To wonder why men work in gynecology?

[CustardC]

Genuine question, my sisters and I were discussing our most recent smear tests and sister 1 commented on how her nurse was male. I've always asked for a female when I book a smear or any type of gyne issues and it's always been respected, but it got me thinking...if there are any men here who work in that field, why?

I'm fully prepared for the backlash that ill probably get but honest question👍

Are you sure?

Because they are perverts! Or want to control women, or both. Any man who wants to specialise in womens vaginas can fuck off and treat balls as far as I'm concerned. In the last few years there were 50 registered male midwives in UK and 2 of them got convicted of sex crimes. That's just the ones who got convicted.

My obstetrician was a man and he was wonderful, respectful and very competent. He was just interested in obstetrics and gynaecology and found it fascinating.

If men want to see vaginas for sexual kinks, there are much, much easier ways to do that than to train for years to be a OBGYN. I actually can't think of anything that would put me off vaginas more than looking at them all day.

I had a friend at school who's dad was the head of gynaecology at the local hospital. Shortly after qualifying his wife had their first child and it was an awful awful experience. They went through the complaint process, got the usual "lessons will be learned" response but as far as he was concerned, nothing changed. He decided the best way to stop it happening to other women would be to retrain and change his specialism to gynaecology.

I used to work in obs & gynae, with a mix of male and female doctors and nurses. IME it's all body parts, like arms and legs.

I totally understand that people have different perceptions of their own body parts. We wear clothes, we cover our selves. Some people have total body confidence and some don't. Some people are more confident with the oposite sex some are not.

It is understandable that some women might feel uncomfortable with a male examining or performing a procedures their breasts/ genitals. Not necessarily because they think the DR is a perv.

Having worked in that field, it never crossed my mind to ask why men work in it. They just do, as men on the whole work across all professions.

As some PP have said, there are men that do care about women's health, just as they care about health in general.

I have worked with some lovely male gynaecologists. Working in the field you get to know them.

I've had many make gynaes and a male midwife and a male doctor in birth. Male who fitted by coil, operated on my bladder etc.

I honestly don't care

What percentage of priests are paedos again? On took them ten years of long training and a lifetime vow of celibacy.

This is the kind of misogyny women dread when seeing a HCP.

I googled to check your stats and one thing I found was "Of the 450 midwives permanently employed at Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Trust, three are men, including the head of midwifery, Giuseppe Labriola". 447 woman and it just so happens that the best candidate for the top job was one of three men.

FWIW it seems like more like 100 male midwives now, and that at least one was convicted of a sex crime in the last year, and at least one other was found guilty of misconduct that involved a sexual element. Your stats appear to be in the right ball park.

I think the way you have phrased that is unnecessarily blunt, and I don't agree with you... but I do have some sympathy with your view.

@glassfully... He decided the best way to stop it happening to other women would be to retrain and change his specialism to gynaecology.

Was he right though? Would he have had a more positive impact had he spent his spare time encouraging women into gynaecology and encouraging research into best pricatice

Maybe they simply find it fascinating? I’ve had very good male gynaecologists. And bad female ones too.

The absolute bollocks being spouted on here is fucking reprehensible.

Two of my #metoo moments were at the hands of male hcps, one optician, one GP, maaaany years ago. And a male gynaecologist LIED to me to get me into the stirrups - female nurse had to make him stop because of the pain he had assured me would be 'mild discomfort'.

It’s not something I would have given a second thought to until I supported a friend through an incredibly traumatic experience with her male GP. She was contacted by the police after it was discovered he was secretly filming himself examining female patients and she was one of his victims. She was and still is devastated and will never trust a male health care professional again and I don’t blame her.

Anecdotal i know - but as a male, I was sexually assaulted when i was about 18 by a woman in a bar/club (early 90's). Tried to 'get over it' at the time but it did effect me with confidence & trust issues for quite some time after.

Fast forward to when i was early 40's and now as a police officer - dealing with a fight in a pub and crouching on the floor with a male detained on the floor and crowd gathering around us, when some female grabbed at me again then disappeared into the crowd. Brought everything back from when i was 18 again, flashbacks, anxiety etc. So it does effect us blokes - but we do what blokes do and try and put it in a box in the back of our brain and blot it out.

@glassfully... He decided the best way to stop it happening to other women would be to retrain and change his specialism to gynaecology.

Was he right though? Would he have had a more positive impact had he spent his spare time encouraging women into gynaecology and encouraging research into best pricatice*.

How could he have done that as a cardiologist? Even with the best will in the world, nothing changes if the people in charge don't care or brush mistakes under the carpet rather than look at how to fix them.

If I had medical issues and needed seen I couldn't give two hoots if it was a man, woman or a feckin leopard that was helping me so long as they were qualified...

And yet when women complain about men sleazing on them, and men minimise groping, and the women say "How would you like it if strange women grabbed your crotch" etc, the blokes invariably respond with "I should be so lucky", "I'd love it, darling!", "Oh yes please!' A totally different attitude - women don't joke about it like this.

I'm sure men wouldn't like it if elderly, or unattractive women touched them - but it certainly wouldn't traumatise them the way an assault does a women. For one thing, men are physically stronger - they are highly unlikely to be overpowered, and taken advantage of. They have the strength to repel an assault if they needed to.

Not saying in never happens (eg Joyce McKinnon), but it is far from the same dynamic - and it certainly doesn't happen to "millions" of men.

And yet when women complain about men sleazing on them, and men minimise groping, and the women say "How would you like it if strange women grabbed your crotch" etc, the blokes invariably respond with "I should be so lucky", "I'd love it, darling!", "Oh yes please!' A totally different attitude - women don't joke about it like this.

Do they?
Maybe you need to reconsider the men in your life. I have never heard a single man say that.

And yet when women complain about men sleazing on them, and men minimise groping, and the women say "How would you like it if strange women grabbed your crotch" etc, the blokes invariably respond with "I should be so lucky", "I'd love it, darling!", "Oh yes please!' A totally different attitude - women don't joke about it like this.

i think most men will use this as a defence mechanism to stop it happening - kind of reverse psychology.

And sexual assaults do traumatise people no matter if your male or female. Its not a question of being physically stronger so you can overpower them - by the time you realise what is happening - its happened.

My (female) dr didn’t believe me when I said I thought my issues were XYZ thing and took ages to send me to gynaecology, instead sending me round the houses for 6 months. When I eventually got to the see a (male) gynaecologist, he was very respectful, listened to me, and confirmed that yes it was indeed XYZ that I was suffering from.

Apologies if this has been mentioned already but if you have been for a smear test in general practice, that is a practice nurse you see not someone who works in gynae. They have many different skills/ aspects of their job and male nurses shouldn't be stopped from doing that part of the job because they are male. If all of you were seen in hospital for follow up then that would be a gynae consultant but as others have said why does it matter ?! You can request female staff but drs can be any speciality...

Yes but if I was to feel even slightly comfortable with a male performing a procedure I would rather it was solely his job not something of a novelty. There would be more declines of a male nurse for a smear than for a specialist gynaecologist issue.

hmm there is always drive to try and increase smear test uptake though, and many women are still declining or missing their smear tests. In reality having male staff perform them would be very detrimental to this cause.

If I couldn’t get an appointment with a female nurse for a smear test I probably wouldn’t go.