# What's the worst medical advice you've ever heard? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 9, 2016, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043 "2016-10-09T10:51:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![mistymage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mistymage/32/459_2.png) [@mistymage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mistymage)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/81 "2016-10-13T16:22:10Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > You do know that men can get breast cancer, and might very well be required to have a mammogram done? And women can get prostate cancer, too. (NSFW drawings) [https://www.allthingsvagina.com/skenes-gland-cancer/](https://www.allthingsvagina.com/skenes-gland-cancer/) ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/82 "2016-10-13T18:32:17Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Except for all the people who don’t refuse to see doctors and get travel immunizations. The shot is nearly 100% effective, you wouldn’t have had Hep-A to begin with. Many countries require certain vaccinations in order to travel there. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/83 "2016-10-13T18:38:16Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > You do know that men can get breast cancer, and might very well be required to have a mammogram done? Unless he’s morbidly obese or has severe gynecomastia, a man is not going to have enough breast tissue to do a mammogram. Men with breast lumps usually have ultrasounds. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2016, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/84 "2016-10-13T18:39:48Z")
> [@mistymage](#): > > And women can get prostate cancer, too. (NSFW drawings) [https://www.allthingsvagina.com/skenes-gland-cancer/](https://www.allthingsvagina.com/skenes-gland-cancer/) M-to-F transgendered people can, too. The prostate is not removed when people have “bottom” surgery, to preserve urinary continence. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/85 "2016-10-14T02:52:48Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > “Get your prostate checked” > “Get a mammogram” > [@chappachula](#): > > ummm…you’ve been given medical advice to do _both_ of these? People born with prostates can also have breast cancer - all humans have breasts and nipples, it’s just that some are more developed and some are less so. > [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Unless he’s morbidly obese or has severe gynecomastia, a man is not going to have enough breast tissue to do a mammogram. Men with breast lumps usually have ultrasounds. Are you sure about that? Because the center where I get my yearly mammogram done has a dressing room area for men, and the techs have mentioned giving mammograms to male patients. ---
**Author:** ![Zyada](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zyada/32/3028_2.png) [@Zyada](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zyada)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/86 "2016-10-14T16:52:41Z")
On a sillier note… I have a blue dot on my forehead from when my brother and I were goofing around and I ended up with a pencil stuck lead first there. This never bothered me, but it bothered my mom. So one day she pipes up with “I’ve heard that if you rub the spot with salt until it bleeds, that will get rid of the mark!” Um, Mom? Have you ever heard the phrase “rub salt in the wound”? :rolleyes: Mom’s a smart woman… most of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctor_jackson/32/32_2.png) [@Doctor\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/87 "2016-10-14T17:42:54Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Are you sure about that? Because the center where I get my yearly mammogram done has a dressing room area for men, and the techs have mentioned giving mammograms to male patients. Men, because of the lack of breast tissue, usually get mammomilligrams. You can trust me, I play a doctor on the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Dogzilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@Dogzilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogzilla)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/88 "2016-10-14T19:18:49Z")
> [@Surreal](#): > > Per the data I linked to above, for every one of you that was saved from dying from breast cancer there are about 100 false positives, many of whom will experience invasive biopsies, and about five more that will have an unnecessary partial or full mastectomy. > > And those statistics are based on women over the age of 50. The percentage of women harmed is even higher in younger cohorts. I was one of those. It wasn’t so much a “false positive” situation as it was the biopsies were inconclusive so the docs kept jacking up the intensity until I found myself having a surgical biopsy. Which came back from pathology as benign. So there was a tiny speck of something in my boob and they lopped it out with a melon-baller. Six months later, I’m at the surgeon’s for a follow up appointment and he starts talking to me about tamoxifen. Mind you, at that point I had not been diagnosed with breast cancer. Tamoxifen is a drug used to treat breast cancer. I am unclear on how it works, but I am clear that it’s highly toxic. I went home from that appointment and started digging into the research. The next time I was at that same doctor’s office for another followup (every six months for five years for NOT having breast cancer :dubious:), he mentioned tamoxifen again. I asked him to clarify why he wanted to start me on a cancer drug when we have clearly established that I do not, and have never had cancer. He mentioned some prophylactic properties and said my chances of having breast cancer could go down. By how much? I wanted to know. He mumbled something about maybe 10% reduction in breast cancer risk. So then I asked him about all the side effects I’d read about, which included: endometrial cancer, uterine cancer, cervical cancer, and about ten other cancers, none of which were breasts. He confirmed that yes, there was a pretty high incidence of these side effects and it was something to weigh out. “So wait a minute. Let me make sure I’ve got this straight. You want me to take a cancer drug, even though I don’t have cancer, knowing fully well that the side effects of this drug include giving me cancer? Is that it?” He nodded. “That’s the dumbest goddamn thing I’ve ever heard. Why would I take a drug that might give me cancer on the very low off-chance that it will prevent cancer somewhere else? I wouldn’t even take that shit if I were already in end-stage breast cancer. Why would anyone double down on the cancer?” I walked out scratching my head. Maybe the tamoxifen people were giving him kickbacks? I don’t know; he was a surgeon, not an oncologist. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/89 "2016-10-14T19:28:42Z")
I was on Tamoxifen post surgery. My gyno explained that while it was good for keeping cancer out of the girls, it wasn’t so good at keeping cancer out of the uterus. After a couple of years of thick endometrial lining and ovarian cysts, my gyno convinced me to have the whole works yanked, which I did back in April. I’m now on letrozole, which apparently has a tendency to reduce bone density. Next time I see my chemo doctor I’m going to ask for a bone scan. I exercise regularly, including strength training, and I take vitamin D, but let’s keep an eye on things. I don’t need a broken hip. It does seem odd that your surgeon would prescribe Tamoxifen when you didn’t have cancer. My chemo onco was the one who prescribed my meds, not the surgeon. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2016, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/90 "2016-10-14T19:32:40Z")
My hands were so dry and broke out that the skin on my fingertips was staring to split. The doctor told me to keep my hands well moisturized with hand lotion. I did that and then the skin on my hands began to get big fissure that were so dry my hands would bleed if I picked up anything. Bathing was torture. Turns out that I am severely allergic to a key ingredient in hand lotion. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/91 "2016-10-15T01:00:56Z")
> [@Zyada](#): > > On a sillier note… > > I have a blue dot on my forehead from when my brother and I were goofing around and I ended up with a pencil stuck lead first there. This never bothered me, but it bothered my mom. > > So one day she pipes up with “I’ve heard that if you rub the spot with salt until it bleeds, that will get rid of the mark!” > > Um, Mom? Have you ever heard the phrase “rub salt in the wound”? :rolleyes: > > Mom’s a smart woman… most of the time. I would guess it was just being used as an abrasive. You gave yourself a tattoo (I assume you figured that part out), back when I was in high school people would give themselves stick and poke tattoos with needles and India ink. Many of these people were doing this for no reason other than because they were ‘followers’. Couple that with not being at all artistic and suddenly you have a really bad homemade tattoo. The way to get rid of it…take a pumice stone to it and, basically, rub your skin off until it’s gone. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/92 "2016-10-15T15:04:17Z")
I had one (so-called) therapist tell me in exasperation “I don’t understand why you can’t be happy getting disability payments!” A trained therapist doesn’t understand the basic human need to have something to do to contribute to the world and feel you’ve accomplished something to feel better about yourself? I quit seeing him after that. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/93 "2016-10-15T16:29:06Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I had one (so-called) therapist tell me in exasperation “I don’t understand why you can’t be happy getting disability payments!” > > A trained therapist doesn’t understand the basic human need to have something to do to contribute to the world and feel you’ve accomplished something to feel better about yourself? > > I quit seeing him after that. I had a therapist who proposed billing my insurance company for two visits a week when I would only see him once a week. ---
**Author:** ![Skara\_Brae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Skara\_Brae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skara_Brae)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2016, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/94 "2016-10-15T18:02:20Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I had a therapist who proposed billing my insurance company for two visits a week when I would only see him once a week. 😕 And what were _ **you** _ supposed to get out of that arrangement? ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/95 "2016-10-16T05:55:38Z")
Some years ago I wanted to work out and started walking/jogging with my toddler (who weighed 35 lbs) in a jogging stroller. After a month my back was killing me, so I went to an orthopedist highly recommended by a relative. I asked if the jogging stroller could be the problem and he said no. He took x-rays, said that there could be compression in a disc and that I should have surgery if the pain got worse. Instead I just gave the jogging stroller a rest, and, guess what, the pain went away. Another story: I’ve been giving blood for 30 years, once or twice a year, with no ill effects, but recently, the last couple of times I’ve given, I’ve felt really exhausted for at least a day after giving. I don’t know what it is; my iron count is fine. Anyway, I was talking to a friend about feeling wiped out and she said “they could be taking too much blood from you! next time you give, tell them to take just a little.” Obviously someone who has never given blood. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2016, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/96 "2016-10-16T20:44:02Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I had a therapist who proposed billing my insurance company for two visits a week when I would only see him once a week. Insurance fraud is grounds for license revocation! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![YoudNeverGuess](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a587f6/32.png) [@YoudNeverGuess](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YoudNeverGuess)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/97 "2016-10-17T12:32:47Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > A while back, I read about how poorly presented sex education transmitted completely wrong ideas about sexuality and reproduction. The most hair-raising\* was the answer of a girl to “How does the rhythm method work?” - “Count forward fifteen days from the start of your period and you’re safe to have sex until your next period.” > > - Her answer, of course, makes it _heir_-raising. Yep, I was going to say this. That women have a 28-day cycle and ovulate on day 14. Even those women who do have regular cycles will not all have cycles of the same length or luteal phases of the same length. Misinformation about menstrual cycles is widespread and leads to unwanted pregnancies, preemptive, and possibly even unnecessary, invasive and costly fertility treatment or, in my case, simply taking longer to conceive than I would have if I’d been charting temperatures when we started trying instead of making erroneous assumptions based on flawed received wisdom! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2016, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043/98 "2016-10-17T14:00:32Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Insurance fraud is grounds for license revocation! :smack: Or prison. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-worst-medical-advice-youve-ever-heard/768043.md?page=4)