It is ridiculous for a doctor to refuse to run tests that the patient requests, yes.
However, there's a third option: there was some miscommunication, and the doctor didn't actually refuse, so much as recommend against. I mean, the doctor is correct - as soon as you have relations with someone who wasn't also tested, your test is unreliable. If the doctor pressed that point hard (because, really, it is important for you to get it), your friend might have heard it as an outright refusal, when that wasn't really what happened from the doctor's point of view.
This is not a slight against your friend - but most folks would be astonished by how frequently what the doctor said/meant, and what the patient remembers/reports don't really match up. And rare indeed is the person who will accept that their own eyewitness testimony isn't 100% accurate.
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momijizukamori
no subject
Date: 2012-02-10 09:41 pm (UTC)However, there's a third option: there was some miscommunication, and the doctor didn't actually refuse, so much as recommend against. I mean, the doctor is correct - as soon as you have relations with someone who wasn't also tested, your test is unreliable. If the doctor pressed that point hard (because, really, it is important for you to get it), your friend might have heard it as an outright refusal, when that wasn't really what happened from the doctor's point of view.
This is not a slight against your friend - but most folks would be astonished by how frequently what the doctor said/meant, and what the patient remembers/reports don't really match up. And rare indeed is the person who will accept that their own eyewitness testimony isn't 100% accurate.
You know, everyone's above average, and all that.