Going to the Lady Doctor in France

Things might be fairly quiet around this space for the next week or so, as we prep for moving day and attempt to get our internet sorted out. But I had a bit of a public health announcement/embarrassing lesson learned to share with you ladies, just in case you ever need to know.

When you go for your yearly exam in France, it's highly possible that your gynecologist will send your sample to be tested in a laboratory elsewhere without telling you, and you might receive a sketchy-looking bill several months later from a doctor that you've never even heard of.

My doctor performed my exam right after announcing that my baby's heart had stopped beating, so to be honest I didn't really pay much attention to what was going on. We payed the doctor and left, the test completely forgotten.

Several months later, we got a very unofficial-looking letter from some random doctor claiming he'd done tests on me and threatening to throw away the results if I didn't send him a check in the mail immediately. My husband thought it was a hoax, and I just laughed it off before chucking the letter in bin. I'm not that stupid, right?

Wrong. Apparently, I am. Because we started getting more threatening letters from this same doctor, still all very fake looking. We finally googled the guy, and it turns out he has an office not too far from our apartment, so I sent Laurent to sort things out. Turns out, that's where my gynecologist had sent my sample months ago and testing wasn't included in the fees I'd already paid her.

The secretary was really nice and agreed that if no one told you how the system worked, it made absolutely no sense. Luckily, we've paid now, and that's all taken care of now. No hard feelings. But I really wish someone had mentioned it before.



Moral of the Story: If you're living in France, make sure to ask your Gyno about that extra fee for testing during your next visit, and if you get a totally fake-looking letter from a "Doctor" that you've never heard of, make sure you Google him before assuming that you don't need to pay the fees he's demanding.