To think men should not be allowed to be gynaecologists

Choose who you want.
But don’t limit my choices thank you.

I want skilled and available to see quickly. If that makes me a handmaiden so be it. But you’re the one assigning jobs based on sex.

Absolute nonsense. Actually what you are proposing is more likely to be from The Handmaids Tale. Should we all cover up in case men can't control themselves.

Not everything has to be about sex you know.

I agree with you. For this you CANNOT ARGUE that men have more empathy and lived experience than female gynaes which is highly relevant to feeling comfortable in a consultation and why they often have nurses as chaperones! You are perfectly normal in sensing this. I always ask for a female doctor and feel great knowing I can offset the male bias in my choices xxx

Yeah that one, why?? You’re bonkers!!!!

So you aren't actually interested in anyone else's opinion, then? Why did you raise this question, OP, if you only wanted answers that agreed with you?

I can't imagine being turned on if I had to look at men's willies for my job. So I'm not sure why male gynaecologists are suspect.

I am very exercised about medical misogyny, but this is one thing I would not care about. I do find some male doctors dismissive of women's pain, but I've also found female midwives like that.

My husband had a brilliant female urologist dealing with issues concerning his penis. Should she be viewed as weird and banned too?

My (male) gynae was the best doctor in a long list of doctors who treated me when I became very unwell. To date he's probably the best doc I've ever had, though a pain specialist was up there too and that was over 30 years ago.

Human, brilliant at his job, funny and could talk to him, nothing was too much trouble. I was sad when he retired. I even bought him a nice bottle of malt on my last apt with him before he retired, I never do things like that..

His young (male) replacement was hideous. Self-important twat who just did everything wrong from a patient's point of view. I asked to see another doctor after him.

I don't care what sex and what they do. I just want docs to be good, in all fields.

I’m a lesbian midwife so I guess I should be banned in case I went through the degree just to perv on random women?

Personally I care more that my medical caregivers are qualified and good at their job than what sex they are.

So they should care about women’s health issues but not actually do anything about them?

You do understand don’t you that it’s the not doing anything about them that they are criticised for?

What next - men shouldn't be paediatricians? I've heard it all now, in that it's suspect when men train as gynaecologists.

I kind of understand what you are saying op. I have endometriosis, adenomyosis and a very long history of being a gynaecologist patient. Most of the gynaecologists I’ve seen have been male and whilst some of them have been wonderful some have been very dismissive and think they know my body better than I do. I can handle pain well but I had a very painful uterine ablation performed 4 years ago and whilst it was being done the nurse asked me to describe my pain on a 0-10 scale, I said around 8-9, the gynae popped his head up and said ‘Pfff, a nine? I don’t think so, I’d say more a 4’.

He said all of this whilst burning away the lining of my uterus. I wanted to kick him in the bollocks and ask what the pain felt like on a scale of 0-10.

I also question men’s motives for choosing this job, not just the licence to look at strange women’s vaginas

What utter rubbish. If a man just wants to look at vaginas, there are plenty of magazines and websites available which cost a lot less than a medical degree and don't require years of study punctuated by difficult exams.

Old joke: "Would you take your car to a mechanic who'd never had one?"

YABU. I’ve had extensive contact with gynaecologists over a ten year period, and I’ve experienced sub-standard care and fantastic care from both sexes.

My gynae surgery in January was performed by a man, and the results have been amazing. He is an obstetrician and I’ve never been more grateful for any medical professional than I was for him. Two years prior to this, a procedure was carried out by a different male consultant who was cold, arrogant and inflicted an unnecessary amount of pain during the procedure; he was someone I would regard as unfit to practice medicine.

My son was also delivered by a man, and I’ve nothing but compliments for him too.

Having been unfortunate enough to have needed gynaecology services numerous times over the last 18 years I have seen several. One male was rude and dismissive, two other males were fantastic and really listened to me and treated me brilliantly. The two female gynaecologists I encountered were both completely unsympathetic and dismissive, one of them even tutting while giving me a painful biopsy with no anaesthesia.

I honestly don’t care what gender my medical professionals are, as long as they are good at their job!

Some nuance is needed here about empathy fatigue. Having been a clinician and specialising in woman’s health the empathy fatigue is real- especially in clinics when you see one patient after another.

In addition because women’s medicine understanding is a bit behind mens - gestures at the patriarchal structure- women’s concerns have been systematically underserved for multiple millennia. The real world impact is thst women have been prevented from having accurate language to explain their symptoms. Most women haven’t even looked at their genitals before seeking medical treatment and assessment.

This results in a huge unspoken burden on the clinician and after 3 years of working in Women’s Health I was burnt out.

Ridiculous

Don’t be ridiculous. There’s nothing wrong with being personally fine with a male gynaecologist. I’m fine with it. I think any woman should, without question, be entitled to request a female if that’s what they want.

It doesn't bother me in the slightest. I had a vile female gynaecologist years ago when I was pregnant and had my first internal. So long as a male gynaecologist knows his stuff and is there to help me, I'm fine with it.

Men have mothers, wives and daughters. Who knows what experience they may have had that led them to be interested in that field? Maybe they had a mother who had some sort of reproductive cancer young? I do generally prefer a woman but what I really want is a good one. If the man was better, I'd see him first.

As for looking at vaginas, that would wear off really fast. It would all get same old, same old after a while.

What about female urologists who work with men? Is that allowed?

That's a reach... no one is telling them to become a gyno. It would be nice if your GP knew of women's issues and such tho.

I don’t care what sex a gynaecologist is, I don’t even really care if they take the piss out of it all after hours like Adam Kay, as long as while they’re attending to me they’re professional, competent and relatively personable.

I had an internal ultrasound done by a male the other day. I did stop for a beat, but then I reminded myself that he was a trained professional and had probably seen a hundred women that day. He was gentle, and communicated consent and concern for my dignity at every step. I couldn’t have asked for more.

I felt totally traumatised after a visit to a particular female gynaecologist. She really dismissed my pain. I’m sure there are brilliant female and male gynaecologists and I’d be delighted to see either. My next appointment will be with a male gynaecologist that a friend has recommended.