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.

If you don't like what the NHS offer go private.

I'm not saying anything except that it would be perfectly easy to skew gynaecology in favour of women doctors.

What matters is how able they are. How capable and competent. Not whether they are male or female.
Are we going back in time or something ? In modern society this sort of conversation has no place whatsoever.

I have had a horribly painful smear from a woman who seemed to find the whole process embarrassing.

She was faffing about the fact that I had slightly misplaced the "skirt" of paper - something that was entirely useless to adding dignity.

I've always been completely shameless about a smear, one woman offered to tack one on to a different appointment, and I said if she didn't mind that I hadn't showered, fine. She said that as long as she couldn't smell me from there it was fine - we had a laugh.

The other woman made a total fussy faff of it - tensed me up and I ended up bleeding.

A man who was straightforward about it would have been far better.

And I refused to have a smear for 25 years because of how badly I was hurt by a female clinician

Because every woman who has a fear of men from being raped has the money to expedite her gynaecology treatment by doing that. Sure.

Not even starting on the fact that the vast, vast majority of private consultants are men.

You're allowed to have a preference OP but you can't say that a male cannot be a gynaecologist just because you seem to think that a male one is automatically a pervert for choosing that profession. How many men see female doctors and nurses about their problems with their genitals and no one calls those female staff perverts for having to look at Willy's etc in their line of work. I mean female care workers do personal care on both genders so are they suddenly perverts for undressing and washing a male service user? I'm pretty sure that no doctor nurse etc have got themselves thousands into debt from medical school fees just to think "oh now I'm qualified to perv on a woman's vagina". Grow up. Ask for a female staff member if that's your preference and leave it at that

Those advocating for no men to be allowed - there aren’t enough female gynaes to go around the people that have expressed a preference.

And I will get flamed but women doctors who have children are less likely to be as available due to mat leave, part time working etc so you would presumably need more of them to ensure that you get the same amount of cover that you would from a man

We'd have to say a male GP couldn't deal with gynae issues too, and get rid of the male doctors working in Fertility units.
Whose to say there are thousands of females wanting to work in these fields?
Could female doctors find themselves pushed to fill jobs they don't want?

I feel people are being a bit harsh on the OP. The same thoughts have crossed my mind tbh, about how out of all the body parts / medical specialisms, why would a man choose gyno in particular. Same for breast care.
I certainly don't think all these men chose that specialism for nefarious reasons, but sadly I expect there are some who have.
Is there an equivalent the other way round, eg a hospital department that's only for male urology? If so, it would be interesting to know how many female doctors specialise in that.
Historically, males have been given greater status, and even though things are changing, that idea still permeates - I can remember as a kid getting the impression from books, tv etc that nurses were women and doctors were men, ugh. So I think that helps us subconsciously 'accept' it when our gynaecologist is a man.

You have every right to express a preference for a male or female doctor,but to say they cant work in a particular field because of their sex is just stupid. Presumably using that argument you shouldn’t have females working in urology as a not insignificant number of patients are male.

That's sexist. Women can be dick doctors?

An orthopedic surgeon doesn't need to have experienced multiple bone fractures personally to do their job?

Both men and women should be allowed to do any job.

In healthcare, you're entitled to request a woman and if they can supply one they will. But sometimes there isn't one. It doesn't mean men should be banned.

@CaragianettE: The handmaids are out in force tonight. May the Lord open!

@CaragianettE: Adam ‘brats and twats’ Kay? That Adam Kay?

I have to say, @CaragianettE, after your quite reasoned opening post, the quality of your argument went down hill quite rapidly when people started disagreeing with you.

I agree with PPs that a person's gender should not preclude them from occupations and having many friends who are doctors they all assure me that after so many years of training they really are looking at a patient's body parts from a medical perspective with neither pleasure nor distate.

Your comments remind me of a colleague years ago who got really upset when her primary school age children had a male teacher because she "thought it was a weird job for a man to want to do". Ridiculous. That was in the 1990s and even then nobody else at work agreed with her.

So perhaps ladies should stick to lady things and men stick to men things? Wow.

Can someone be a paediatrician or midwife without having children? Can someone be a geriatric nurse without being old?

I’ve read Adam Kay’s books, I wasn’t offended by the black humour, I can imagine those terms being used behind the scenes. Perhaps I just grew up in more resilient times,

And all the ‘I wonder what motivates someone to want to do the job’ is why men don’t go into teaching and nursery settings. Or admit they like children in the same way a woman would.

Then women complain that they do all the caring roles.

When I had severe gynae pain and could hardly walk because of it, I, personally wouldn't have cared if a trained chimp was treating me for it as long as they knew what they were doing.

You ARE being unreasonable. How utterly absurd and also sexist your opinion is! Yes, men SHOULD be allowed to be gynos.

What about male nurses, male doctors, male midwives?

It's like saying women shouldn't be allowed to be bricklayers or truck drivers or QE2 captains..

Just because a very tiny amount of men in those roles ''have motives'' and are pervy or whatever, it doesn't mean to say they're all like that.

As a woman myself, I'm all in favour of women's rights and letting us make up our own minds and choices about what we do with our own bodies, but what you're saying is totally ridiculous!

It's a highly lucrative speciality option. I lived next door to a OBGYN consultant and the cost of living crisis didn't even make it past his electric gates.

Completely agree with you op. I always say it. Why of all the avenues of medicine choose gynae? It’s fucking weird.

It’s not remotely the same. But you know that.

My favourite comment and true!!

“Your vagina is not that exciting” 😂 😂 😂

YABU. Every male gynecologist ive seen has treated me with respect and care and been extremely gentle.. the women gynecologists I've seen I've been left feeling violated and sore.

For context I have had 2 scans due to painful intercourse internal and external both times, the first one a woman did the scan and she was very forceful with the probe, I left in agony. The 2nd one was done by a man and he was incredibly gentle with the probe and very respectful.

Another time I had to have a biopsy on my cervix I've had this done twice, the woman did the first one and I nearly fainted and was told 'its not that bad' like it's perfectly pain free and normal to have a chunk of your cervix punctured and ripped out.. the 2nd time a man did it, he allowed me to have gas and air and he put me to ease and most importantly he was as gentle as he could be and it didnt hurt anywhere near as much as the first time (most likely thanks to the gas and air) but he allowed me to stay in the chair until I felt able and ready to stand up.

I will happily be seen by a male gynecologist, the only boundary I have there is that I must have either my mum or my partner with me for support and added comfort.

Okay so assuming you would need, say, 1.5 female gynaes to replace each male one (due to maternity, part time working etc) then how is that going to happen?

that’s an absolutely ridiculous theory