One reason is you get to restrict your practice to females. One doctor said men were bad patients. Another didn't like "old patients and chronic conditions that never seemed to be cured" or (rejecting pediatrics) "the annoying parents of healthy kids!" Some feel comfortable around women: "I grew up with six sisters, and so I was used to having my life revolve around estrogen, ovulation, and hormones." Perhaps slightly weirdly interested: "The female body is a metaphor for her womanhood, and I am granted access to her whole identity. That’s a great honor."
Others liked the cheerful context of mostly healthy patients in mostly happy times: "I’m kind of freaked out by sickness and death," "the miracle of giving birth … that never gets old," "delivering babies was just about the coolest thing ever."
Then there's the career opportunity that's leveraged on the very suspicion that keeps many men out of this specialty:
I was nervous about being a young, male gynecologist. Frankly, I worried I’d have no patients. But I’ve learned that some women still prefer male doctors, and it’s not for the reasons you might think. They say men are more sensitive on average, more responsive to their concerns. I’ve heard that men are better at pelvic exams because we’re so terrified of causing discomfort that we’re obsessively gentle. Male doctors are less dismissive of a woman’s problems because everything sounds so terrifying and horrifying to us since we don’t go through it. Like, tell us your period is heavy and we feel awful about it! There are people who aren’t allowed to have a male doctor … mostly Muslim … and teenage girls and young women who have not yet had a baby are more likely to want a female … but once a woman has pushed out a kid, it’s like, “Who gives a crap?!” From a recruiting perspective, male gynecologists are a minority, and programs are interested in us — straight men in particular — to reinforce the notion that men still belong in the field, and it’s not just women-to-women care that matters. Focusing on women-to-women care superimposes that there’s a sexual element there, and that makes us think of medicine the wrong way.That last point is especially intelligent. Gynecological health care is not sexual, and having only female gynecologists sends the message that it is.
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It appears to me that having a male ob/gyn and a female doula would be ideal for any expectant mother.
White women thinking only a woman doctor should be trusted with their health concerns. Meanwhile, whites will avoid a black doctor at all costs, under some excuse like their belief that the black doctor must've only got there through affirmative action and couldn't be a GOOD doctor.
Look, white people: when you do those stupid white people things and show up at the emergency room with a light bulb stuck up your ass and swear you don't know how it got there -- well, the black doctor on call will look pretty good then...
And yes, he will laugh at you afterward. White people are always sticking stupid things up their asses, its a sickness.
It is turtles all the way down...
My kids had a male pediatrician, and he was and is awesome. I'm grateful they had the same pediatrician their entire childhood, too.
Male doctors are less dismissive of a woman’s problems because everything sounds so terrifying and horrifying to us since we don’t go through it. Like, tell us your period is heavy and we feel awful about it!
That's probably true. It's a lot harder to be sympathetic to complaints like that if you have to haul your own butt in to work while suffering from the same thing. I know I could feel myself losing some of my sympathy for worried well parents once I had kids myself.
One of my best friends is a female gynecologist in her late 40s. She's told me anecdotes about how men assume she's a lesbian and about how often women assume she hates women.
Men have also changed and are functioning within a different environment. Back in the pre-70s, mostly male doctor days, OBGYNs apparently really were pretty horrible and would do things like order hysterectomies at the drop of a hat.
Or, more even more likely, C-sections. The common thought back then was that a lot of male OB/Gyns would do unneeded Cesareans to make tee times.
This whole thing is interesting, to see the turnaround in the field. Back then, women in the field were rare, and the males fiercely protective of their specialty. It involved surgery, they were surgeons, and women didn't belong in the field for that reason. The hazing of female OB/Gyns in the 1970s or so was, apparently, quite intense.
But, surprise, surprise, women can do surgery, and gynecology is probably a bigger part of their practice, and a lot of patients really preferred women. Twenty odd years ago, when the mother of my kid was expecting, there were only two female ob/gyns in town, and more than a dozen males. It was pretty funny at times, with the married Muslim students at the university, where the women weren't supposed to see male doctors (and, esp. for this sort of thing), but the much more experienced female doc was in a practice with 4 or 5 men, and pregnant women had to rotate through all of them, because you never knew who would be on call when the kids were delivered. She took great glee in this, given the extreme sexism of Islam. She delivered my kid (and gave them the nickname they carry to this day) even though it wasn't her on-call day, due to the relationship she has with my ex, something she would never have done for the Muslim patients.
This doctor (who is Ann's age) is one of the women doctors who told me (and esp. my ex here) the hazing stories about ob/gyn residencies in the 1970s. And, now things appear to have switched around completely, with the males being the ones under siege, as the practice has seemingly gone from extremely male dominated to somewhat female dominated. And, really, no surprise. In college, I knew women who ultimately went to med school for just this reason, that it was so hard to find female ob/gyns. It was a huge unmet need.
(rejecting pediatrics) "the annoying parents of healthy kids!"
I totally get this, SOJO. These helicopter parents are the ones that come in at the drop of a hat: "Junior has a runny nose! Make sure its not meningitis!" I think I'd get annoyed too.
They say men are more sensitive on average, more responsive to their concerns. I’ve heard that men are better at pelvic exams because we’re so terrified of causing discomfort that we’re obsessively gentle.
That has been my experience as well. I've preferred male OBs for that reason, though for my last birth I had the BEST delivery ever and the Doctor was female. She was exceptional.
It is interesting that some women prefer female ob/gyns, and some prefer male. My partner will let women practitioners work on her anywhere, except for down there, and when it comes to ob/gyns, she demands a guy. A guy delivered her kids, and, even after that, still demands, and gets, male doctors. She has never had a female ob/gyn, and likely never will. The mother of my kid though is exactly the opposite, demanding and getting female ob/gyns. As I noted above, she was somewhat excused from the rotation through all the docs in the practice, when she was pregnant with our kid, because of her friendship with her female doctor.
My understanding today is that a distinct majority of college aged women tend to prefer female gynecologists. And, the difference today, from when I was in college, is that there are many more such doctors available. Back when we were in college, that wasn't the case, and a complaint that I heard a lot of from the co-eds (and caused some of them to go to med school for just that reason). But, I have also heard that it is somewhat socioeconomic, with less affluent, and less liberated women often preferring male doctors to this day - it would be interesting to see statistically if this apparent preference really does depend on class and education levels, or not.
Brazil-waxing isn't about sex, either. Does it attract male practitioners? I know they couldn't be turned away by a cosmetology school.
Imagine the white husband whose wife sees a young handsome black male gynecologist: this is not color-blind, this is the white woman's way of telling her husband she is already halfway out the door. Emasculated, he shoves a light bulb up his ass.
It is turtles all the way down...
Gynecological health care is not sexual, and having only female gynecologists sends the message that it is.
It's not sexual owing to some theater that goes into it.
Joan P. Emerson classic paper.
A following essay in the book goes into the opposite case, theater producing sexuality where it is not, namely strip clubs.
Then there is the flip side of a male having a female urologist. I had a great one for 3 years. After the first visit, there were no more embarrassing moments - she knew how to joke about a certain, um, unpleasant examination. :)
What does any of this have to do with knowing and understanding Craig Venter?
On the black doctor issue, I have had two different primary care physicians who were black. They were the best doctors. The second black doctor I had, at one visit, I mentioned he was the second black PCP I had ever had. I said both of you were the best, you both took a little more time, asked good questions, and listened.
The doc told me that he sees a lot of black patients, and since many had no insurance or not very good insurance, they don't come in until something is really wrong. He learned to spend extra time with each patient, and to talk with them about their whole life (family, work, to make sure he had all the information he needed to diagnose correctly. And he joked and said he didn't want to be racist, so he treated his white patients just like they were black.
They're leaving out a reason I heard from some ob/gyn residents when I was in medical school: gynecologists get to do surgery but the training is more pleasant than general surgery training. If you really like cutting and stitching in medical school but decided that all the asshole surgeons were too much for you, ob/gyn is a great way to still do surgery but be around more pleasant people.
My 87 year old mother's doctor (internist, not gyno) retired recently, and we had to find her another doctor. The caretaker ladies thought she would prefer a female doctor, and so they took her to a female doctor.
Big Mistake.
She didn't like a female doctor at all, and demanded that they find her a male doctor, which they did. I just chalked it up to being a generational thing.
I know this forum weighs heavily male & older, so I'll bring this up: Oh, c'mon! At our age, we're lucky the dentist isn't asking to check our prostate. I've had medical professionals of both genders do the exam, and would never, ever, think of asking for one gender over the other. Mostly, it's just "can we just get this over with so I can go home?".
It's hard enough to find a great doctor. Who has time to worry about the gender?
In my experience, the male OBs seem to be in it because they like babies. Female OBs are more hit-and-miss. Some like babies, but some hate babies and decide you must be abused if you have more than 1 or 2 and are REALLY into sterilization.
So.... at this point in my life (6 kids), I prefer to go with 'OBs who think babies are awesome.'
Now that I am past my child-bearing years, my gyno needs have changed, but I am looking for a new practice for my annual check-ups. I find the docs and staff at the all-female group I have recently seen to be cold, and that is unacceptable to me. I have lived in many different places and therefore have cycled through a few doctors.
My experience with gynecological care by females has been very mixed. Back in the day, I would go to the "Feminist Women's Health Center", but became disillusioned after a while--it just seemed that those gals were not too thrilled to be dealing with a certain kind of woman not like themselves in persuasion, which helped to cement my ideas of what "feminist" really meant....
I delivered my babies (at the hospital) in the presence of the Nurse-Midwife, whose services were offered alongside my (male) gynocologist in his practice. He was a good doctor and very communicative and open with me - which is the way I like all of my doctors to be. Since I had low-risk pregnancies , he suggested I might be interested in using the midwives, and it was great! One did one's own weigh-ins and sugar testing, and really took an active part in the prenatal care, instead of being "done to". By luck, the same woman was there for both of the kids, several years apart.
I have had old men as gynos, and found them to be grumpy and heavy into the "doctor is god complex". I lived in that one town for two years and had bad luck both times. I left before I had to find a third one to go to.
For a long time, I simply had my (male) GP do my pap smears and exams. He finally referred me to a bright young man when I presented with a more complicated issue. That young gynecologist, versed in the latest and greatest, helped me- and my life has been so much more enjoyable ever since....but sadly, I left that town and ended up with these "highly recommended" bitches...
Some like babies, but some hate babies and decide you must be abused if you have more than 1 or 2 and are REALLY into sterilization.
Yes, after I came into the office for my 3rd pregnancy, the NP made some crack that ended with, "And yet, you seem to keep having more.." and not really joking. I did a double take. Did you really just say that to me?
My next NP was also a midwife. She was much more understanding and non-judgemental about everything.
" with the males being the ones under siege, as the practice has seemingly gone from extremely male dominated to somewhat female dominated. "
I think it is extremely female dominated but that may be California. I would discourage a male medical student from OB now.
One potential problem is that OB becomes GYN in later years as the doctor and patents age. I have seen few good female surgeons. I know there are some and had always assumed females were better at fine motor movements until I saw some female surgeons and surgery residents.
Interestingly, the hospital where I started the trauma center 35 years ago, and which has had that center staffed by my old surgery group ever since, has just made a change. I understand it was a situation where the hospital wanted to buy the surgery group, as hospitals are doing these days. The group declined and this year the hospital did not renew their trauma center contract.
The hospital has brought in a new trauma group from northern California consisting of surgeons unknown to the rest of the staff. This is unprecedented since peer review has always been a big part of hospital staffs. The new surgical group is almost all women.
I understand from my spies that they have already lost two trauma cases since July 1 that are questionable. We'll see how that goes. I'm seeing trauma surgery becoming a new favorite of women students interested in surgery. It's shift work, similar to ER, another female favorite for good reasons. We did the trauma in addition to our regular practice.
Anyway, interesting times with Obamacare, which is why the hospitals are buying up doctor's practices.
Male OBGYN turning down a date with Jennifer Aniston on "Friends":
OBGYN: What do you do?
ANISTON: I'm a waitress down at Central Park.'
OBGYN: OK. Did you ever have one of those days when you say, "If I have to look at one more cup of coffee..."
There are 2 kinds of women surgeons.
Women who shouldn't be surgeons.
Surgeons who shouldn't be women.
That's an old joke, not necessarily a good joke.
Even though more women are doing ObGyn residencies now, they will continue to be under-represented relative to their numbers. Women physicians, of any specialty, work fewer hours per year, and fewer years per career, than their male counterparts. This is one of many contributing factors to the physician shortage, which will only grow worse over the next few decades.
They actually found 10 male OBs? My wife started her residency in 1989. Even back then there was only one male in her year. The program used to have an annual touch football game between residents and the attending physicians; it was canceled before her last year because the only people that were playing were husbands and boyfriends.
Reading Beta's most recent output, I have to wonder if anyone has ever seen Crack and Harvey Kittel in the same room.
I like fishing, but I wouldn't want to work in a tuna factory.
I shifted to a female primary doc after her male predecessor tore up my anus with a really clumsy prostate exam. Never again. Female hands are smaller, and the women are more sensitive about getting poked in tender places.
The morning I showed up (about 5:AM) for a prostatectomy the physician who came out was a young lady. She was also the one who did the morning and evening look-ins during post-op hospitalization.
Not the designated operating Dr. (who we had met earlier); perhaps someone on the surgical team, a resident on rotation through urology or for the daVinci machine. I didn't ask.
Nice looking young lady, as I recall. Three or four decades earlier I might have noticed more. But just then surgical competence was on my mind, and she seemed confident and competent.
"The female body is a metaphor for her womanhood, and I am granted access to her whole identity. That’s a great honor."
Eeewwww. He beta-male'd all over the blog.
"Do you think this is true of women physicans with families and children in the home, and women physicians without?
It would be interesting to see the numbers broken out to those who have committed full time to the profession, and those who are splitting family-raising duties and career."
Most women physicians and medical students of my acquaintance are married and most have children. This was the concern of medical school admissions committees when I was a medical student. There was a perceived shortage of doctors and women were assumed to marry and work fewer hours.
That was true and it will contribute to the shortage but men physicians work fewer hours too. Less than we did.
My female friends that insist on female MD's do so because they feel that having empathy present at the exam is necessary. I always thought this odd - why would I want my physician superimposing HER own experience onto mine?
The worst experiences I have had with physicians have been with females exclusively. Some have been outright bitches - exhibiting a nasty rudeness I have never, ever gotten from a male physician.
Gave a lecture on thyroid metabolism to the staff of a GYN office that had 57 employees, not one - from doctors to janitors - was a male. I was trying to talk a friend into applying for employment (he's superbly qualified) to lay the predicate for a discrimination action. He chickened out.
Saturday Night Live addressed this very issue in 1975. Jane Curtin played a woman fixed up on a blind date. He turned out to be her OB/GYN. Kris Kristofferson played the date.
Gynecologist: Well, you know what? You know what you are? You're thinkin' like everybody else thinks. You think it was a choice for me of either bein' a gynecologist or some dirty old man in an all-night movie with a newspaper on my lap. It was not that choice. Do you know what it was like for me in school? All my friends made me write down everything I saw so they could read it in the bathroom later. And the other residents, man, they thought THEY were workin' but I was gettin' a little.
A full transcript here: http://snltranscripts.jt.org/75/75xgyne.phtml
"Gynecological health care is not sexual, and having only female gynecologists sends the message that it is "
Actually having a chaperone in the room sends a message that something is not quite right. Not to mention that I don't need an audience. Yes, a physician should be a physician, but having someone down there who is attracted to those body parts is creepy. I'll stick with my female doc, thank you. Med students considering this specialty should consider they may spend all that time and money, do everything right and still fail to attract patients simply on the basis of their gender.
I agree, the idea of male gynecologists is a little strange. I have never had a male gynecologist before, but I don't think I would be comfortable enough with him to be able to keep him as my gynecologist. With that being said, I like the thoughts of the male gynecologists as to why they chose this profession. If you can go to a male gynecologist, props to you! http://www.whadoctors.com/gynecology.html
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