Pregnant man rage, cancer man chill

November 9, 2012 5:34 AM

Human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) is a hormone produced during pregnancy and a marker in many pregnancy tests. After one man tested himself for pregnancy "for shits and giggles", his friend posted the surprising result in Rage Face form on Reddit... only to find out that elevated hCG levels in men are actually not lulzy (Reddit thread), resulting in an emergency visit to the doctor and a more thoughtful follow-up Rage Face comic.
posted by elgilito (21 comments total)

Looks like it isn't so funny after all...
posted by goatse at 5:48 AM on November 9, 2012

That is amazing.
posted by unSane at 5:51 AM on November 9, 2012 [3 favorites]

I think we still have an old stick around here somewhere.

I feel a test coming on.
posted by middleclasstool at 5:54 AM on November 9, 2012 [2 favorites]

Jeesh, should I be making a stop at Walgreens on the way home from work?
posted by scottatdrake at 5:58 AM on November 9, 2012

The most surprising thing about this is the rage comic was a true story.
posted by Ad hominem at 6:06 AM on November 9, 2012 [4 favorites]

I thought this bit in the thread was interesting:

EDIT: I've tried being nice about this, but can all the reporters BACK THE FUCK OFF? I'm trying my best to be there for my friend and keep him out of the blues, but it's difficult with DOZENS OF GODDAMN REPORTERS demanding we talk about it.

Seriously? Dozens of reporters are actually reading reddit for me so I don't have to?

I thought that was what Metafilter was for...
posted by Sourisnoire at 6:07 AM on November 9, 2012 [5 favorites]

I know he did it for laughs at first, but surely he must have wondered why it would turn out positive? He didn't want to look up how pregnancy tests work?

BTW you can get a bundle of the hCG tests (in strip form w/o the plastic cover) really cheap online.
posted by discopolo at 6:08 AM on November 9, 2012

The dollar store sells these pee-on-a-stick tests, and they also sell a menopause test for a buck. WTF?
posted by Old'n'Busted at 6:16 AM on November 9, 2012

*Le Me using Le Cancer Test*
(Not bad face) - Not preggers!
(Troll face) - Problem, cancer?
(Scrotum with burberry cap on sideways) - FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUU

I like the way home medical instruction pamphlets have developed here in the future.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:19 AM on November 9, 2012 [4 favorites]

'Thoughtful follow-up rage face comic' is a really weird string of words that the internet makes possible.
posted by shakespeherian at 6:23 AM on November 9, 2012 [19 favorites]

This puts me in mind of the time a surgeon noticed symptoms of heart disease in a photo of baseball commissioner Bart Giamatti and warned him to get checked. Giamatti died shortly afterward...of heart disease. Then the surgeon realized he had been looking at the wrong guy's fingers -- the guy with symptoms was actually sitting near Giamatti.

I don't remember if that guy got checked/treated or not...
posted by Infinity_8 at 6:29 AM on November 9, 2012

I know a doctor who can look at the umpire's fingers and tell if there is something wrong with his balls.
And then he shouts it out in front of everybody.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 6:53 AM on November 9, 2012 [2 favorites]

Sometimes the internet is a freaking wonderful place.
posted by Kokopuff at 7:53 AM on November 9, 2012 [1 favorite]

Seriously? Dozens of reporters are actually reading reddit for me so I don't have to?

Man, thousands of reporters are reading reddit so they don't have to do their jobs...
posted by yellowbinder at 8:06 AM on November 9, 2012 [8 favorites]

This was in an episode of ER.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:30 AM on November 9, 2012

Wow. This is interesting and wonderful and terrifying all at the same time. He said the tumor was small - too small to be felt during a normal feel your balls test? I'm thinking I ought to start testing myself with pregnancy tests. Oy ve.
posted by Lutoslawski at 9:57 AM on November 9, 2012

The story made it to TV
posted by Ad hominem at 9:57 AM on November 9, 2012

Seriously? Dozens of reporters are actually reading reddit for me so I don't have to?

This is the quintessential end-of-the-broadcast human interest news story. And there are a lot of daily news shows out there.
posted by GuyZero at 10:37 AM on November 9, 2012

Reminds me of the little girl whose eye cancer was spotted in a Facebook photo by a nurse. Bless the intarwebs.
posted by fiercecupcake at 11:11 AM on November 9, 2012 [4 favorites]

*Waiting for one of you to say that he deserves to lose a testicle just for being a member of Reddit*
posted by MattMangels at 1:13 PM on November 10, 2012

discopolo writes "I know he did it for laughs at first, but surely he must have wondered why it would turn out positive?"

Despite the simplicity of the test it wouldn't occur to me for a second that a positive test from a male was anything more sinister than a meaningless or quirky false positive. And I actually know how these tests work.
posted by Mitheral at 3:18 PM on November 10, 2012