Documenting Medical Issues

I had a serious health issue a year prior to adopting that I needed to address because of a long hospitalization. It was well documented and we had doctors sign off on the fact that my current health was excellent and that there was no threat to my life expectancy because of the past illness. When we update our paperwork, I will probably not even include this even though it only happened in 2003. I would not include information from 10+ years ago that is not relevant to your ability to parent or your life expectancy. You shouldn't have a problem with this with your social worker. The only exception to this in my mind would be if it impacted your adoption. ie, if you had a hysterectomy because of cancer and can not concieve therefore are adopting, it is relevant to your process. Does that make sense? Christina

Thanks- that's helpful. I sent you a PM with more specific questions. Anyone else adopt more recently or have a sense of whether Russia has become more strict about medical issues in the last year? Because some agencies are telling us not to mention anything about our medical histories. Others are trying to steer us away from Russia because of them. Really, we're both healthy and its frustrating that illnesses from years ago may affect an adoption.

Hi, I have "mild" high blood pressure, and is controled through meds. The doctor did mention this and that there is no issue regarding life expectantency, etc. I did NOT mention my prior surgeries from 10+ years ago. Though all where 'benign', they where tumors, etc. and did not want to go into explainations, etc. I believe different regions are stricter then others. I adopted from the Moscow Region which seems to be very strick, and are one of the firsts to make changes in the process/requirements. I would also check to see what regions these 3/4 agency(s) work in, and that may be the reasons for the different advice from them. I am not saying to lie, but if your past (and your doctor agrees) does NOT impact your future, and your ability to parent, I would limit what is written. If there is something currently going on with either ones health, make sure the doctor CAN write an explanation and that your life expectancy is fine, etc.

thanks- one thing one agency told us is to find a home study agency that does an "International Summary." What exactly is that? Also, how do I find out which agencies are more medical friendly than others? DH had cancer 20 years ago with no recurrances. On the one hand, it was 20 years ago, so who cares. But he has a total knee replacement and scars on his knee & back from the surgery. By the time we get to Russia (since we are still selecting agency), they may all require 8 doctor medical form. So if we don't mention this and then we have this 8 doctor med exam, how do we explain away the scars? Also, I'm currently taking an antidepressant after 8.5 years of IF and my latest m/c in January. Surely I can't be the only PAP who's ever taken antidepressants? How have people handled this? We've talked to 4 agencies about our specific issues. 2 have said to disclose everything about medicals, even if it was 20 years ago. But they also said given our issues, a judge may turn us down. 2 other agencies said to only answer questions from perspective of "does it inhibit my ability to parent?" and to find a home study agency that will do an International Summary. Help/guidance is much appreciated.

Hi Shamrock... I pm'd you too...but just in case others are in the same situation, last year sometime there was a LONGGG talk about antidepressants..and NO you are one of MANY here that need them. However, I have heard that depression CAN be an issue in Russia. None of the medical forms (neither dossier or regional forms) asked what meds I was on and there was not reason to ADD them. There are agencies that will HELP you...keep looking! The knee thing...I don't think that would make a difference at all...I don't think even the 8 doc form asks for info like that. Good luck! Hang in there...this is a great place to meet friends and get support. So many of us have gone through soo much...and SOME even more than that!!!! By the way..WELCOME!!!!

If you can avoid mentioning the antidepresant and your doctor cooperates, its better. Otherwise your doctor will need to write a leter saying you have no symptoms and your condition and medication does not cause anger problems or violence. Your homestudy should phrase it the same way along with your psych eval. I have known families rejected for totally minor medical problems. I have also kown plenty of families who adopted while on an antidepressant, and a few who had cancer in the background. With the cancer he will need a statement saying he has a normal life expectancy. A smart agency will guide you through all this, though I must tel you that many families just lie about a lot of this stuff (the ethics of this I will not go into). For more details about the psych issues, PM me.

I'm not sure what the difference with agencies and medicals issues is -- but there definitely is one. When researching agencies for adoption #2, we were told by one agency that we absolutely could not adopt from Russia due to our medical conditions (even though we had done it before) and the only country who would allow us to adopt was Guatemala. We called another agency -- disclosed everything in our homestudy and medicals -- and had no problems with the Russian judge or prosecutor whatsoever. KT

Yes the varying regions and their differences re: medical issues is extremely confusing. I wish there was a list of medical-friendly regions and the agencies that go to them.

I know that Izhevsk and Kemerovo are good. I am sure others can list some regions that are also medical friendly. I may have said this in my pm, but look for agencies that go to more regions. You will have a better chance to find one that can work with you. We also got an "OK" to go the Kranoyarsk if we accepted a referral we were offered, but they do the 8 MD medical form.

Hello all. My first posting. We started our process back in 2004. Both PAPs on antidepressants. Turned down 2 referrals due to questionable medical status (I'm a peds nurse). We went on official hold 2/05 for personal reasons. Started to redo home study (11/05) turned in to agency 4/06. Now told we're longer candidates for Russia secondary to antidepressants. We've been on them all along. (I know I can't mention agency name here. ) We have been in touch with the agency the whole time we've been hold. This is new news to us. We not given a chance to work with any concerns they now had. I am heartened to hear that this is not a universal rule in Russia. We have a friend who's a professor and adoption expert, advising us to cut our losses-many-and start over with a new agency. Wish we knew him before we started all this. Can anyone suggest more medical friendly agencies in a PM? We are heartbroken! Antidepressant don't make you an unfit parent.

I can't believe you'd actually get "fired" from an agency of AD use (I can believe that it happened to you, but just surprised that the agency would do it). The agencies who told us not to mention history never said they wouldn't work with us, only that we might get turned by a judge if we included our history. I guess I'd be curious too re: agencies that are more flexible re: dealing with medical issues. If anyone has agency recs based on flexibility/comfort level dealing with medical issues, please PM me as well.