I can understand that you'd feel "more comfortable being naked in front of someone of the same gender."
That being said, though - does that extend to ALL healthcare providers that might see you naked? For instance, if you needed an emergent appendectomy, would you insist on a female trauma surgeon (because they would have to cut hair on your pubis while prepping you for surgery)? If you needed a urologic procedure, would you insist on a female urologist? And if you needed thoracic surgery, would you insist on a female CT surgeon (because they would need to expose your breasts before doing the initial sternotomy)? Or if you were in an emergency room because of abdominal pain, would you insist on having a female ER doc to do the standard pelvic and DRE?
While I'm sorry that you feel offended by the strength of that statement, I still sometimes wonder at how adamant people are that they will ONLY see a female provider.
Embarrassing, personal, private situations arise in medicine all the time, and in ALL fields. At some small hospitals, Family Medicine sees all vag bleeders - not GYN. Surgery residents can tell you about all sorts of patients that they have had that came in with very embarrassing chief complaints - "light bulb in the rectum," "vibrator stuck in esophagus" etc. Emergency Medicine guys will tell you all sorts of equally embarrassing situations that they face almost daily.
And yet, NO ONE says, "Well, that surgery resident removing that light bulb from that woman's rectum had better be a female!" They seem to limit this only to GYN and breast surgery....but what makes them so very different?
Yea, I initially wrote that differentiating emergencies versus not, when I thought it was appropriate to be choosey,etc, but then decided the post was getting out of control and long.
🙂 That's why I just stuck to saying that for a routine/elective appointment, I feel I'm within my right to pick the provider who makes me most comfortable.
Emergencies are another story...I certainly wouldn't insist on any particular provider in such a situation because it's obviously not feasible to do that, for the reasons that you and others have pointed out. If I did refuse an exam/procedure, which I don't think I'd ever do, I'd be accepting the potential consequences (ie, my appendix exploding, or going through life with a vibrator stuck in my esophagus). I just didn't want to get into a long discussion of what I think is "feasible" and where you draw the line of feasibility (i.e. if there are 2 ER docs on, one male and one female, and the male picks up your chart, is it "feasible" to request the female come see you?), so sort of abondoned that discussion previously. It did occur to me, though.
🙂
As far as other providers seeing you naked and dealing with embarassing situations, I, as a fourth year medical student like yourself (I think?), obviously realize that. There are certainly awkward and embarassing situations in all specialties of medicine...but, I think there's a difference between a patient feeling awkward/embarassed seeing the doctor about lack of sex drive versus one feeling awkward/embarassed b/c they brok their leg falling off a bar when they were drunk. I know that it's not supposed to be different, and medical personnel see sexual dysfunction as a complaint like hypertension, etc, but serisouly, some topics are a little difficult to discuss. Anything that patients do to make themselves feel more comfortable discussing these issues, I am in favor of, including choosing a physician of the same gender. I mean, I'd rather a man choose not to talk to me, a female med student, about his erectile dysfunction if he feels too uncomfortable and ask to see my male attending alone then him not bring it up at all and have a worse quality of life. (Obviously, I'd rather my patients feel comfortable talking to me about whatever is bothering them and will do what I can to make them comfortable, but I realize that's not always going to happen.)
I also have spent some time in the hospital, OR, and have actually had a lot of interactions with breast surgeons/gyn oncs in particular as a patient. So yes, a lot of people have seen me naked, not all of them female. I wouldn't insist everyone in the OR be female, or every ultrasonographer be female, because I think this isn't feasible; however, there are dozens of good breast surgeons/gyn oncs in town, some of them female, so it was very feasible for me to pick female ones. Like I said before, not only do I feel more comfortable being naked in front of them, but I feel more able to be candid and discuss all my questions/concerns...ie I feel silly/awkward enough asking how bilateral mastectomies will affect my sex life when I know cancer will kill me, that I don't really need the added dimension of my own discomfort discussing these issues with men. Maybe it's silly, maybe I'm wrong to feel this way, maybe my reasons are stupid, but I probably will stick with female providers for now. Judge ad lib.
🙂
As far as other providers, I guess I focus on gyn oncs/breast surgeons/gyns in general in part because they tend to often deal with private issues, in part because this is an ob-gyn board, and in part because that's who I see the most. But you're right, gen surg, family practice, ER, etc, certainly have the potential to be similar. Again, I certainly don't think that in an emergency situation, I or anyone else is in any position to be choosey, lest they accept the consequences. Quite honesetly, I've never really been seen in the ER, nor have I ever had to have a foreign body extracted from my rectum or esophagus, so I can't say for sure.....although thinking about it in theory, I'd care less than I do about providers who I'm going to see over the long term, be naked in front of, and discuss personal issues with. But you're right, maybe it shouldn't be different.
Well, there goes my attempt at a short post without revealing lots of personal information! Ah, gotta love the lack of character limits and the anonimity of the internet.....
🙂
