hey if you can afford the cost, there's literally no downside. Maybe you catch something before it becomes a big life threatening thing. do it.
this post was submitted on 25 Jul 2026
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The real question is: do you have to pay for it?
Yes but my insurance sucks and I somehow managed to meet my very high deductible this year. I can't see that happening again in the near future. So it's probably the cheapest I'd ever get an MRI lol...that part is part of the reason I'm considering doing it.
Insurance says it was approved so I would pay 20%. Normally when I haven't met my deductible (most years), I would be paying 100%. I am comfortable financially to pay for something at 20%.
100%. As someone said they are not in themselves dangerous and the only danger is taking something from it and doing something unnecessary. Don't do that. If something is not imminently dangerous then wait and see. Unless you live in a country where you might have healthcare now but not later of course.
You do NOT want an unnecessary scan. There is a common misconception that knowledge in this arena is good. While the scan itself is not dangerous, what you would be required to do with the information is. Almost everyone has some abnormalities, we call them "incidentalomas". Knowing about them will cause unneeded biopsies and months to years of worry that "you have cancer" or " something is not right". There is a reason that there are strict screening recommendations in medicine. Unless a disease has a long preclinical (pre-symptom) phase with a clear improvement in outcomes from early treatment ( no lead time bias) then screening ( testing without symptoms to make sure nothing is there) is openly harmful and should not be done.
might cause you stress, or might lead you to finding something before it ends up threatening your life? There's a whole lot of stress-inducing shit going around right now. Saying stress is potentially dangerous is true, but shouldn't be used as an excuse not to get imaging done.
Haha yes I work in healthcare and we used the world "incidentaloma" when I was in school lolol.
Sometimes things diagnosed incidentally do save people's lives though. I had an uncle diagnosed with renal cancer indicidentally when they were imaging him for some other reason. He had the kidney removed and has been cancer free forever now...might have been more than a decade ago. In many cases, a random scan can save someone's life.
But the other hand causes things you describe, unnecessary stress and intervention for otherwise benign but odd things that people see. It's one of the big reasons why you don't generally just get an MRI just to get one.
I've been fighting back and forth with what to do in my mind here.
A long as I'm not paying and I am statistically likely to survive more than one afternoon longer if I decide to bother showing up.
Yeah, I'd like to know if my uterus is actually trying to kill me of if it's all in my head like every doctor who refuses to let me finish a sentence before they start talking over me, tells me.
Endometriosis?? I've heard that sucks major ass. I actually work at a hospital where patients get a bunch of tissue from their abdomen/pelvis removed when it is involved by endometriosis. I always wondered if that helped these patients much or not.
Endometriosis can be really fucking crazy too. I've very rarely seen it do wild as fuck things like explode an appendix or even cause a bowel obstruction!!!!
I'm less worried about that and more PCOS. But I've been trying to treat myself as if I have it, like eating better and that kind of thing. I actually have a new doctor who actually let's me talk about things for the first time in my life (I'm nearly 40) so we're going to discuss that and peri menopause next month.
Not sure if you’ve heard, but the medical world is slowly trying to transition to calling it PMOS now. Polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome. Basically, research has concluded that the ovarian cysts are a symptom of much larger metabolic and insulin resistance issues. So they’re trying to move towards referring to it as an endocrine and metabolic issue, instead of an ovarian cyst issue.
The fact that many doctors don’t tend to take women’s issues seriously is a factor in the name change. Language shapes how we view the world, and referring to it specifically as an issue with ovarian cysts has lots of doctors automatically dismissing it as whiny women complaining about their periods. But calling it an endocrine and metabolic issue is more accurate and may encourage some doctors to actually take the symptoms more seriously.
I've heard it's been talked about but I didn't know it was official! Thanks.
Ah gotcha! There are actually a lot easier ways to find out if PCOS is on the table. Blood hormone tests and ultrasounds can help and are super easy for an office to do! Hope your doctor actually wants to help you out and investigate these things.
My fingers are crossed with her. Our initial conversation went well!
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I did and it ended up saving my life
Your mileage may vary.
What happened of you don't mind me asking?
They found a tumor, stage 1 cancer.
Luckily it was trivial to remove at that stage.
Damn! Very glad to know you're still with us! Was it suspected or totally unrelated to why you got the imaging?
I had a family history, but nothing where a doctor definitely said I needed to get one.
That said, when you get an MRI, you'll get a full report including anything that they see that they don't think is a problem. There other items that they found with the MRI that they identified weren't an issue, but they did note one mass that was later identified as cancerous.
If it was for your spine I'd say no. There's enough evidence against imagining a spine unless you've got serious enough concerns about red flags. Rationale being people are very emotive about their spine.. so even if theyre pain free seeing things like "bulge" "protrusion" "stenosis" is something that people will hold onto for ever.
I can't speak for the pelvic side of things. I also can't speak for your health anxieties. Maybe have a chat with the GP and tell them you only want to hear about the report if there's anything that needs action?
The more you look, the more you’ll find. Those pictures may give you answers you didn’t want to hear.
Sometimes the answers you don't want to hear are the ones you need to hear.
It depends. Many people have something odd going on here and there, but most of it doesn't really require medical intervention. Some of those things actually go away sooner or later anyway, so an intervention can do more harm than good. Chances are, it's just going to freak you out for nothing, and cost you money.
The thing is, you never know. There's always a chance that something truly horrifying is brewing inside you, and ignoring it is going to cost you your life, or worse. What if you're one of the lucky few who need to get something fixed before it becomes a serious issue? Who knows.
The way I see it, the expected value of this equation is pretty harmless. If you feel completely normal, it's probably nothing.
If I'm still on state insurance? Sure sign me up. I'm good with going into the machine. Without insurance? You paying? Okay? Me paying? Guess I'm dying.
are you me?
Extremely unlikely. I already have one clone, I don't think I have others!
I mean... Sure? It doesn't cost me anything to do it, so might as well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ maybe they'll find something
Yep. I've done it once but I had to convince the Dr I was worried about stomach cancer and told him I had cases in my family. Results came clean. Unfortunately I did had a stomach cancer case in my family a couple years later...so..
Gastric cancer is terrifying. With a family history, I hope you are able to continue to be monitored. Luckily there are other ways to monitor it beyond imaging. Like how colonoscopies are regular screenings for colon cancer, they can scope your stomach as a way to screen for gastric cancer.
I have a family history of esophageal cancer which is a bit scary to think about! I'll have to remember to get it monitored as I age. One of my uncles died of it and I'm not sure if the other will end up dying from his.
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A second opinion is an option. And a better one than a bunch randos on the internet who don't know anything but that you're questioning your doctor's recommendation.
I'll copy a reply I said to someone else.
"Well it's funny because they are the second opinion I was referred to. Had an odd result to something so I wanted to make sure it was fine. The second opinion also said it was fine which made me relieved, but then they asked if I wanted an MRI. At first I was like well ok sure I met my deductible but now I'm like wtf am I even thinking."
I would go with the second part of your message here and skip it UNLESS you are having symptoms and think there is really something the scans missed.
I actually had an incidental scan, was getting a "Coronary Artery Scan" because I've had always high cholesterol - it came back perfect, no buildup but they found benign little masses in my liver - doctor says absolutely normal and I understand why they would look (free knowledge for me) but I think I would be a little better off not knowing that.
I would trust my doctor for advice. I've been in that tube a few times-my body can't lie still for that long and then they get mad because I moved meaning the machine alignment gets of and they need me in longer while they recalibrate. Thus if not needed I wouldn't - but if needed, well I'm still walking today because of what it found.
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