Was telling a friend today about how I saw this poster for the first time as my GP was in the process of dismissing my HG symptoms because “just because it happened once doesn’t mean it’ll happen again” (spoiler alert: it did)

when i met with the hospital team pre-conception, their directions to me were: 'if you get pregnant and starting feeling nauseous at ALL, call the GP and get an immediate referral to gynae triage, do not pass go, do not collect £200,' etc etc.

and then one night i started throwing up at 6:30 pm, took a test, proceeded to continue throwing up throughout the night, called the GP at 8am, and she said, and i quote, 'I don't know how to do a gynae referral, just come in to the surgery'

oops sorry this is turning into the HG thread i guess

so i went into the surgery and she told me that i didn't meet the clinical signs of HG yet (weight loss, starvation signs) and i was like 'yeah the whole idea is they don't want me to' and she was like 'well i'm just going to prescribe you xonvea'

xonvea is an antihistamine medication which is very good for morning sickness for many people but often not suitable for HG. also, we learned last time that antihistamine meds really do not work for me. REALLY do not work on me.

so i told her all this and then she repeated that she didn't know how to do a gynae referral and this was normal first line so i politely suggested she *ask* someone how to do the referral and apparently that was me being aggressive

and then 36 hours later i was in the hospital for dehydration! at which point the gynae registrar personally called my GP and read them the riot act, and i finally got some meds that worked for me.

but the irony of that poster up in the surgery has simply not left me.

if you have HG in your first pregnancy, there's something like a 79 (i could be off on this) percent chance that you'll get it again! particularly if you start throwing up before your period is even late. there is literally zero benefit to 'waiting to meet clinical signs'

So, yeah. Definitely get a second opinion. But also, let’s shift this off patients and onto doctors. Listen to your patients. If you don’t know or understand something, ask for a second opinion yourself. GP surgeries generally have several doctors on staff.