To think men should not be allowed to be gynaecologists

Less than 200 male midwives registered in the UK-yet Mumsnetters know loads of them….And they are all super wonderful.

Your being utterly ridiculous.

I work with some amazing male obstetricians and male midwives. Gender does not matter when it comes to health, personal preference yes but not a career choice.

I’m not branding male surgeons as perverts. I am simply saying I would prefer a woman gynaecologist.

Even more reason not to brand any male surgeons as perverts. I don’t know specifically why women can’t qualify in it (is it more than their child bearing status?) but until they do qualify in numbers, I presume we still need gynaes in the meantime.

I have had two absolutely appalling experiences with 2 different male gynaes. By far the 2 worst medical experiences of my life. I will only go to a woman now.

It’s a very mysogynist world still-particuarly surgery.

I mentioned about that, to replace the male surgeons, you would need more than a 1:1 ratio because of the flexibility issues and got shouted down.

If not enough women are specialising in gynae then that is not the fault of the men.

So the posters thinking men in that field are ‘icky’, would you prefer there be very very limited numbers of gynaecologists in the country? Once you start branding men suspect for their specialism then you can’t complain about availability of care.

It’s a surgical speciality. Despite some progress, surgery still poses challenges for women who want to enter it, both from a culture perspective but also due to practical and flexibility issues once they have kids. Things are changing, but slowly.

The issue is trust of course. I have had some truly incompetent female doctors and healthcare providers over the years and would rather have a man.

Women are clearly not going into gynae in the same numbers as men. That’s not the fault of the men, the women need to go into that field to provide more choice

I haven't read 7 pages of replies and I can see the OP has only done two posts on this, but I want to add support, because the lack of female gynaecologists I think is an issue, and I think it's weird that there are often only male gynaecologists available in my local hospital and certainly at senior levels and it makes me uncomfortable. I always ask to see a female even if I have to wait.
I've had a few negative experiences with male doctors for intimate healthcare and I'm not interested in giving them another try.
Fuckem.

When my baby was in distress and I needed an emergency section I was very glad that men are able to work in this field of medicine. So long as my baby was delivered safely it could have been a green skinned martian working 'at the business end' for all i cared.

OP you sound deranged.

Sorry but SEX, not gender. That is relevant in a medical setting.

I am more than happy for a man to poke around my plumbing but don’t tell rape and abuse survivors (of which I am one) to ‘grow up’

This is such an immature view. It shouldn't matter what gender your health professionals are. They're experts and life savers. You can always ask for a chaperone. Grow up

It's not lived experience for me at all - it's the statistics around sexual violence/abuse that apply to all men and my own experiences with male doctors. Some are very good, and you you they are there to do their job well, but I have come across a few creeps and weirdos in my time and the power imbalance is so great in a medical setting that they are very well protected - no one would ever believe me. So I choose not to take the risk. For the sins of their fathers and all that....

If lived experience is necessary then childless women can’t be lactation consultants or midwives ?!

A doctor absolutely should care if their patients are uncomfortable or else they aren't a very good doctor! Banning men from gynacology is obviously unreasonable but women should be able to request to see a female one if they want and have that respected where it's possible. Otherwise some vulnerable women are going to end up missing out on essential healthcare because of trauma or other reasons that could make intimate examinations from male Drs incredibly difficult for them.

This is standard for the nhs in my experience (though sometimes a nurse did sit in for more complex appointments because they then know what the consultant has said and can talk through it afterwards).

But also in private hospitals they tend to have a few hcas to act as chaperones for a number of consultants and they just come in for a few minutes for the exam.

I don’t actually particularly like having a chaperone under this model as it’s just another nameless person witnessing the exam but I understand it protects doctors.

I’ve also had plenty of appointments / examinations without chaperones, particularly immediately pre-op, though I probably could have asked for one.

For many women a chaperone would not help because it’s not about the potential for inappropriate behaviour. It’s about not wanting to discuss “intimate” ( hate that word but canmt think of a better one) subjects with a man. Or to be touched “intimately” by a man.

I agree with you OP only because I’ve had male doctors do a hysteroscopy which was horrific and traumatic. I’ve refused a male nurse for an internal vaginal scam twice. I don’t give a if I offended them or if they were ‘professionals’, it’s my body and it wasn’t happening!

Oh the nurse has always stayed whole time for mine

He is vile. I know doctors who worked with him and found him completely disrespectful and difficult to work with. It’s pretty obvious listening to him that so many of his stories are entirely invented and never even remotely happened.

I had always been fine with men becoming gynaecologists. But in recent years I found out that three of the creepiest boys in my year at medical school went into gynaecology. That really made me shudder. I’m trying not to let that affect my view.

You generally get a chaperone when they're doing the intimate vaginal examination because of the risk of having a doctor inappropriately touch your vagina etc - you don't have one just when you're chatting to the doctor.

I've also had gynaes that call in a chaperone for every examination - I guess they do it to protect themselves in the case of an allegation of abuse etc. As there would be two witness to anything

Surely that defeats the object of having a chaperone?

In all my NHS gynae examinations the chaperone has come for the examination and then left. They're usually a nurse or another HCP so pretty busy

Why would the chaperone leave? My doctor is never alone with me.