If you're female AIBU to ask if you're ok with male health professionals at all times and in any scenario?

[DockerDre]

It's just that question really.

I don’t think what I said is hard to understand so I am wondering why it is that you are missing the point to be honest.

Making it relevant to this thread the nail OP claims to be a female GP - so good luck to her female patients who have to consult with miss judgey pants.

Haven't read the whole thread, but i do ask for a female GP for some things, anything gynaecological or poo-related, and I wouldn't want a man doing my smear test. When I went into labour I didn't ask for a female midwife and don't think I would have cared if it was a man.

I definitely don’t want the person doing any internal examination on me to be wearing long acrylic nails!

And Blistory, I was desperately trying to articulate that so thank you for stating it so succinctly - least harm to the greatest number, not giving everyone what they want. Exactly!

So choice is only valid if you get what you want ? Society works on the basis of causing the least harm to the greatest number of people, not on giving everyone what they want.

Nope. I've said repeatedly that I am all for choice.

However, in specific circumstances you have to pick the best person for the job, rather than observing choice.

So in this instance, the practice can only support one Dr in fitting IUDs. In this very limited situation they should train the best person. If there are several candidates then of course choose a female. But if the choice is incompetent female or competent male I think it's inconceivable that you select the woman.

I would want a female if I have a gynecogical issue. I just think they might understand it more if I they may have personal experience, at least the experience of mensruating. And I would not want a smear done by a man.
In any other area I’m fine with either sex.

least harm to the greatest number, not giving everyone what they want. Exactly!

Precisely. Least harm will be done by the competent male GP.

No, only having a male GP available to do coil fittings will cause a great deal of harm as many women will be unable to see him because a significant number of women are not comfortable with a man doing that kind of procedure.

The fact that your surgery has appointed a bad female doctor is one very individual and unique situation. I’m struggling to see it’s relevance to the wider issues.

Not because he’s male though. II don’t understand why you can’t see that your own issue with your particular GP is that she’s crap, not that she’s a woman.

There was one scenario outlined when a GP practice could only afford to have one doctor trained to insert coils and chose the woman GP who was unpopular with patients. Which seems to me like a least worst solution.

Hmm. But in that situation, surely one group will have the choice removed fullstop either way? If the practice can only train one GP then its either..anyone wanting a coil has to have a man, or has to have a woman.

Thinking about it, in our surgery it seems only one of the GPs is trained to do the implant. Hes a bloke and..alright.

Precisely. Least harm will be done by the competent male GP.

If there's the choice of a crap female doctor or a competent male one, I'd take the male one every time.

Don't care, had male for very intimate examinations and procedures and i don’t care.
They’re doctors.

Mulling over this (and nails ,because I'm good at multitasking like that) it seems to me that the issue is that just one practitioner is trained in one thing,and that practitioner sucks. The choice isn't taken away because she's female, it is because by the sounds of it she is incompetent and patients lack trust in her.

Ideally there would be more than just one person trained so it removes this type of scenario.

The scenario keeps being shit female doctor or good male doctor, and everyone would obviously pick the good one,by default male. Why not shit female doctor (if we really must have one) vs good female doctor?

I think on the coil example..I would lean towards it being a female who was trained too. Mainly because..not many women would specifically request a bloke, where a lot of women would ask for a woman. If only a bloke is trained, many many women will not feel able to get the coil fitted if they want to, for whatever reason..history of sexual abuse, religion, whatever. I would think it was very very rare for someone to specify they did NOT want a female doctor doing something like that. So yeah, training a female is the least worst option IMO too.

The issue is that we can’t have free choice for everyone so we have to pick a way for things to work and that means some people will sometimes lose out. So I would say that a GP surgery absolutely has to have a female available to fit coils and do smears. If they also have capacity to train a male, great. But they must have a female who can do it.

Now, if they can only sustain one person, it’s got to be the woman. Maybe some people won’t like her. That’s a shame for them. But better that they lose out than the women who cannot or do not want to see a male doctor having no female option.

Yes, I get that it is only 1 Dr.

But it should still be that the most competent Dr is selected. And lots of people are missing out on treatment because even patients who want a female Dr won't go to see her. A couple of my friends have seen her and won't go again. I won't go full stop. In no other instance would anyone be arguing for the least competent person to be employed simply because of their sex.

And yes Blistory my issue is that they are a crap Dr and I always refuse to see her, for any condition. It's just that in this instance she has been chosen for this specific role due entirely to her sex. So, in a way, the fact that she is female is relevant.

And in your surgery, Decomposing, you said the male doctor couldn’t perform them not because he wasn’t trained but because he didn’t carry out enough per year to keep his licence because so many people were choosing the woman...so that kind of proves that choice wins. More patients chose her; she keeps her licence.

Why not shit female doctor (if we really must have one) vs good female doctor?

If the surgery had a shit female doctor and a good female doctor of course I;d go for the good on.
Can't you see though if it was only female doctors for some things and the only female one was crap, then you're denied the chance of going to the male doctor down the corridor who's lovely?
It's taking the choice away if you have to the female one.

It's taking the choice away if you have to the female one.

But..if its a male thats chosen then thats also taking away the choice of a female one. So its taking away choices either way surely? The main issue there for me tbh is that..having only one option for stuff is a bad thing

But taking the choice of a male doctor away affects a smaller number of patients.

Plenty of women want only a female HCP, all other things being equal.
Plenty of women don’t mind the sex of the HCP, all other things being equal.
A smaller number of women want only a male HCP, all other things being equal.

Training up the female HCP satisfies the needs of the majority. It might not be fair to those in the third group but given that it doesn’t do them any harm, it’s the most practical solution.

But operating within the constraints of the NHS, sometimes there will only be one option. And if it comes to that, it has to be for a female hcp to be available to carry out intimate procedures rather than the only person available being male.

YourSarcasmIsDripping

I'm only presenting this scenario because this is the situation.

When I spoke to my male GP about treatment options for heavy periods he suggested the Mirena. I agreed and asked if he could fit it. He said that yes, he could because he was trained but that in order to be able to fit them there is a condition that a Dr has to fit a certain number per year. The number fitted each year in our surgery means that only 1 Dr has to do all of them in order to retain their validation.

When he told me which Dr did them I complained to him and he explained that the other 2 female drs were very part time and didn't want to do them so it fell to this remaining female Dr to do them.

Hence the scenario of shit female Dr Vs any other Dr in the surgery really (though they would all be male)

Last time I spoke to him about it he did say that they were probably going to discontinue the service because too few patients were attending (I wonder why). So even less choice then.

I imagine numbers would be low of the only doctor in a surgery able to fit coils was male as well.

Frankly I would go elsewhere if my choice for coil insertion was a woman who was trained but rough or a man who was trained but inexperienced.