To think men should not be allowed to be gynaecologists

But you DONT HAVE TO. You CAN CHOOSE to have a female doctor.

in the context of the ridiculous OP's point, of course they absolutely cannot.

Where on earth did I say " you'd have sex with him anyway? "
.I said that the majority of women have sex with men ( perfectly normal) but getting her up at a male medical person who only looking at them in a medical sense.

It's previous posters suggesting there's possibly sexual intentions from a male gynae. as in " why would a man want to do such a job" and suggesting interior motives

What about gay or bisexual women? Can they also not be trained gynaecologists?

Wow. Dripping with misogyny.

I imagine that for the most part, women who don't want a doctor examining them intimately, also aren't likely to be the ones rushing around having loads of casual sex with men they don't know.

But that aside....consenting to having sex with a man you don't know well, doesn't mean you're have to give blanket consent to every man to have access to your vagina. A woman might feel comfortable after a few drinks, to have sex with a man she feels attracted to, but that's not the same thing as - stone cold sober, nervous about the results, and in a position of vulnerability - having to lie back and spread your legs while a man shines a light up your vagina and examines it in great details, and a nurse watches.

Why? Read what you said.

You weren't talking about women's choice in medical settings.

You criticised women because they "allow some random block to put his dick up" but not a doctor to take a look.

Since the entire topic of discussion is male doctors, we are not talking about allowing any doctor to "take a look" are we?

Yes, women have a choice. And it would be a tragedy if that choice was not available.

I am not sure mixing the concept of sexual relations and the idea of professional care by a trained specialist is helpful.

I am all for male gynaecologies/ obstetricians/ paediatricians and many have long proven they are doing an amazing job

but I doubt "You'd have sex with him anyway" is the angle they would go for 😂😂At best it's offensive!

Why a disgraceful comment lol. Merely true

But you do have a choice in medical settings. You can ask to see a female doctor. Just might have to wait a bit longer to do so if one isn't instantly available

What a disgraceful comment.Yes, women have sex with men. So what?

Does that take away their right to informed consent in medical settings and their right to choose who they are seen by?

What other rights should we strip them of?

Yet the majority of women have sex with males. So it's ok for some random block to put his dick up you but not a qualified doctor to take a look in a medical sense

And by that scale are lesbian gynaes also a risk to women?

I think that posts like this completely ignore the effect this would have on women. There's no evidence that I'm aware of which would suggest women who wish to specialize in gynae are being held back by perverted men.

So my questions are:

1. If there wasn't a rush of women entering the profession, how long would women have to wait before being seen for a gynae appointment?
2. What pressure would have to be brought to bear on female medical students to get them to choose gynae? And if they didn't really want to do it, what effect would that have on quality of care?

I had a male midwife as well as gynecologist. To be honest he was the most carrying and understanding of them all. The female ones dismissed my pain and made me feel upset as I was having a high risk birth. Where he took the time to explain things to me and my options. I was with him for his whole shift until a female midwife took over. Ive had the same with male gynecologist being less dismissive.

It will be a sad world if men were banned from having an interest in female health

and personally I had much better experience with male consultants than with females.

Of course we should not "allow" or "not allow" anyone to do anything based on sex/ gender or race./ religion and colour. Most ridiculous and backward idea you can think of.

I finally went for a smear a few weeks ago with a female nurse. She told me she was locking the door, she asked
me several times before and after she did that if I wanted a chaperone.

So that consultant was very wrong

No chaperone? According to the General Medical Council and the Care Quality Commission, he is potentially in breach of guidelines if he didn't offer you a choice to have one present!

A male gynaecologist saved my life after several female gynaecologists had spent hours being perplexed by what was wrong. He got to the bottom of it within 5 minutes and had he not done so it could’ve been much, much worse.

I think sometimes we (women generally) are so worried about setting the clock back in terms of equal opportunities for females we can end up enthusiastically endorsing gender parity in all areas even when it's not in our interests.

I think we'd do much better to recognize our own physical vulnerabilities (and understand that doesn't make us weak) and name the problem - i.e men's propensity to be big fucking opportunistic pervs and/or misogynists - and order society accordingly to better serve our needs in terms of comfort, dignity and safety.
And that might actually mean that yeah there are some professions/roles that have to be female only and men just need to suck that up and better police their own abusive tendencies.

This has crossed my mind.

My first smear test, many moons ago, was carried out by a male GP. It wasn't til afterwards that I thought to myself I can actually request a female for future gynae examinations. That's my preference.

Mind you, the nurse at my local practice told me she hated doing them, and I dont blame her😂

I sympathise with OP.

I came across an American blog some years ago called, "Why men become gynaecologists". There were excerpts from male gynaecologists on their perspectives, and they included confessions of sexual attraction to patients and misogyny.

According to a 2024 study published by the JAMA Network in the National Institute of Health, gynaecology is the second highest litigated discipline. It also has the highest rates of sexual misconduct allegations made by staff (particularly of trainees despite 61.7% of the workforce now being female) and the highest rate of malpractice claims and formal complaints filed by patients.

This is albeit an American study and I am aware that the NHS has also been highlighted for promoting a culture of medical misogyny throughout all areas of reproductive care (which also include female-led disciplines like midwifery) but it's notable that in a discipline dominated by women, it has the highest rates of sexual misconduct allegations.

These are not spurious claims or just my "opinion". These are findings published in a medical journal. I think that if female trainees are finding themselves the subject of sexual harassment by senior male gynaecologists, it tells us something about the mindset of some of the men practicing in that field.

Not all male gynaecologists will be abusers. Some may be caring, empathetic and provide a good service but I think it's ridiculous to suggest that men who work in this profession are somehow "immune" to seeing vaginas on a day to day basis.

I recall seeing an online blog where men shared their views on this topic. Most of them agreed they were sceptical of claims that male gynaecologists would never get turned on when examining a fully or partially naked woman. There is also an undeniable power dynamic here. A woman in this situation is vulnerable.

I accept they are not experts but they know more about male biology than we do. While male gynaecologists may indeed be professional, to quote one of those commenting, "medical training cannot and will not "undo" centuries of biological evolution". I wouldn't necessarily believe they get turned on all the time, but I think it is highly unlikely to suggest that they NEVER get turned on and are somehow professionally "immune".

As for discrimination, some professions can be exempted from equality laws if the circumstances can justify the need for it. I'm not going to engage in a debate around that but I would definitely never choose a male gynaecologist.

As a midwife I personally and professionally know all the gynae consultants at my local hospital. When I had a gynae problem I picked my consultant. I picked the best one who happened to be a man. My choice. I fully support others to only say they want a female doctor.

Actually, as hormones are constantly in flux, bloods alone cannot confirm perimenopause or even menopause as they're just a snapshot of the time the blood was drawn. HRT is supposed to prescribe based on symptoms. I say this from experience as I went in to perimenopause in my early 40s, saw many GPS who scoffed at me. In the end, I went private and yes, despite high oestrogen levels, I wasn't producing progesterone as I wasn't ovulating, the latter of which was obvious give my FSH levels. But, most GPs do not know how to read female hormone blood panels anyway.

Also, topical oestrogen (a form of HRT that is an add-on, rather than in standard HRT itself) does help prevent UTIs. This is because the space between the urethra opening and vagina is small, and declining oestrogen cause the tissue to retract making UTIs more common (as bacteria is spread more easily). Also, due to unbalanced hormones, many women suffer from vaginal atrophy without even knowing it, so topical oestrogen is a real benefit. Gosh, I wish I would have known about topical oestrogen when I was in was younger as it would have helped my sex life enormously.

Unfortunately, medicine is inherently biased towards men. Women's endocrine systems in particular are a mystery as they're so under researched due to the simple fact that they're a lot more complicated than men's. Men's hormones run on a 24 hour a day cycle, women's on a monthly, But there's no such thing as a standard month as some women have really short cycles, other long, and many have irregular periods. Am convinced that it's because of these reasons, they just don't research it. It's something that can't be medicalised in a one size fits all pill. HRT is highly specific and often prescribed incorrectly anyway. Am not surprised your periods returned once you stopped taking it. For those under 40, you've reached menopause if you've not had a period for two calendar years - 24 months. Being given HRT you don't need can easily muck your periods up further or even stop them.

Anyway, am sorry you've had such a terrible time with all this. It's grossly unfair, and so dreadful for you 💐

I agree with the majority that there's no reason to disallow people of either sex to specialise in any discipline with the caveat that, because male and female patients should be able to state a preference for the sex of their urology and gynaecology specialists, that specialist posts may (possibly) be artificially regulated by sex in order to reflect any patient preferences. (The only type of discrimination that I would find acceptable in the NHS). I was expecting most people here to respond "unreasonable" because that was one of the options offered for the thread. But we got weird, bloody silly, ridiculous, ridiculous!, absolutely ridiculous. Why? You are responding to someone expressing her substantial difficulty talking to a male medical professional about intimate problems together with, or maybe because of, her fear that he may be a sexual predator or a power-hungry misogynist. Not to mention the lack of critical thinking behind her extreme solution. My wish for the outraged here is that if you ever need a specialist, they will see your psychological problems alongside the physical and will react kindly. (Even if you do come up with odd insults like "handmaiden")

Fair enough. I'm not sure it works that way in practice though – as I believe a pp said, there were no female gynaecologists in her area so she had to see a male.

In the UK the majority of doctors are now women (just), so whilst i don't think existing male gynaecologist should be removed from their jobs i do think going forward there is no need for new male gynaecologist.

I find it questionable why any male who has respect for women (including ones with history of sexual assault) and a degree of introspection would take on the role. Which poses the question, what is the motivation of male doctors (and student midwives) choosing the profession?

If they are passionate about the birth process then they can become paediatricians specialising in NICU, if the genitourinary system floats their boat then they can specialise in urology.

I imagine too many women end up having poorer health outcomes, because trauma caused by males means they aren't comfortable being treated by males, and avoid healthcare or end up waiting longer for treatment.