so I’m honestly not concerned at this point. Also, I am a cyborg now, and I have my own remote control, so that’s freakin’ sweet!
Do you charge it with a magnetic charger like a Fitbit watch?
Nay. The battery is good for something like 15 years.
+1 for cpap. You might not like it at first but seriously try out different options. There’s different mask types. My wife’s blood pressure dropped to normal very quickly once she started using it. Mood and energy levels improved by a lot. Sleep is super important
This is the perfect opportunity to recreationally infect yourself with rare short term diseases. Try breaking your arm or nose so you have a story. Self harm has never been so cheap.
Edit: See evasive_chimpanzee’s comment here, as the following seems to be incorrect information
Seriously though get checked for prostate cancer. Especially if you’re over 25 it’s very possible and catching it early will be a massive difference.
Same for everyone reading this. I doubt it’s that expensive so please look into it and get checked if affordable where you are.
Checking for prostate cancer is super easy now and doesn’t even require a finger in your bum. It’s a simple blood test that is far more accurate than the traditional manual method. I get one done every time I have a physical since they just add it on to the other stuff they check my blood for.
-doesn’t even require a finger in your bum
Then what the heck am I paying these deductibles for?? >:(
PSA sucks, it has both low sensitivity and low specificity.
I would talk to your doctor about it for your case specifically rather than advocating broadly for prostate cancer screenings.
Huh, I’m always happy to proven wrong. thank you for bringing this up.
Is this still relevant however with blood testing becoming more prevelant? The main reasons listed are due to harms caused by probing both physical and psychological along with false positives which out-weigh the positives of a 0.128% life saving outcome. It’s been 6, nearly 7 years now and prostate testing is both more accurate and non-invasive
Either way, this body is currently in the final research plan stage of updating the recommendation.
https://www.uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/draft-update-summary/prostate-cancer-screening-adults
I’d agree we should stand by the current assessment though until it changes. Thank you for the correctionThere are primarily 2 stool tests available today, one has significant false positives, the other doesn’t.
I forget the names, or I’d send you a link. It’s been about a year since I looked it up. I know my insurance uses the more accurate one, fortunately.
I have no clue, it’s just something I’ve read about a little. It’s definitely not my area of expertise, so take this with a grain of salt.
From what I understand, prostate cancer is usually very slow, and it’s possible to have a little spot of it for years that doesn’t affect you. For some people, the right answer to finding a prostate tumor is to just monitor it, but obviously, people freak out when they have cancer, and want treatment. Cancer treatments are all no joke, so it seems that you could sacrifice a lot to treat something that would have just chilled there not hurting you.
I have no clue about the blood tests. If it’s like a “yes or no” for prostate cancer, it might have that same disadvantage. If it tells the Dr something more like type of prostate cancer or growth, it’s a different story.
Not sure if your link is the same as I’ve read, but yes, the thing with prostate cancer is that treatment doesn’t seem to change the outcome.
This is most likely because it usually doesn’t develop until mid-50’s or later, and grows so slowly that it doesn’t have time to kill you.
I think the concern would be it occurring in younger ages, or it growing faster than typical.
So test and monitor is likely a good thing, treatment shouldn’t be a given, unless there are clear signs.
I was actually told by my doctor that unless you have a history of colon or prostate cancers in the family, advisory boards are pushing testing to past 40.
Yeah, as an early 30s AMAB having to go in for annual checkups for insurance, two different doctors told me there really isn’t shit to do for someone my age
Idk. When I worked oncology all our prostate patients were very young men way before 40.
But thats anecdotal. I don’t have any numbers. But whats the worst thing that can happen when you get a prostate check? That they don’t find anything?
I mean the downsides are basically cost, another stick/blood draw, potential for false positive and further anxiety/testing. No weigh-in on whether or not any individual should at any specific time, but even less-invasive screenings are not zero risk.
Excerpt from the US Preventative Task Force about prostate cancer screening:
“An elevated PSA level may be caused by prostate cancer but can also be caused by other conditions, including an enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia) and inflammation of the prostate (prostatitis). Some men without prostate cancer may therefore have positive screening results (ie, “false-positive” results). Men with a positive PSA test result may undergo a transrectal ultrasound-guided core-needle biopsy of the prostate to diagnose prostate cancer.”
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Teeth are not covered by health insurance in the U.S. (I know. We all know)
For those not in the US: it may be covered, but normally it’s a separate insurance plan and not covered by your regular health insurance.
It also varies what type of “dental” care. Some mouth/gum surgeries may be covered by the health plan. I think most dental plans cover checkups. All this varies wildly with your employer and insurance election, though.
Was just going to point this out too. It’s so stupid.
I’ve also done the math on dental insurance vs out of pocket and a few times, out of pocket was significantly cheaper than the service + insurance.
I’ve done the same math recently and decided it would be cheaper just to pay myself and keep a bit of savings around for anything extra. I could not find a plan that would pay out more than $2k in a year, and that’s not even a month of rent some places.
It was a very sad day when I learned that my dental insurance is a reverse deductible. Like you said, they only pay out $2k a year then it’s all out of pocket. Actually so stupid.
With your plan I would suggest putting your savings into an HSA or FSA, if you have either of those available to you. At least then it’s tax free.
Clearly it’s not a medical thing. I’d love to find out when that racket started, and who got rich from it.
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Do every test available for prevention and prophylaxis.
Get your general practitioner to do a full health check, ECG, EEG, cardiac ultrasound, a full blood panel, bloodpressure, pulmonary function, skin cancer prevention ect.
Schedule a gastroscopy and colonoscopy.
Check in with an urologist to get your prostate and urinary tract checked.
If you can, get a full body scan. Either PET or MRI.Nearly every serious disease or health issue is easier prevented or treated when caught before it casues real issues.
Every cancer there is, has a better outcome and is easier treated when found early. Most of them are silent until very late in the game.This is something I would recommend to anyone: Take advantage of every preventative messure or examination that is available to you!
There is no illness that you can detect too early.Until the insurance decides they’re not covering it for some reason and OP is stuck with the bill.
Omfg, don’t get a PET-scan ‘just because’. You would literally have to be injected with radioactive particles. The other stuff, while not necessary, will atleast not kill you faster.
Last paragraph is also massively oversimplified. Getting a ‘you have cancer’-speech and treatment for a superslow growing prostatecancer will fuck with your mind and body more than the cancer itself. That’s why most health care systems advise against general PSA screening.
Just to provide some data on the radiation dose. It’s everyone’s own decision whether a ‘willy-nilly’ PET scan is worth it.
From the English Wikipedia:
FDG, which is now the standard radiotracer used for PET neuroimaging and cancer patient management, has an effective radiation dose of 14 mSv.
The amount of radiation in FDG is similar to the effective dose of spending one year in the American city of Denver, Colorado (12.4 mSv/year). […T]he whole body occupational dose limit for nuclear energy workers in the US is 50 mSv/year.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positron_emission_tomography#Safety
From the German Wikipedia:
Es ist bei einer Strahlendosis von 1 Sievert (Sv), der 100 Menschen ausgesetzt sind, mit 5 Todesfällen durch Strahlenkrebs zu rechnen […]. Man müsste also 100.000 PET-Untersuchungen durchführen, um 35 Todesfälle an Strahlenkrebs (nach einer mittleren Latenzzeit von etwa 15 Jahren für Leukämie und etwa 40 Jahren für solide Tumoren) zu verursachen, das heißt etwa eine auf 3000 Untersuchungen
If 100 people received a radiation dose of 1 Sievert (Sv), one would expect 5 deaths due to radiation-induced cancer […]. One would need 100,000 PET scans in order to cause 35 cancer deaths (after a median wait duration of 15 years for leucemia and 40 years for solid tumors), which is about 1 in 3000 scans.
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positronen-Emissions-Tomographie#Strahlenexposition
I mean 1 in 3000 isn’t a lot, but it’s a lot more than nothing…
The kicker is that I just moved here and don’t have a PCP (primary care physician) yet. AND my company is switching health plans next year, so I basically need to find someone who takes BOTH health plans.
Guess I’ll die
Vasectomy if you don’t plan on having kids. Also consider mental healthcare. Everybody could use a little bit now and then.
Yes! Mental healthcare!!
OP editing their post cuz they got put off by 2 whole downvotes is a sign that, yes, it’s time to consider mental health
Vasectomy is probably free anyway.
Or crazy cheap (like copay), since it prevents lots of expenses for the insurance company.
May not be the same in all cases, but with my insurance mental healthcare is its own separate thing through a completely different company, much like dental and vision usually is. So if OP is in the same situation it’s a different bucket and would have its own costs not associated with the medical deductible being met.
I say blow your free healthcare on something frivolous and fun.
See if they’ll swap your left kidney with your right one.
Frivolous? Yes. Fun? 😬😬😬
The surgeon deserves a little fun too
A surgeon can have a little fun as a treat.
Snip snip
I don’t think you need health insurance to play Gwen
Not Gwen specifically, but I’d recommend seeking mental health resources to anyone who has been exposed to League of Legends.
snibbedy snip, put in more than the tip
To your “edit” point: Don’t take a handful of downvotes personally; it’s pretty easy to do accidentally on mobile so they may have been unintentional
To add to that downvotes have no serious negative effect on this platform
In reddit as soon as a few people downloaded you, you disappeared
Here people can brigade you and unless you’re reading top, who cares, your stuff still gets seen.
Oh I know. I am genuinely curious what anyone found so objectionable. They are welcome to their opinion, I’m just very eager to know what it is.
They skimmed your post, read the words “biologically”, “male” and “only” in that order, and it triggered their this-sounds-transphobic reflex.
Don’t worry about it.I mean I won’t say it didn’t, but I didn’t downvote for it because I still have more than one braincell
Some people also use downvotes as way to say they dislike something. Unlikely, but some people might be down voting to indicate they don’t like the insurance industry.
I downvote anyone that whines about or asks why they’re getting downvotes. Otherwise I don’t up/downvote anything at all (except that guy that is posting triangles for upvotes)
Seriously, who cares?
If you’re on any expensive meds, now’d be a good time to get them refilled. …and ‘my backpack got stolen!’ them and get them refilled again if that’s covered.
If you’ve got anything you think needs to be addressed with any urgency at all, skip the normal process and go to the ER to complain about your symptoms, especially if you’ve got ANY pain in your abdomen or tenderness in your lower back (which could mean kidney stones).
Infact, even if you don’t have pain, go in and tell them you feel nauseous after eating anything greasy or fatty, and you’ll get a free ultrasound of your gallbladder to see if there’s any stones in there. …don’t actually accept surgery to remove it unless there are stones that look like they’re for sure going to be problematic, cuz you WILL have symptoms once it’s gone (eating will make you feel like shit… your body should adjust eventually, but that’s not a guarantee, and it can take anywhere from a few months to years).
So, if they offer a scan or any diagnostic, do it. If they offer surgery, have a long think about whether it’s actually worth doing.
The ER idea is brilliant, especially because I just moved here and don’t have a PCP yet. Even better, I can hit up urgent care every day!
Yeah your biggest obstacle right now is going to be “our next available appointment is in 4 months”, so ER is the way passed that. It’s not super ethical, but neither is the way our healthcare system operates, so do what you gotta do.
When it comes to the American insurance industry, I think I am fresh out of “ethics.”
Not only refill your meds, but there are places where you can get 90 day prescriptions filled, so you can go into the new year with several months of pills already ready.
I’d double- and triple-check the small print.
They’ll find a way to still charge you.Do you have any persistent pain or discomfort when doing things? Get that checked out.
Another +1 for colonoscopy.
Also if there’s a family history of anything nasty, see if there’s a test for it my maybe? (E.g. heart attacks, get blood work done for cholesterol).
Get a full physical including blood work.
Fun fact: for people over 45, colonoscopy screening for cancer is always free. If your insurance tries to make you pay for it, report them to your state insurance commissioner or the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight. ACA made a lot of preventative medicine & screenings free.
in my experience the first one was free. the followup a few months later wasn’t.
Yeah, it’s the screening that’s free. If that turns something up, then it transitions to “care.”
I’ve had the same experience with “wellness” check-ups: if I mention some complaint to the doc during the visit, it suddenly becomes “visit with complaint” and costs me $120.
This is great, except in my case, where I have regional insurance that no one takes where I live. Everyone is out of network.
Idk? Boob job? Dental work? Extra set of arms? I wouldn’t know
It’s the US, so dental isn’t included
Oh then get a quadruple bypass since you’re in America
Op asked for help, not to be murdered.
Of then they should probably get the fuck out of America. This place will kill you fast
I have hope, as long as we have Captain Lezbian to protect us
Kinda feels like moving out of America ought to be covered by my health insurance, really
Wait, what? You guys are paying all that for insurance and it doesn’t always include dental? Like the main reason I wanted to be on health insurance here in Canada was for dental and prescriptions. I’ve been on some of the crappiest insurance plans here and they all include dental.
Teeth are luxury bones.
Health, vision, and dental are all separate in the US.
It never counts dental😢. Dental industry is fighting like hell to stay separate. Our dentists want bigger cuts which is why they only cover 50%
Dental and vision are never included in US health insurance and operate on a totally different confusing insurance framework. They’re only available through separate plans and have their own deductables and terms. But unlike health insurance the premiums are generally orders of magnitude lower for both vision and dental.
The problem I’ve had is that the maximum benefit is typically in the range of $2k-$3k/yr for dental which is quickly hit if you have any oral surgery needs. Unlike with healthcare I don’t feel ripped off when paying for dental/vision since the few hundred dollars per year covers preventative care visits too.
Man I live in a country with socialized healthcare and we don’t get dental either. Or vision.
There are private insurance providers who offer both. But they ONLY offer services to employers and I’ve never had a company offer such a benefit. Because you don’t need luxury bones to work and any employer who makes you work with a screen is already forced to cover up to some sum every year or every few years (I don’t remember) spent on glasses. And there’s little point in all the other coverage because it’s already free.
I’m this close to starting my own company so I could offer myself dental…
My health insurance denied covering my vasectomy so i put it off. Later that year i was in an accident and hit my max out of pocket pretty quick. I called up my doctor and had them resubmit the preauthorization. got it covered at 100%
I’m still pretty pissed that sterilization for women is covered at 100% under my plan but not for men. (It should be both 100% imo)
Similar boat. Getting my snoring looked into. Got a sleep study done and now I’m having an ent do a scoping to see what’s actually vibrating and what can be done.
This is a major one!
Sleeping is a third of your day. There’s a lot of health issues that result from bad sleep/snoring. and the worse is that you’ll never even know it.
My wife had a sleep specialist provide helpful strategies after her pregnancy and her back pain stopped.
I tried Cpap and just could not tolerate it. I just got the Inspire surgery last month, which I think is the only other viable option in existence right now.
Mandibular advancement splint is another option.
Talk to your primary doctor if they can get you a referral for an MRI. Insurance loves to try and deny MRIs, so I think a referral is probably required due to how expensive they are. IMO, they should be included in annual physicals since it’s one of the only (if not the only) ways to detect brain tumors early, which is critical given how difficult it is to treat brain tumors and the earlier the better.
Medical authorities usually don’t advocate for getting imagery like that as a screening tool without any relevant risk factors or symptoms. Everyone has stuff that is unique and weird about their bodies but completely benign, and chances are, it turns up in an MRI or CT. This can end up leading to unnecessary invasive procedures to remove or biopsy something. The odds (in the literal sense) are that not-called for screening leads to either worse outcomes or the same outcomes as people who didn’t get the screenings.
I didn’t look up a source for MRI specifically, cause that’s pretty broad, but here’s a report that does a good job explaining it for prostate cancer screenings. The logic is the same.
I mean, sure, but if it detects something and there’s no reason to suspect it’s necessarily cancerous, then I’d hope doctors would recommend just keeping an eye on it and possibly scheduling periodic checkups to ensure it doesn’t continue growing. No competent doctor is going to recommend invasive surgery right off the bat.
