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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that a hospital should have a female gynecologist?

330 replies

crazyspaniel · 03/09/2011 21:35

My local hospital only has male gynecologists. If I want to see a female practitioner I have to travel 40 miles. In the end I went to my local hospital and found the whole experience somewhat traumatic - the fact that the doctors were male was part of the reason for finding it so horrible and humiliating.

Is it really so hard to hire a female gynecologist? I get that consultants are often of a generation when not many women went into medicine (and particularly surgery), but there are now more women than men becoming doctors and one of the doctors in the room was SHO level (or whatever they call them now), so not of that generation. I really think this is one area of medicine where there should be female quotas and where each hospital should have at least one female practitioner.

OP posts:
GypsyMoth · 03/09/2011 21:39

Doesn't bother me really.

StrandedBear · 03/09/2011 21:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

thisisyesterday · 03/09/2011 21:41

well personally i would rather have a man down there. they're used to seeing fannies after all!

they can't force women to be gynaecologists if they don't want to be, and if that hospital only has men that's just the way it is i'm afraid.
you do have a choice... you could have travelled...

Talker2010 · 03/09/2011 21:41

Totally unreasonable

Gender should not come into the hiring policy

TheMagnificentBathykolpian · 03/09/2011 21:42

I am not trying to suggest that you don't have the right to feel the way you do, but why do you feel this way? They are just doctors. Your genitals are no more appealing to them than if they were nose specialists Grin

In fact, I bet at the end of a working week, they are simply pig sick of fannies Grin

TheMagnificentBathykolpian · 03/09/2011 21:42

Than your nose would be if they were nose specialists I mean. I'm tired Grin long day. You know what I am trying to say. Grin

Crosshair · 03/09/2011 21:44

I dont think I could deal with a male gyno, not sure if I could a female either though. I guess you do what you have to if you need treatment. Gender shouldnt matter for any job.

worraliberty · 03/09/2011 21:46

Wouldn't bother me at all

MmmmmCake · 03/09/2011 21:46

people should be hired for their skills not their gender

if you choose to be picky, you have the choice to go elsewhere

marriedinwhite · 03/09/2011 21:47

Apart from the fact that I have a lovely male gynaecologist I totally disagree with you. I think the NHS should ensure that all treatment is provided by the professional who is the most competent to do the job regardless of their gender, race, religion or sexuality or any other aspect of difference.

borderslass · 03/09/2011 21:51

Well I have only ever seen one female gynae who was utterly awful and several male ones who could of not been nicer if they tried. The last one I saw before my hysterectomy was doing his late night ward rounds the night before my op saw that I was still awake and came and sat and talked to me for a while really put me at ease.

Original poster
crazyspaniel · 03/09/2011 21:52

TheMagnificent - no it's not that I think my bits are in any way appealing to them! I can't imagine that any gynecologist would find any fanny appealing after what they see all week!

I get that this is probably my problem, but I'm sure that I can't be the only woman who finds visiting a gynecologist an embarassing experience. It certainly didn't help knowing that I was going to have to bare my bits in front of a man - though I'm hard pushed to explain exactly why that it. As it turned out the consultant I saw was horrible, and made me feel like I was being a pathetic female, and that the procedure he was doing wasn't painful. I did wonder how he could know that for sure! I'm sorry, I don't really want to go into details, so you'll just have to take my word on that. But, no doubt, seeing a female gynecologist could have been just as unpleasant.

OP posts:
Daughteroflilith · 03/09/2011 21:52

Gender shouldn't make any difference. So if your hospital had a choice between an absolutely brilliant gynaecologist who was male and an average one who was female, what are they supposed to do? And what if your problem was severe and you had to have an operation. Do you seriously think you could demand that the whole surgical team was female?

EricNorthmansMistressOfPotions · 03/09/2011 21:55

They can't have a hiring policy based on gender, as the gender of the doctor has no bearing on their ability to do the job.

When I was being examined by the surgeon after having DS, she poked at my ruined vagina and I shrieked. She told me off. Told me off! I had a third degree tear as it happens. So cunty, uncaring medical practitioners can be any gender and having a vagina doesn't mean you will be nice or understanding about vagina related issues.

TheMagnificentBathykolpian · 03/09/2011 21:58

But why? I think if you can get to the bottom of why you feel this way, you may be able to get over it.

Is it sexual? Because you have no way of knowing if the male is even straight!

Or if you have a female dr and she is gay - would that bother you?

Is it the idea of sex somehow?

If you think that a woman would have been gentler, being the proud owner of her own fanjo - you would be mistaken. The one and only time I have been painfully manhandled and left feeling like the gynae shook loose a filling - it was a woman!

mankymink · 03/09/2011 22:01

To be honest the thought of anyone other than DP needing to have a good look down there doesn't hugely appeal to me, but would I find it "horrible and humiliating" if that person were a fully trained male, rather than a female. No.

I've been examined in the past 3 months by both a female gyno and a male gyno. Didn't feel any more or less comfortable with either.

coccyx · 03/09/2011 22:03

Would it not be embarrassing to expose your genitals to a male or female doctor. They are used to it. I would like a well qualified , kind, sensitive Dr, regardless of gender

NonnoMum · 03/09/2011 22:04

But, of course, you would have had a female nurse present during the exam also. Or did you have a male nurse there? Or are you just making up this thread for a bit of internet gossip.

NestaFiesta · 03/09/2011 22:04

I had a female gynae examine me once who referred to my vagina as "your front passage". It did not inspire me with confidence.

RitaMorgan · 03/09/2011 22:04

If you were treated badly, complain!

Gender shouldn't come into it, you might have seen a horrible female doctor.

Tolalola · 03/09/2011 22:05

YABcompletelyU

And sexist.

Original poster
crazyspaniel · 03/09/2011 22:06

TheMagnificent - I really can't explain why it is. I hate any kind of examination of my bits. I can't even bring myself to have my smear test that is now (over)due. I don't have children, it's not that I don't want them, but it's because I just can't face the thought of the invasiveness and constant examination that pregnancy and childbirth will require. It makes me feel absolutely terrified. For some reason it just makes it even worse if there is a male doctor involved. It has nothing whatever to do with sex - a gay female doctor I would have no problem with.

OP posts:
MirabileDictu · 03/09/2011 22:08

I couldn't care less whether they were male of female, so long as they were good. But I can't say that YABU, as it sounds as if you have other problems with the bit-examination scenario that are actually nothing to do with gender.

Original poster
crazyspaniel · 03/09/2011 22:08

Oh, put your claws away, Nonno, I'm not making this up. Of course there was a female nurse there, it just didn't happen to make me feel better because my issue, whatever it is, had nothing to do with fear of sexual assault.

OP posts:
TheMagnificentBathykolpian · 03/09/2011 22:09

You should probably find a way to get some help with that. Sounds like it causes you distress.

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