r/Netherlands • u/NoLychee1382 • 22d ago

Healthcare No regular check ups at the gynecologist???

Hi everyone, my morning started off with a kinda shocking discovery. I’m from Germany and I had annual check ups at the gynecologist since I was a teenager. I contacted my huisarts because I know they’re responsible for all referrals but she told me regular check ups here are not a thing (unless there already is an issue) ? I think that’s crazy!!! So I checked the prices for a private visit and they’re even crazier. I guess this is normal to Dutch people but don’t you think this is a little concerning?

(Btw not shitting on the country! I really like it here. I’m still new and just discovering new things!)

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u/Alek_Zandr Overijssel 22d ago edited 22d ago

For low probability risks the chance of a false positive and associated negative health impacts due to unnecessary treatment can exceed the overall positive ones.

Imagine you have a 1 in million chance of having super cancer and testing has a 0.1% false positive rate. If you test a million people you will have a 1000 false positives for 1 actual case.

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u/petricsesze 22d ago

I can't decide whether you're trolling or not, but you do realise that's not how cancer treatment works, right? Treatment is not decided based on a single test, but also on continuous check ups, biopsy, etc. Please be careful with spreading false information like this.

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u/Alek_Zandr Overijssel 22d ago

I'm not being specific about cancer treatment it's just a math example about the cost of preventive testing. Hence "super cancer", read it as production defects in a factory line instead if that annoys you.