Do you request a female doctor/nurse to do your smear test?

[catscan]

Just that really.

Never asked never cared

As I get older I care less

They are performing a professional function.

Yes, always. Just a personal choice.

I had one last week, female nurse who asked if I'd like a chaperone, I declined.

A few weeks ago I had to have a rectal exam, performed by a male GP who without question summoned a chaperone in.

Averylong

I agree, I am beginning to wonder about Cat’s agenda here... I guess the answers over on feminism chat were not good enough?

No, I expect people to be professional. I've actually never had a smear performed by a man, but given I've had other procedures which involved exposing myself under anaesthetic with male doctors, I wouldn't be bothered about a smear. Obvs acknowledge people who have had traumatic experiences might feel different.

Ironically, wanted a male GP to look at something which required me to take my top off and he asked me why I hadn't asked for a female GP....

Never asked, never cared.
Had male obstetric surgeon, had a male gynae deal with my placental
Abruption and miscarriage (only awkward because he was drop dead bloody gorgeous and I work in that hospital!) .

They are professionals. They see vaginas at work like the cardiac team see hearts. In that instance, I also see my vagina as a body part with physiological function, obviously it’s not pleasant, but I don’t find having surgeons examine me for my orthopeadic work pleasant either.

I can understand that some women may prefer females. Those who have had prior negative experience, but for general purposes for women with no negative history I don’t really get it. But then, I don’t have to get it. It’s their choice.

@catscan as far as I know you can request a different clinician for any reason at all, including more unpalatable requests such as requesting someone of a different race.

I will happily be corrected but I'm wrong.

IF I'm wrong, not but! Jeez.

I always check and request a woman.

Vulnerable position added to historical stuff makes it nerve racking enough so I do without the extra tension of having a male rummaging through my reproductives.

It's only the female nurse that does smear tests at our GP practice & if I was asked if I minded a male I'd probably request a female. A male Dr did my first smear & it was so painful I asked him to stop after a few seconds. He didn't. He told me he would just be quick. I was really sore & spotting for 3 days & he didn't even manage to do it right & I was called back. I've never had an experience like that with a female Dr or nurse. Slightly uncomfortable but not pain during & certainly not after.

I will say it again, directly to Cat this time, as I dont think she has acknowledged my earlier post, but I believe I was most probably assaulted by a GP when I was 18 (without specific details) during an unrequested (imho) unrequired, unchaperoned and frankly innapropriate examination. With the benefit of age I now see all the hallmarks of a very dodgy situation that occured there, but I didnt really realise it at the time, as I had little experience of womens health care appointments at that age.

I always request females for any women’s health appointments now, and I understandably would really like that option to continue to be respected and unchallenged, regardless of the percentages of respondents in favour and against.

Sorry, to clarify, it was a MALE gp.

Yes I would request a female nurse.

Rat

For those asking, I’m off sick with a broken ankle, and did some reading up on the Scottish gender consultation after someone posted it here. Curious, I then posted a few questions on the Feminism board, to which most answers were interesting (and some were patronising or aggressive, which is a shame, as I’d hoped to have some balanced discussions).

One of the things that came up was that almost everyone on the thread would request a female nurse or doctor for a scan. As I’m not bothered either way, this shocked me. So I thought I’d ask here as I couldn’t find any official stats.

Hope that clears up why I’ve posted and discussed things on a message board

Don’t worry, I won’t be back to the Feminist boards.

All the nurses at my GP are female as far as I know, I've never asked. I'm not sure how I'd react if there was a male nurse, I would like to think I would be fine but there's a good chance I might just swiftly reverse out of the room.

Having said that, the female midwife for dd1's delivery was a total fuckwit and I was so pleased to see the male doctor, he just exuded confidence whereas she exuded fuckwittery. So maybe it would be okay as long as I got confident vibes!

I have only had them done by the nurse and neither of the practices I have been at have had male nurses. I would think it would be more unusual for a male to do it though - wouldn't they need to have a chaperone in the room, which would mean another member of staff.

Thinking about it , having had ivf at a clinic where most of the of the consultants were male, I don't think it would worry me any more. I don't know if I would have said that before having the treatment, and can understand why many women would want a female to do it.

I haven't asked, but I've had two female nurses do it. First one brilliant, we had a right laugh. Second one made it cringingly awkward even though I am about as relaxed as you can get about the procedure.

I would far prefer a man like the first nurse than a man or woman like the second. It was like she was scared of my vagina ffs.

I ask for a particular nurse! She is the only one who can manage a sample from my high, tilted cervix. The last few times i’ve been, she’a had to come and help, so this time I just asked for her.

But what difference do “official stats” or ‘mumsnet’ stats make anyway? Out of curiosity? Surely there is no relevance, even if only 5% of women say they would refuse a ‘non female’ hcp, then those women surely still take priority, due to the fact that they feel vulnerable for any potential reason, including but not limited to sexual assault. The Women who dont care/are not bothered, are in no way affected negatively in any event, so surely you would theoretically defer to the vulnerable minority in those circumstances?

I was forced to undergo an unwanted intimate exam by a male doctor. It was just before my 12th birthday.

I have seen 4 consultant urologists, all men. One was lovely. One okay. One was decidedly weird and sexist although his heart was in the right place. The 4th told me my pain was in my head because I was an anxious young lady. Hours later I was having emergency kidney surgery.

I've seen 2 consultant gynaecologists, both male. One was lovely. One told me I was a foolish young lady and getting emotional because I wanted a home birth.

I have had some mediocre female drs but I've never had one assault me or insult me on the basis of my sex or dismiss pain as hysteria. So yeah, for intimate procedures, no men outside life or death emergencies.

Sorry to hear that Johnny

i see the nurse, she is female. so she does it.
i have had male doctors poke about during child birth and such like,
but for a smear I prefer a female, same with a mammogram
it all is shit enough with out a man doing it.\if I had to have a man do it. dh would be there too( I would ask him)

My best friend growing up had her hymen broken by her male GP when she was 16. She was there for allergies. Years later he served time for similar and numerous offences.

My adult friend was in hospital with a suspected broken ankle and the male doctor examining her took the opportunity to examine her breasts.

There are loads of fab male doctors out there. I am certain that if I or my daughters will ever be sexually assaulted by a doctor or nurse, that doctor or nurse will most likely be male.

My dd saw a really lovely male paediatric urologist when she was little. When he went to examine her, he asked me to come over and explained what he was doing to her and then told her that she need never consent to anything she was uncomfortable with and said to me "and you should of course always be right next to her when she is examined like this don't ever let anyone push you away". I doubt he was giving us this useful advice because of his worries about female nurses and doctors.

Yes

Never thought about it really, as I have always had a (female) nurse. If I had a choice of male or female, I would pick female.

When I make an appointment, it says on the little appointment card '2pm appointment with Mandy or Liz or whoever,' and I KNOW all the nurses at my medical practice are female. If I went in and it was a man, and I was uncomfortable with it, I would refuse to have it done.

I went for a smear once (about 10 years ago,) and the nurse - who had only just started 2 months back - was the mother of one of my daughter's classmates.

No.

Fucking.

Way.

I don't care how professional or discreet she was, no WAY was she seeing my fanjo. I would never have been able to look her in the eye again. I actually thought it was wrong having a nurse at the local medical practice, that was one of the mothers at the local primary school. Just too familiar. And no way was she giving me a smear.

I went in and cringed when I saw her. She said 'errm when did your last period finish?' I knew it was 10 days ago, but I said 'yesterday,' (knowing the smear could not be done then!) So she said 'oooh, sorry you will have to wait til next week.' I think she was as relieved as me.

So that is the only one time I have not let a female nurse do it.