so
welcome to another edition of cck live today we're going to be talking about
va disability for gynecological conditions my name is emma peterson and i'm joined today
by my colleagues caitlyn degnan and kayla dinocrio so we're just going to jump right
in um so a gynecological condition is one that affects female reproductive organs
um it includes also the breasts and organs in the abdominal and pelvic area areas might include the
uterus the ovaries fallopian tubes vagina or vulva and many women experience gynecological problems
in their lifetime and some can be quite serious caitlin can you walk us through some common
conditions sure um so some of the more common gynecological conditions that we see are cervical
dysplasia which is a pre-cancerous condition of the cervix caused by human papillomavirus or hpv
another one is menstrual disorders which includes um a whole bunch of different disorders under that
umbrella including things like endometrial cancer endometrial polyps endometriosis
polycystic ovary syndrome or pcos which i'll talk about a little bit more later or dysfunctional
uterine bleeding which would be heavier prolonged menstrual bleeding another one is pelvic prolapse
which is a weakening of the tissue that's caused by the physical stress of pregnancy or childbirth
and can lead to the walls of the vagina breaking down which then causes the pelvic organs that are
held in place by those now weakened tissues and ligaments within the pelvis to slip out of place
chronic pelvic pain is another common condition which is characterized by persistent pain
between the belly button and pubic bone that lasts for longer than six months i mentioned
before polycystic ovary syndrome or pcos this is a hormonal disorder resulting in infrequent
or prolonged menstrual periods or excess levels of male hormone androgen the ovaries
may develop numerous small collections of fluid or cysts and fail to regularly release new eggs
uterine fibroids is another common condition which is benign tumors that develop in the
uterus most typically during childbearing years and the last one that we'll talk
about is urinary incontinence which is the involuntary leakage of urine
thanks kayla um so caitlin how does va go about rating these various conditions so va actually
just started updating its rating schedules back in september of 2017. so back on may 13 2018 a
new rating schedule for gynecological conditions and disorders of the breasts became effective
these changes included several new diagnostic codes it retitled some of the old diagnostic
codes restructured some of the codes or just updated them and the reason for these changes
is to really try and ensure that both men and women veterans are evaluated equally
so for veterans that are seeking service connection for these conditions
they still need the standard you know three elements for service connection
they're going to need a current diagnosis of a condition an in-service event or injury
and a nexus linking the two so in many cases veterans are going to need to attend the
cnp examination for va to assess the cause and severity of the disability
and a va gynecologist obga1 other healthcare professional will ask questions about the
condition and what symptoms in other cases the examiner is going to have to perform tests to
rule out other potential conditions and then once the examiner has landed on a particular diagnosis
they're going to have to use the at least as likely as not standard to determine whether or
not the condition is related to the veteran's time in service once service connection is established
va uses um the rating schedule that caitlyn was just talking about and it's under 38 cfr 4.116
to determine you know what rating you would be assigned based on the severity of your disability
um halo is there anything that veterans can get in terms of special monthly compensation
um due to gynecology yeah absolutely um so section or title 38 of the united states
code under section 1114k has a list of different conditions that may be compensated under this rate
basically what va would be paying you for would be loss of use of what they call a creative
organ which would mean if you have a service connected condition where you now have the
removal of one or both of your ovaries a hysterectomy something like that or you have
the loss of 25 or more of the tissue from one or both of your breasts they'll pay you at this rate
as of december 1st 2021 that rate is 118 and this is a rate that's paid in addition
to your regular monthly compensation even if your rating is zero percent
and does va offer any other services um for veterans with gynecological conditions yes so in
addition to just their regular compensation they do have infertility services so basically through
va healthcare enrolled veterans have access to many different types of fertility treatments
procedures services including infertility counseling laboratory blood testing genetic
counseling sperm testing ultrasound surgery reversal of a vasectomy or tubal ligation access
to different medications um and more as a note before i go any further i just want to note that
infertility in and of itself is not a condition that va is able to grant service connection for
they may grant you service connection for an underlying condition that has
led to infertility but infertility in and of itself is not something that they'll
pay you any sort of a compensable rating for if a veteran with a certain service connected
condition has infertility or they or their spouses may also be eligible for in vitro
fertilization or ivf treatments or another form of assisted reproductive technology services
coverage for these types of services are determined on a case-by-case basis um they
will send you to a va medical center and perform an infertility evaluation and then the results of
that evaluation will kind of determine what coverage you may be eligible for
in order to qualify for this benefit the veteran must be legally married they must have a service
connected condition that causes the infertility the veteran or their spouse must have an intact
uterus and at least one functioning ovary or cryopreserved eggs or the veteran or their
spouse must have must be able to produce sperm or have their own cryopreserved sperm
va will also provide breast imaging services so va's performance measurements have shown that
women veterans are much more likely to receive age-appropriate breast cancer screenings than
women using private sector health care and as of 2019 bha has 67 mammography programs
some facilities offer mammograms to walk-in patients and same-day ultrasounds all eligible
women veterans have access to mammograms either on-site at va or through care in the community
great thank you both um really interesting points especially about the
um fertility treatments caitlin you know can't be kayla what you need to qualify and also
uh mammography is so important thanks steven um any final thoughts uh kayla just about veterans
seeking service connection for these conditions or um you know things you've seen in your experience
as an advocate i would just say that we kind of see disproportionate rates of female veterans
or women veterans being compensated for these versus our male veterans i think it's really
important that va is now kind of considering these conditions and have restructured their rating
schedule that caitlin was talking about in a way that compensates them a little bit more fairly
um if you are seeking service connection for any of these conditions as always we do encourage
attending any exams that might be scheduled and being honest with your conditions um but
if you aren't really sure what to do definitely feel free to reach out to another accredited
representative like a vso or an attorney and they may be able to point you in the right direction
great thanks caitlin any final thought so i just would like to echo what kayla said about
attending your examinations um a lot of times with with these kinds of conditions you might
not realize that it's something that is related to a service-connected disability or something
that you could even get compensated for um and the only reason that you're the only way you're going
to be able to put that to va's attention is if you are telling you know telling your examiner about
this making sure these issues are evaluated so it really is so so important to be specific and be
um you know very honest with your va examiner to make sure that all of the
possible effects that are resulting from a service connected condition
are recorded in an examination um so that you can kind of explore what your options are
i agree and i think it's important to remember that a service disability doesn't have to be
due to some specific event in service it just has to arise coincidental service
a lot of service members out there are young and um you know perhaps have childbearing ears
so if you happen to have had a child during service and any of these conditions resulted
while you're on active duty hard active service may be entitled to benefits so it might not be
something that you necessarily think of as being you know something service connected but in fact
if it happens in service you may very well be so be sure to reach out and explore your options
so that wraps up our discussion for today um short and sweet but hopefully
gave you some good information about va ratings for gynecological disabilities
more information about this and other va benefits can always be found on our website and
please be sure to check out our other videos and subscribe to our channel thanks again for watching
you