Male hospital staff

[ToadRage]

I don't really know how i feel about this or if I'm just being a bit precious. I had an appointment for a transvaginal ultrasound a couple of weeks ago. I was a bit shocked to find the sonographer was a man. A female nurse was present and she did all the talking, he barely said a word to me. I have had ultrasounds before but they have always been done by women. He was professional and nothing out of the ordinary happened but I felt a bit awkward as I haven't had a man down there except my husband in 20+ years, not even a male doctor. Am I wrong in thinking I should have been told it was going to be done by a man, maybe given the option to request a woman or AIBU?

It would be more realistic to suggest that users of a tax-payer funded healthcare service, run on the cheap by a state which is functionally bankrupt, get what they're given and if they don't like it... well, no-one is forcing them to take it for free.

Oh ok then we’ll just take the huge additional cost of women not pursuing possible cancers and agonising pain because they deserve what they’re given.

When you’ve been in fear or had severe pain or had cancer scares or are at heightened risk from cancer you’ll know how important going to see a gynocologist is. Many,many women are hugely uncomfortable with men they don’t know examining intimate areas and treating physical areas they have no experience of themselves Anything that is a barrier to women getting the care they need needs to be changed.

In my late teens I attended the local family planning clinic for the contraceptive pill. I was taken into a room where a male doctor said he wished to perform a gynaecology examination and take my very first cervical smear. I said I'd rather not have this performed by a man and he was fine and said to return to the waiting room and a female colleague would see me.

Unfortunately the accompanying middle aged female chaperone then announced to the waiting room full of men and women "Is there anyone here who doesn't mind being examined by a male doctor?' I wanted the ground to open and swallow me up when everyone turned to look at me. If it had happened today I'd probably have punched her!

What'a wrong with that though?

It seems like a sensible question

Have you had transvaginal ultrasound? Its very different from abdominal - I’m reasonably hardened to NHS staff but I’d baulk at a male operative for that particular scan.

If women’s privacy and dignity is too difficult or expensive then perhaps its time to consider a system which can operate with more consideration for female patients. At the moment women have no right to a female member of staff, whatever the reason for asking.

It was thoughtless and inconsiderate if it exposed a young woman to the scrutiny of the waiting room and made public something she had requested in private.

I’m regularly amazed on here, just how low expectations are for healthcare giving consideration to female patients. Even the most shocking attitudes are met with “be grateful”. Perhaps more posters should read up on the medical misogyny campaign being run by MN at the moment.

Women are tax payers.

Patient confidentiality 🙄

well maybe IF this did happen then they would think better about this. I'm sure there are few women outside of certain religions who would object to seeing a male doctor for a sore throat but an intimate exam is very different.

@MagpiePi you are happy to have this done by a man so that's all fine. Are you unable to understand why some women may not want this ?

She didnt say the patients name?

This highlights the need then for more females working this role then .

I dont know but why would she care if they guessed that it was her that didnt want to see a male doctor.
It's not a bad thing?
Lots of women dont want to see male doctors for vaginal issues

She doesn't need to ! It's a person whose confidentiality should be respected in a public space.

Thank you. It was very upsetting at the time and I would hate for any other young woman to experience the same. The chaperone could have called the next patient in and quietly said it was a male doctor and was this ok. Not everyone in the waiting room would have expected to have an intimate examination that day. Indeed I think it was every three to five years at the time.

But he had that choice which is correct and legal.

She didnt mention the patient at all!

GP would refer to a department not a particular clinician. GP has done nothing wrong

If OP was so concerned she she had the appointment notification she should have contacted them

Well clearly everyone knew it was me as I had just left the consulting room very red-faced!

I've had men a couple times. One asked me if I've ever had an abortion. Later on asked me a second time. I just got on with my day but in hindsight I should have complained.

You don't get it do you? It's not only about her - it's about all the waiting patients. Why should you have to identify your preferences in a public space like that ?

Why should would care is irrelevant. She was entitled to privacy and the supposed professionals did not respect that. This was her first visit, she was a teenager - I’m surprised she didn’t just walk out.

And we wonder why women are often so reluctant to come forward for screening and tests. The attitudes to women’s healthcare and privacy on this thread go a long way to explaining the problems of medical misogyny.

I can guarantee that no one would care in the slightest that she didn't want to see a male Doctor.

If I was in a waiting room and that happened, I probably wouldnt think about it. Everyone is thinking about their own issue. If i did think about it at all, I would think "good for her, thats her choice". And i would also refuse to have a male doctor when it came to my turn

I could say that your attitude is also as bad. As im trying to write something and instead of listening to my point of view, you just constantly say you are right.

It's shocking how unsupportive many women on this thread are - they denigrate women who for a variety of reasons which I don't need to spell out opt not to have this.