To think men should not be allowed to be gynaecologists

[CaragianettE]

Just that, really. Saw one last week. He was trying to be helpful, but I really really really don’t want to discuss ‘do you get clots’ ‘do you experience flooding’ ‘do you find intercourse painful’ with a strange man. Yes it would be awkward with a strange woman too, but at least I know she likely has some lived experience of what we are talking about. TBH I also question men’s motives for choosing this job, not just the licence to look at strange women’s vaginas, but I think there’s something deep in the male psyche that just loves laying down the law to women about their reproductive systems. It’s a job for a woman, and while I know men were allowed to train for it in the past, I think they should now be phased out.

Utterly ridiculous. I just want someone competent in a specialty, male or female. Stop assuming all male gynaecologists are up to no good, because it's such a lazy view.
And I gave to say, the most unsympathetic medic I ever saw about a gynae issue was.... female.

And a woman not wanting to see a male gynaecologist is being comprehensively challenged and disagreed with. What’s your point?

It is unreasonable that a woman is told “accept intimate contact from a man or go to the bottom of the list”.

You know someone who has received an NHS letter saying exactly this? I hope they complained about it to PALS

You wouldn't have to restrict the total, we have more than enough female doctors unable to obtain a training places, it's partly what their current strikes are about.

There are 20,000 resident doctors, at least half of them female, in this year's cohort alone. The last estimated I saw was 100,000 trained doctors with no route into specialist training. Some of them are driving taxis.

Not quite the same issue, I know, but the only rough treatment I ever had during two difficult, assisted labours, was from a female obstetrician.

I had the most horrific experience with a male obstetrician. I’ve had to have therapy and I most certainly (according to my clinical psychologist) have PTSD. I will not describe the experience other to say it was incredibly invasive, unnecessary and I was injured and bruised due to his brute strength during the procedure. Could a woman have done that to me in the same procedure, no chance as he was sweating as he did it he was using so much force. So no men should not be. He should not have been.

I wouldn't ban them, OP. That would be discrimination.

That said, I will never and have never seen a male doctor or health professional for anything female health related. Unless it is a real life or death emergency and I had no choice, I would never, ever want to be seen or treated by a man and I always insist on a woman for any appointments or scans.

I've seen quite a few gynaecologists over the years. Men and women. All but one were fairly dismissive and uninterested in how to help. All NHS. So probably not a man thing, just a gynaecologist thing.

Isn’t that the same for lots of doctors? DH has prostate cancer, one of the specialists is female. I’ve mainly had male doctors and surgeons, for sterilisation, hysterectomy, removal of a breast lump and haemorrhoid removal. All the ops were successful, no complaints.

It has never been an issue, and if it had been, I could have requested to see a female. We’re all different, and there is choice for those who feel the need.

18 years ago I was in the day unit of the local maternity hospital. Twin babies and me being monitored for early labour. The consultant and registrar who saw us were both men. Didn’t give a shit then and wouldn’t now - they’re just doctors!

I do wonder what leads men to actively pursue a career where they'll have their face hands and cold metal instruments doing things only women endure.

I also wonder how many female proctologists there are compared to male gynaes.

I've encountered two male gynaes in my experience.

The first lied to me to get me into the stirrups for what he assured me would be just a little look, get a little sample and wouldn't hurt. I was rescued from that by a nurse who stopped him, then he stamped out without speaking to me, leaving her to deal with my distress.

The second asked permission to touch, explained what he was doing, was very gentle and swift, and assured me all looked healthy and my risks were very low.

I'm glad you said that out loud bc that's the way i feel too. It's hard to explain, has nothing to do with sex, i just don't like having a woman rummaging around down there. I don't particularly relish a man doing it either 🤣 but it feels less weird.

My poor old dad was similar when he was ill. He didn't want a man changing his catheter. Again, nothing to do with sex, he was 87 and dying of cancer, it just felt wrong for him to have another man down there (he wasn't a homophobe either).

Oh grow up.

No, a woman not wanting male gynaecologists to exist is being comprehensively challenged and disagreed with. Don't make things up.

This doesn’t even make sense!

My point was in my trust there is no female gynae, so you literally have no choice but to see a person who has no actual experience of what you are going through, even if only on a minor scale. I was told “this might pinch but it’s not painful” during my last procedure. I had morphine and a local and I still threw up and passed out from the pain, so clearly he was very wrong, but there is no recourse for me to choose a gynae who does have understanding. That’s the bit that really sucks.

Bless you OP. Life is so much easier when you let go of the pearls.

Why? If there are enough females so that every woman with a female preference gets to see one then why should it be increased beyond that?

I was trying to remember what this man had been quoted as saying that made me never want to pick up one of his books.

I don't think you're being unreasonable in finding it more uncomfortable discussing these things with a man.
Anecdotally, I was offered a male gynae at an appointment and like all the other women who were in the waiting room I said that I would wait for the woman to be free.
I don't know if my experience would have been better with him but I really should have reported the woman.
I've never been back for any sort of gynae appointment since as I'm not up for a repeat of that.

What it points to is a careful need for training and screening.

Me too

But more females than males are employed by the NHS, as you yourself admit.

Are you saying you want to skew this even further, or should we start discriminating against women in other areas to even out the numbers?

In a previous life I used to work in urology. I have seen much, much penis. Day in day out. I even held quite a few during procedures.

Like other healthcare professionals I separated the penis from the person and any hint of sex.

I love sex/cock/however you want to put it, but it is all about context.

YABVU OP male gynaecologists are healthcare professionals and a vagina etc is just another body part to them like a leg or and ear.

Talking absolute rubbish.

Ikwym, but there would be a shortage if men stopped doing the job and that's not really helping women.

I had an awful internal ultrasound with a bloke once who wanted to chat to me like he was showing me his holiday snaps. Poke, poke, poke....ooh look, look! Its your ovary! LOOK!
Oh do fuck off!

I can remember years ago having to go an emergency department in a women’s hospital and seeing a female gynae. I didn’t just turn up I was sent by my GP. Terrible Endo flare and a lovely side of genital herpes at the same time which had travelled down each leg.
I was on my own in my 20’s in such pain, and a bit tearful. And this is what I got told…
oh do stop blubbering there are women in here in real pain giving birth or their babies have just died.
By the time I got seen again it was by a male gynae and he I admitted me. He gave me a lidocaine injection into each bum cheek for the pain and I slept all night.
It took me 18 years to be diagnosed with endo and most female gynaes I saw who had least sympathy. It’s just period pain, dear.
And when the menopause finally came, and I thought I could never have HRT, it was a male gynae who prescribed HRT and oversaw it for 6 months.
I have had that many issues over the years, like so many women, when you are in agony you just need someone competent.