Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt

[musicalfrog]

I haven't even finished the book yet but I'm getting more and more annoyed with him the further in I go. I didn't mind him initially but then the more he progresses in his career the more insufferable he gets!

Is he really such an arrogant *** or is he just writing for laughs? Whichever, I'm glad he's not a practicing doctor now, but unfortunately I recognise his attitude in a couple of doctors I had the misfortune to encounter during my first birth experience.

Just wondering if anyone else had the same reaction as me? I've not seen him on TV or anything, the book is all I have to go on.

Oh, and Mumsnet gets a mention a few chapters in!

Absolutely vile. Particularly the way he wrote about the sex worker who had used a sponge to cover the fact she was on her period. It was all “what a daft cow shoving a sponge up her vag and getting an infection” and going on about the smell.

As a woman who has had ptsd as a result of the care from doctors while in labour this book had me crying tears of frustration and rage for the women he treated. I’m astounded by the amount of people that think it’s hilarious.

I enjoyed it at first but his clear contempt for his patients made me really dislike him. He said he didn’t like the menopause clinic, seemed to be disgusted by the patients, called them something like “a load of old women with saggy pelvic floors”. Misogyny spoiled the book for me. There are other, funnier books by junior doctors.

I thought it was terrific - both funny and devastating.

I went to his show in London where he reads extracts from the book. His real life retelling of the reason why he stopped being a doctor was harrowing and he clearly still feels absolute devastation over it. He could barely speak for the emotion.

My parents are both medics, and both are very experienced trainers of junior doctors. They both hated it.

I struggled with it too, not the dark humour, that was fine, but the dismissive and patronising obstetric chapters. I read it after having my babies and realised why I might have had the traumatic experiences I did. This thread is quite a relief as before this I’ve mostly read fawning reviews and thought it was just me.

Just to note that not all of us in families of medics sit about guffawing about women’s birth injuries, as though that’s the only way to cope with some of the worst experiences of the job

Just to add - he made it clear that they call Obstetrics Twats and Brats in medical school - and like I said, I get the dark humour but his attitude added the misogyny to go along with it.

@BooblePlate

Just to note that not all of us in families of medics sit about guffawing about women’s birth injuries, as though that’s the only way to cope with some of the worst experiences of the job

That’s good to hear, thank you for saying that.

I also didn't like it. I just didn't think it was funny!

Nasty book. So disrespectful and misogynistic. I was sorry I read it and binned it immediately. It still makes me cross, and I’m glad he left the profession and won’t have to be near any ‘old nannas and their soggy pelvic floors’.

Thank you I'm glad it's not just me!

My first alarm bell actually came quite late - when he downplayed that bladder injury he caused by comparing it to a bus driver not saying hello or a waiter forgetting a side order. Then one page later blaming a woman for a failure to progress because she dared to have a birth plan. I mean it's so disgusting I can't take him seriously. But the underlying message seems to be that it's OK to take the piss out of vulnerable women, even if you're a medical professional.

What a grade A arsehole. I hope the book goes out of print.

Still haven't finished it so expecting to feel angry for a little while longer.

I hated it as well. Yes many professions use dark humour to get through the hard times, but with colleagues and not writing a book about it. The contempt he showed for some of the women in his care was vile, and the way he spoke about some of the stuff actually made me feel grim.

If any of you were in any doubt about Kay’s lack of humanity, you have only to look at the lyrics of some of his songs when he was half of the comic act “Amateur Transplants”.
In particular, his version of “My baby just cares for me” - entitled “Your baby has trisomy”, in which he mocks the features of Down’s syndrome.
As a retired doctor, I understand the need for humour in our job, but Kay crosses the boundary.

Good god. I just looked up the lyrics to that song you mentioned, Babdoc. That is HORRIFIC. What an absolutely vile person he is.

I loved Jed Mercurio's Bodies (fiction but he was a doctor). Didn't mind TIGTH and I had 2 ventouse births and a lot of PTSD (ime you have good medics and poor ones - two I find it hard to forgive were women).
I did wonder why Adam changed his boyfriend to a girlfriend in this though - not sure why he is closeted in what purports to be based on real life.

@EmphaticPeriod I wanted to watch bodies but I discounted it on the basis that having PTSD would probably make it decidedly less enjoyable. Although I do happily mainline Grey's Anatomy...🤷🏻‍♀️

Fucking hell that song is horrific. www.lyricsreg.com/lyrics/amateur+transplants/your+baby/

I quite liked the book but after reading these I. Entirely convinced he is an utter cunt.

I am entirely...

I loved it, so funny and honest!

God, I disliked him before but having read those lyrics... he is utterly vile.

@Snakeprint

I loved it, so funny and honest!

Funny - Misogyny, sexism and sneering contempt for your patients is hilarious.

Honest - a snapshot of just how some men view women, chilling.

The only good thing to come out of his book is that he quit medicine and is no longer in a position to inflict his misogyny and contempt on female patients.

Those lyrics! For fucks sake that 'song' is horrendous

It’s a good thing he left medicine, he was clearly never going to cut the mustard. To busy trying to be mr funny/cool.

That song is appalling but also bizarre, as in why the fuck would he have written it???

@Snakeprint

I loved it, so funny and honest!

If you think that it's honest, then you should be questioning why you're so accepting of his actions as being "honest". You can be honest about doing terrible things, honesty is not a guarantee of anything good.