"Today 15:52 Frazzled2207
I've always had a female nurse do it.
Never occurred to me to ask for a female one because never come across a male practice nurse. I wouldn't be delighted to go along having not been warned it was a male that day.
That said I had a male obstetrician pull out my baby and he was perfectly professional so anything goes really."
But would you actually blame the surgery for not telling you ahead of time the HCP is male? Because that seems very unfair, when they could equally assume that you didn't care or you'd have asked. And if you made the assumption and ended up being incorrect that would also not be their fault so no need to be 'not best pleased'!
Last two times I went to an STI clinic for a full screen (which I do between every relationship as well as my partners so we know we're STI free and can then choose to drop condoms/just use the pill) the doctor and nurse were both male. I can't say it registered as anything unusual until this thread. It'd have been me that was unreasonable if I'd just shown up and expected a woman then been annoyed, without bothering to make the request beforehand!
Not personally fussed about a chaperone but more than happy to have one as I feel it protects the doctor as much as the patient.