Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Mysterious

Yesterday, I met a nineteen year old with left sided pain. She also had a positive pregnancy test and her period was late. Not unusual in my line of work.

What was unusual, was that she said that she had never had sex. This conversation took place in front of her mother, so I don't know if that was the reason for her answer. I don't know if it was true that she was a virgin. She was extremely distressed and her mother was convinced she had a rare form of ovarian cancer.

I was torn between doubting the patient and my diagnosis - after all, the most common cause of a positive pregnancy test is, well, pregnancy.

A scan showed an intra uterine pregnancy of about 6 weeks. She left the hospital. I think she has gone to have a termination. I am worried about how she'll cope. I don't know what happened here - heavy petting perhaps?