Why Do men become gynocologists?

[Blankiefan]

I have to have some treatment and all of the gynocologists I can pick from are men. I don't trust male gynocologists (no bad history just bias). It'd help me to understand good reasons why some men choose this specialism.

As I see it, I have an ear so I can understand what it's like when someone pokes their finger in it. I get the experience of having an ear and have an interest in furthering medicine into it. Buy why are male doctors interested in women's genitals? Is it some deep respect for their mothers? A peculiar interest in otherness? I don't see the motivation.

I entirely accept on an intellectual level that most of them aren't in it for kicks and that being elbow deep in hoo hoo all day isn't erotic but I really don't get what motivation got them there.

Does anyone have any insight?

By your logic all breast cancer specialists should be female too. Doctors don’t see body parts in the same way. They are not looking at them from a sexual perspective but a medical one. I would imagine that when you have seen hundreds / thousands? of sets of genitalia the novelty wears off.

I had two gynaecologists, both male. Also wondered how they ended up in that department also. Both were excellent.

30 or so years ago, it was almost impossible to get a consultant post in general surgery - there were 80 well qualified applicants for every senior registrar job, so you were unlikely to progress beyond the registrar level. A lot of people who wanted a career with some surgery in it went into gynaecology instead, for the better prospects. There was also a good income from doing private hysterectomies alongside the NHS appointment.
I’m a retired anaesthetist who worked with innumerable gynaecologists, both male and female, over 36 years. I never met an inappropriate or creepy one. The colleague who delivered my own DC was a delightful old Scot with a dry sense of humour and excellent surgical skills, who saved DD2’s life before the paed crash team arrived.
I think your fears are probably groundless OP, unless you are concerned about a specific individual that you haven’t mentioned?

I hate it. I've had 3 colposcopys in last few months and I requested the only woman as I felt so anxious about a man. The idea really upset me.

Haven't read the full thread, but the men I know who went into O&G did so because they liked surgery, loved the obstetrics part (magical birth feelings!) and then specialised in gynaecology later, when they wanted a better life balance.

I know women who do urology too - are they all pervs?

OP - you also need to understand that for Doctors, the human body is simply what they work with, just as if you work in an office, you work with a computer for example.

My father was a Doctor and actually hated obstetrics and gynaecology but he loved orthopaedics and dermatology - so different things interest different people. There is no weirdness involved!

My SIL is a paediatrician. She was drawn to that specialism because she felt it was the least “up itself” one! Children see through any pretentiousness.

Dh is a Gastroenterologist- he doesn’t have a fetish about bums

Some women don’t feel comfortable with a male gynae and that’s fine. Men are equally entitled to say they’d prefer a male doctor for prostate and other genital issues - or indeed anything.

Women who’ve been sexually abused or raped may prefer a female gynae.

In my 20s I had my breasts groped by a doctor - GP - so I can understand women’s caution.

Men are actually ‘disappearing’ from obs/gynae now. I think something like 80-90% of newly qualified gynaecologists are now women and the number increases every year, so it’s likely it won’t be long before it’s rare to have men training in that area.

In the past most women didn’t/couldn’t go to medical school so men dominated all areas of medicines, now women have the opportunity to become drs, areas like gynaecology have naturally but gradually become more female dominated.

www.latimes.com/health/la-me-male-gynos-20180307-htmlstory.html

This is an interesting (although annoying some respects!) article that also covers why some men are drawn to obs/gynae.

It’s American but the ratios are similar here in the UK too.

These threads always go the same way: the OP gets called a bigot or sexist and then there will be loads of posters saying men are better at it, backing it up by calling the women they've encountered cold, dismissive, rude etc. The irony is always amusing to me. Let's all fall over ourselves to be the most misogynistic and big up men, purely to belittle an OP.
Personally I'd be more empathetic towards an OP asking this question in the first place. Women will die because they can't access services delivered by women, for female issues. But fuck those concerns, and the reasons they've come about, because men know best.

My male gynae saved my life during a stillbirth then two years later delivered my very premature Ds who is now 14.

I will be forever in his debt. A very clever, kind and compassionate man.

It was a very male-dominated area - not sure if this is still the case

I have a (female) friend who is a gynaecologist. She said exactly the same thing, it was a job designed by men for men and is still largely the case. She works 9-5 in a sexual health clinic after having children.

I can understand your question. I do want to say that asking for a female gynae, lulled me into a false sense of security once and I had an experience that was unpleasant and
traumatising. All the more confusing because she was 'nice'.
Next time I will accept whoever but I will hope my instincts kick in regarding whether they feel trustworthy or not.

These threads always go the same way: the OP gets called a bigot or sexist.

Ironically there’s a concurrent thread about inappropriate behaviour from a male midwife including kissing.

All the male gynaes I’ve seen have been highly professional, but I wouldn’t dismiss another woman’s concerns particularly when we don’t know her history.

I wouldn't care whether the gynaecologist is male or female or identifying as a spoon that day as long as they are compassionate, and listen to me.

We should be glad anyone wants to be a gynaecologist at all.

But it's chiropodists I can never understand. Feet -ewww.

I'm sure a lot (probably most) become gynaecologists out of an interest in the specialism. But I think it's naive to assume that that's the case for everyone. Sexual abuse of patients by medical professionals is not uncommon, and if you are an abuser then you are going to be drawn to a specialism that provides you with the most opportunities. From a US piece of research:

"Studies from reports by state medical boards indicate that actions for sexual violations occur most commonly in the medical fields of psychiatry, family/general practice, and obstetrics/gynecology."

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1079063217712217

It's a perfectly reasonable question, if you are not a med student. What draws people to a particular specialism, particularly when they have no personal experience of how that body part functions. Generally, we go with what we know.

And some really great and thought provoking answers have been offered, as well.

No need to snipe at OP or other posters.

On the flip side I do know a couple of female doctors who said they felt totally put off specialising in gynae or obstetrics because the whole way through their training they felt it was assumed that they'd be more interested in it, just because they were female. And on some level they were, consciously or unconsciously, rejecting the expectations put on them.

I don’t understand why some people get so irked on threads like these by a poster stating she only wants a female dr for obs/gynae

It’s a speciality where at least one fifth of the patients will have experienced rape/sexual assault in their lifetime. A speciality that involves extremely intimate and potentially triggering procedures and care.

It’s one the few areas of medicines that is becoming more female-dominated. It’s like in the article I posted upthread, men all sad when women take advantage of the high number of female drs to say ‘no male medics thank you’ and feeling discriminated against whilst forgetting nearly ALL OTHER AREAS of medicine are dominated by men- some overwhelmingly. We don’t need to be ‘aww the poor men not being as able to practice in one area’ 🙄

And also- men are men. Even men qualified as obstetricians and gynaecologists. They are still men. Of course #notallmen and all that, there will be many amazing male drs in obs and gynae who are there for all the right reasons (and of course if they are decent, they will understand and respect women who won’t want their care and not feel the slightest bit hurt or offended) but statistics show men are a bigger threat to women than other women are. That applies everywhere.

Eternally grateful to the on call male gynae consultant who saved my life when I had massive internal bleeding and other medical staff thought I was just fussing. The one thing that I remember from that day is the beautiful flowers someone gave me were spirited away to decorate a room because a member of royalty was visiting. Never saw them again! I have absolutely no issue with seeing a male gynaecologist.

Medical interest or the fact that if they can open a private clinic they'll do well

It does seem odd nowadays when so many women go into medicine; in years gone by there were far more men so it was understandable. I have to say I'd prefer to see a woman gynaecologist but in the past, I did see a man (cervical polyp), and he was excellent. There are many who really sympathise with their patients. A friend of mine saw a gynae man for one or two things and thought he was ace, her daughter was also persuaded to see him for something and was happy enough (he was gay though).

I don't know what to think. A friend of mine who was a doctor (now retired), from India, said that hardly any male doctor in India wanted to go into that specialty and that made me see things a bit differently.

However there are female surgeons who go into urology which, as a specialty, has mainly male patients. Those women who deal specifically with women - ie, incontinence problems - are a specialty within a specialty. There used to be a wonderful one at Kings College Hospital, 'Urodynamics'. However generally urology is prostate and all that.

I was friendly with a woman married to a gynaecologist and it occasionally crossed my mind that he would know all her secrets before she did.

Double helix said:-

The sense of certain body parts being special e.g. genitalia and male vs female goes once you've done everything. Plus examining patients is a tiny percentage of work done.
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That's what I like to hear, it's reassuring.

GPs often do basic gynae examinations too.

That's reassuring to know.

same as anyother field

fwiw - i couldnt care less about a man having a gander at my bits, because its his job and hes there to advise me