To ask for a female GP?

[Skylab12]

I've been tracking cycle over the past 6 months as things had become irregular and I've noticed that some of my cycles have been very short, one was 22days! Up until now 12 months ago (I'm 34) I've always been 31days like clockwork. I've also noticed I'm getting more anxiety pre period along with major fatigue, tinnitus, night sweats and nocturnal panic attacks. The periods themselves are not heavier but are more painful.

I don't have a good track record with GPs but think it's worth talking to someone, AIBU to ask for a female? I'm not squeamish, just feeling might be taken more seriously?

For context when I was pregnant with DS(7) I had hyperemesis which was brushed under the carpet by male GPs and I was miserable for 9months, second pregnancy with DD(2.5) female Gp put me straight on tablets and I was able to work and function relatively normally!

I think its fine to ask for a female dr

I try and get a specific dr when i want to talk about certain things

I should say that i did have a male dr that was my family’s doctor (back in the day when our surgery allocated you a specific dr)

I thought he was fabulous and i saw him every single time, and then he retired 😩

YANBU, I do this for many things. It is pretty common to have a preference, though depending on staffing at your surgery it might mean you have a slightly longer wait.
DH is a GP and he says that in most cases, anything to do with periods, HRT, breast exams etc women ask for female GPs. Also anything to do with men’s bits are almost always dealt with by male GPs. There are obviously exceptions but his is a large surgery and seems like most people feel more comfortable with the same sex for these things

Ask for whoever you want! That said the best experience I had re "women's problems" was with a male GP who listened, explained and referred unlike the female one I had been seeing who kept telling me to do my pelvic floor exercises.

Have you had Covid recently? A lot of my friends (me included) have had weird cycles after having it and the jabs - we're all in our thirties.

If your practice has advanced nurse practitioners I'd ask for one of those. They often seem more clued about issues like yours and can do any examinations, investigations and referrals needed.

I just refuse to see on specific doctor in my practice. In fact a lot of people refuse to see him because he has absolutely no bedside manner

Absolutely fine and totally normal thing to ask. No one will bat an eyelid.

If you are uncomfortable with a male doctor examining you I think it’s fine to ask for a female but I wouldn’t assume you will get better or more attentive care.

Agree. I had horrendous female ones when I was pregnant with my first that I had to report them and the hospital agreed they were wrong but no apology whatsoever from them. A fellow colleague of theirs commented that one of them was good and I stayed quiet (regret that a bit now) but it was a sore point and I was still dealing with PTSD from them. I’ve had a male one who couldn’t be bothered to read my history despite it being on paper and in the system so wasted my time lecturing me on something that had already been discussed and that an alternative treatment was being done. Another female one about issues with my ears who kept talking over me and telling me it was from a flight I took when I explained several times I had the issue for months and before the flight (took about a year to resolve and I did it myself after reading something on MN.) Been told I wouldn’t know things about my own body and periods from another female despite tracking them for years. I google or go private for things because it’s pointless when gps barely listen and even more disheartening when it’s other women.

You can ask for a female, but you may have to change practices if they don't have one.

You can ask for a female GP any time, for any reason, it doesn’t need to be justified. Many practices list GPs areas of interest and there might be a specific women’s health GP.

No reason you can't ask if you feel more comfortable. If it's a male gp you could ask if a nurse could sit in. Like everyone says it's not a male/female thing it's more a case of are they a decent doctor. The practice we use has no male gp so poor old DH has to put up with a female gp, he doesn't care, he's not going to ask her for a date. We have about an equal mix of useless/ok/good GPS.

Absolutely ask to see a female GP. Nothing wrong with doing this.

Look at your surgery website. It will probably show the GPs and their specialisms/areas of interest. Pick the one which mentions menopause. Could be male or female.

Personally rather than specifying a women, I got great results by telling the receptionist what I wanted to talk to a GP about, such as menopause or menstruation. My practice specialist for menstruation and menopause is female and she has been brilliant

I'd prefer a female doctor for boobs and bits but for anything else I'm not bothered.

I would ask for a female dr. Of course any dr can be insensitive but I I’d prefer a female dr too.

I read somewhere the other day about outcomes for women treated by female drs being better than women treated by males drs. Think it was an American study though. I’ll try to find it, it was interesting and there were a few hypothesis as to why there might be that trend.

Of course you should
Ask for a female GP if you want one. I have many GP friends and all of them think that women should have women and men should
Have men for any more intimate stuff like this.
They themselves prefer NOT to examine someone of the opp
Sex for intimate matters. One GP friend moved surgeries because he was somewhere with no female GPS and he didn’t think that was right.

When I was younger I thought, a doctor is a doctor, but now I’m older I just don’t want to talk to some 30 year old male doctor about anything intimate if possible.