4#
THE LIE: "I'm monogamous."
Cheryl, 48, went to see her gyno for what she thought was a yeast infection — and was shocked to learn she actually had trichomoniasis, an STD. She didn't want to admit she was juggling four guys, so when the doctor asked how many partners she had, "I said one, of course," recalls the accountant from Knoxville, TN. The doctor gave Cheryl enough medication for her and her partner. But Cheryl kept seeing the other guys too. "I went back for my checkup, and my gyno says, 'You still have this. You haven't told me the whole truth, have you?' I said, 'Yes, I have.' She didn't want to call me a liar, but she said, 'You have to treat everyone you're seeing, or quit seeing the ones you don't want and treat the one you do. Otherwise, you'll never get rid of this.'" Cheryl dumped the other guys and continued treatment with her main man. "But afterward, I changed doctors," she admits. "I couldn't face her anymore."
WHY YOU SHOULD COME CLEAN:
Your doctor doesn't ask about your sex life to judge your morals. What does concern her is that sleeping with more than one person may increase your risk for STDs. Delayed STD treatment can mean a more entrenched pelvic infection, fertility problems — even cervical cancer. "If your gyno knows you have several partners, she may recommend you have an annual Pap test and get screened more frequently for STDs," says Dimino.
5#
THE LIE: "I watch what I eat and exercise."
"I have patients who swear they're exercising and sticking to the calorie count," says Bonnie Davis, an advanced registered nurse practitioner in Largo, FL, who helps administer a weight-management program. "Yet they've put on 5 pounds while taking an appetite suppressant three times a day. That's impossible."
Meredith, 26, sticks with the purposely vague "sometimes" when asked how often she exercises. "I wouldn't feel right saying 'regularly,'" says the writer from Forest Hills, NY. "But when I say, 'Sometimes,' I consider that I walk to the subway every day, and if I'm not wearing heels, I walk fairly briskly." In other words, she's not lying outright — just bending the truth enough to spare herself the inevitable lecture. "I know that losing 10 pounds could lower my risk for heart disease and diabetes, and diabetes does run in my family," Meredith says. "But I don't want to hear it. I'd rather doctors think that I take it seriously than give them the opportunity to tell me what I already know but still am not paying attention to."
WHY YOU SHOULD COME CLEAN:
If your blood pressure and cholesterol are high or you're borderline diabetic — all factors that can boost your risk for cardiovascular disease — diet and exercise can help, which is why your doctor asks about them. But if you're not really making either lifestyle change and your numbers don't get lower, your doc may put you through a battery of pricey medical tests and/or prescribe a range of medications to lower them for you. And while taking a pill may sound easier than counting calories and hitting the gym, it actually "opens up a Pandora's box of inconvenience," says Nora Tossounian, M.D., an internist at the Women's Health Center at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. Start with the nuisance of remembering to take medication once or twice a day; add to that the high cost of those meds. Then there are the side effects: muscle aches on statins; bloating, cramping, and diarrhea on diabetes medications; a plunging sex drive with certain blood pressure drugs. The truth hurts less.
6#
THE LIE: "I don't smoke"
When Pamela Douglas, M.D., a cardiologist at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, asks women if they smoke, she often hears a little moment of hesitation before they say no. "They believe you need to smoke two packs a day to be at risk," she explains. "They say they don't smoke them all the way down or they're not really inhaling. If they've only been smoking a year or two or they don't smoke every day, they think they're not really smokers."
WHY YOU SHOULD COME CLEAN:
Reality check: If you light up, even if it's only one on the weekends, even if you just bum a drag from your friend, you smoke. Beyond an increased risk for sinus and upper respiratory infections, emphysema, cardiovascular disease, and, yes, lung cancer, lighting up — even occasionally — raises your risk for blood clots and stroke if you're also using hormone-based contraceptives (pills, patches, rings). "If there's a pause when I ask them if they smoke and they say, 'No' or 'Maybe once a month,' I'm hesitant to give that woman a prescription for the Pill" to help clear up her skin, says David Bank, M.D., medical director of the Center for Dermatology, Cosmetic and Laser Surgery in Mount Kisco, NY. Tell the truth so you and your doc can figure out a safe option together.
to be continued..
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