# Do med school students' sex drives diminish... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 27, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295 "2009-01-27T22:29:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/41 "2009-01-29T03:49:38Z")
Being an RN ruined porn for me for all time (apparently). YMMV (and probably does). But I was never big into porn, anyway. I can’t say re my sex drive. I had a long distance relationship throughout most of my college days. Nursing school tends to be exhausting on all fronts. Working as a nurse, ditto. How about I blame my career choice for my lack of sex drive? It works for me. Thanks, OP! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/42 "2009-01-29T08:22:06Z")
> [@dre2xl](#): > > Hostile Dialect, thank you for your response. Though there are certain parts of your response I do not necessarily agree with, arguing with them is way outside of the scope of this thread, but I am also impressed with your willingness to clarify your positions and argue your point in an excellent manner, and respect your views. In deference to your opinions, and those who have a hard time struggling in a heterosexually-dominated society, I will try to be more conscious of gender language. Thanks. It means a lot to know that my work is, well, working sometimes. Hostile Dialect, Hostile Dialect, Narcissist ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/43 "2009-01-29T15:15:43Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > …How about I blame my career choice for my lack of sex drive? It works for me. Thanks, OP! > 😉 Just one more service I offer. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2009, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/44 "2009-01-29T15:47:54Z")
> [@dre2xl](#): > > For **sailor** or anyone who still has concerns about my reasoning behind being concerned with male ob/gyns, I will be glad to address them in a pit thread. Obvious explanations for other career choices: Military: enjoy killing people Animal farmer: enjoy being around manure and raising animals so they can be killed Meat processing plant: Enjoy killing animals. Doctors who volunteer to go to war zones: Enjoy seeing the mangled bodies and the suffering and destruction Doctors who work with deformed or retarded children enjoy seeing children like that. Doctors who work with terminally ill patients enjoy seeing them die Nurses: enjoy seeing people in pain and defecating in their beds Ambulance that responds to car accidents: Enjoy seeing the effects of accidents and the mangled bodies. Firefighters: enjoy fires in buildings especially if there are people inside Judge: enjoys punishing people Corrections officer: enjoys seeing people locked up Garbage collectors: enjoy being around garbage Glad I could be of help. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/45 "2009-01-31T01:18:15Z")
I have to say that **dre2xl** ’c comments leave me speechless. It was the arrival of professional medical MEN in the field in the late 18th and the 19th century that greatly reduced infant and maternal mortality. Are we to think they all wanted to ogle at vaginas and breasts. Maybe some boy saw or heard his mother die in childbirth (at a time when almost all births were at home), or a doctor saw what a mess midwives often made of the whole process. No apparently its all about boobies and women with their legs wide open. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/46 "2009-01-31T02:16:12Z")
> [@lavenderviolet](#): > > OB/Gyn is actually a pretty interesting field in some ways. Many doctors enjoy that it combines elements of both the immediate rewarding feeling of surgically correcting problems as well as the long-term relationships you can get in primary care specialties. > Some doctors prefer to see relatively healthy, uncomplicated patients like most general ob/gyn patients (this is not referring to the sub-specialties of gyn where you’d deal with cancer patients, infertility, high-risk pregnancies, etc.). This is actually a huge part of the reason why the Field is still interesting to me. It’s one of the great fields where you get a balance between Clinical surgery and long term patient care. AND you get to deliver BABIES! Who doesn’t love BABIES! But yeah, you summed it up quite well, as it’s the majority of the reason why I’m interested in the field. I don’t want to do full on surgery. But it looks fun. And I like dealing with patients. But I don’t want to be stuck in the office all day just talking to people. And… :Shrug: it just sounded cool. But it is kinda a female preferred field, so most guys do tend to stay away from it. :shrug: We’ll see what happens. (And I’m an M1). ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/47 "2009-01-31T02:22:52Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > I have to say that **dre2xl** ’c comments leave me speechless. It was the arrival of professional medical MEN in the field in the late 18th and the 19th century that greatly reduced infant and maternal mortality. Are we to think they all wanted to ogle at vaginas and breasts. Maybe some boy saw or heard his mother die in childbirth (at a time when almost all births were at home), or a doctor saw what a mess midwives often made of the whole process. Frankly, it was the involvement of males in the childbirth process in a number of places that complicated things terribly, raising the rate of mortality, by transmitting diseases. The doctors often dashed from the autopsy table to the delivery chamber, without even washing their hands. Once Sir Joseph Lister finally was vindicated and doctors started practicing decent hygiene, then medical innovations began to improve outcomes. Or so I was taught by my History of Medicine professor. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/48 "2009-01-31T02:58:27Z")
I’m moving this from General Questions to the In My Humble Opinion. **Gfactor** General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![ZebraShaSha](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/eada6e/32.png) [@ZebraShaSha](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZebraShaSha)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/49 "2009-01-31T03:05:37Z")
[hijack] If I can speak for a moment about being an art student, I don’t get horny looking at nude people all day. Unlike doctors, there are (usually) nothing diseased or messed up with art models, and yet naked young girls are less important than finding the mass conceptions, figuring out the sources of light, negative volume, all of that. I imagine it’s much the same with med school, arousal has nothing to do with just looking at naked people or not looking at diseased naked people. [/hijack] ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/50 "2009-01-31T04:22:39Z")
> [@ZebraShaSha](#): > > [hijack] > > If I can speak for a moment about being an art student, I don’t get horny looking at nude people all day. Unlike doctors, there are (usually) nothing diseased or messed up with art models, and yet naked young girls are less important than finding the mass conceptions, figuring out the sources of light, negative volume, all of that. I imagine it’s much the same with med school, arousal has nothing to do with just looking at naked people or not looking at diseased naked people. > > [/hijack] :nod: (I got to take a semester of Nude Life Drawing as an elective in my free time my first semester of Medschool). It REALLY helped me actually, as that’s where i was like… man, looking at nude college chicks for an hour and a half… how would i take it? Nope. Nothing. I was frustrated and kept focusing on my artwork and how it wasn’t looking so great and everything. But that’s made me more comfortable at least in working with patients too, because when you’re there, you have a job to do and all, you’re not there to just goof and around and shoot the breeze. So yeah, that art school analogy is actually VERY VERY Apt. Totally sorta the same thing, except in Med school you’re kinda studying them to make sure they’re OKAY, and there’s that little pressure in the back of your mind. You don’t want to be the guy that misses the skin cancer or the abnormal scarring or something like that. So there’s that extra level of stress. But, your analogy is very apt. Then again, maybe it’s just me, and I’m just the only guy that’s not getting turned on by the pts and the life models. That’d be a bummer. ☹ Sorta. You know what i mean! ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/51 "2009-01-31T04:35:38Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Frankly, it was the involvement of males in the childbirth process in a number of places that complicated things terribly, raising the rate of mortality, by transmitting diseases. The doctors often dashed from the autopsy table to the delivery chamber, without even washing their hands. > > Once Sir Joseph Lister finally was vindicated and doctors started practicing decent hygiene, then medical innovations began to improve outcomes. > > Or so I was taught by my History of Medicine professor. Yeah, I remember that lecture too. IIRC they describe a surgeon holding a scalpel in his mouth in on one procedure. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/52 "2009-01-31T04:37:14Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Frankly, it was the involvement of males in the childbirth process in a number of places that complicated things terribly, raising the rate of mortality, by transmitting diseases. The doctors often dashed from the autopsy table to the delivery chamber, without even washing their hands. > > Once Sir Joseph Lister finally was vindicated and doctors started practicing decent hygiene, then medical innovations began to improve outcomes. > > Or so I was taught by my History of Medicine professor. It’s difficult to tell, sometimes, what exactly was going on, especially in the early part of the rise of the men-midwives in the 18th century. So much of the rhetoric from both sides is so vehement and argumentative that it’s tough to tell what’s true and what isn’t. Of course, men-midwives were both more often literate and more likely to be published, so they got their say in the whig history that dominated until the 20th century. If anyone’s interested (and has access to a university library), I could dig up a couple of articles on the topic. ---
**Author:** ![Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c77e96/32.png) [@Speaker\_for\_the\_Dead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Speaker_for_the_Dead)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/53 "2009-01-31T04:39:08Z")
Another thing that often contributed to the image of the “killer man-midwife” (besides legitimate criticisms of their hygiene) is that their main role for a long time was as specialists in difficult births. If you only ever get called in when the midwife is out of her league, of course your “dead mother/infant” count is going to be much higher than the midwives’. ---
**Author:** ![Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b38774/32.png) [@Attack\_from\_the\_3rd\_dimension](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Attack_from_the_3rd_dimension)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/54 "2009-01-31T04:50:41Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > Frankly, it was the involvement of males in the childbirth process in a number of places that complicated things terribly, raising the rate of mortality, by transmitting diseases. The doctors often dashed from the autopsy table to the delivery chamber, without even washing their hands. > > Once Sir Joseph Lister finally was vindicated and doctors started practicing decent hygiene, then medical innovations began to improve outcomes. > > Or so I was taught by my History of Medicine professor. I believe it was [Ignaz Semmelweis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semmelweis) who is credited for noting the link between medical students, ooky autopsies, dirty mitts and childbed fever.\* \*curiously, I learned about him from my Oceanography advisor. My history of medicine professor taught me about herbs - go figure. ---
**Author:** ![Millit\_the\_Frail](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/51bf81/32.png) [@Millit\_the\_Frail](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Millit_the_Frail)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 8:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/55 "2009-01-31T08:18:07Z")
Count me in as another (newly-minted but not yet Registered) nurse who says it doesn’t really make a difference. Looking at a naked guy to make sure his catheter isn’t infected is not even _wildly_ related to looking at a naked guy in my bedroom. There’s such a wide divergence between work and sex for me–they just don’t belong together. I don’t look at my patients and think, “oooh, Hot or Not,” and I don’t look at my husband and think “skin is pink, warm, and dry, hair distribution normal, pupils non-dilated…” ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/56 "2009-01-31T09:52:23Z")
> [@ZebraShaSha](#): > > [hijack] > > If I can speak for a moment about being an art student, I don’t get horny looking at nude people all day. Unlike doctors, there are (usually) nothing diseased or messed up with art models, and yet naked young girls are less important than finding the mass conceptions, figuring out the sources of light, negative volume, all of that. I imagine it’s much the same with med school, arousal has nothing to do with just looking at naked people or not looking at diseased naked people. > > [/hijack] Good example and it reminds me of something that happened to me a few years ago. In Spain there are plenty of nudist beaches but women also go topless in most “normal” beaches. My friend has a restaurant-coffee-shop by a beach in southern Spain and I had not seen him in quite some time so I went to visit him. Just as he is greeting me a young topless woman walks in, buys something and walks out. And I joke “quite a job you have here”. He says that after a short while you pay no attention and we continue talking. But several more people are buying things, including more topless women, interrupting our conversation. And I realised that I was no longer thrilled to have my conversation with my friend interrupted, even if by topless women. I had to keep quite because it’s his business and I can’t complain but I was wishing they would go away. Millions of Europeans visit the beaches and do not seem to have a sexual problem with that. I never understood where you draw the line between sexual and not-sexual. A century ago people would bathe fully clothed and there has been a gradual reduction in coverage. Where was the line crossed into “sexual territory”? I have an educational video about sex and it shows all the important parts women have but it is boring as all-get-out. I suppose it is interesting if you did not know the stuff but it is certainly not sexually exciting. At least not for me. What makes things sexual or not is the context and mood. People going about their business, even if nude, is not sexual. A woman flirting with me and being suggestive is much more exciting even if she is fully covered. And I have said many times that the sexiest part of a woman is the face. A pretty face, an attractive smile, a pleasant demeanor, are much more attractive than a naked boob. I have known a few women who were physically attractive but who were total jerks and I cannot imagine having any interest in having sex with them. OTOH I have dated a few women who were quite plain but who were extremely attractive to me because of their pleasant personalities. It is all about getting in the right mood. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/57 "2009-01-31T19:38:01Z")
> [@Millit\_the\_Frail](#): > > There’s such a wide divergence between work and sex for me–they just don’t belong together. I don’t look at my patients and think, “oooh, Hot or Not,” and I don’t look at my husband and think “skin is pink, warm, and dry, hair distribution normal, pupils non-dilated…” But I DO assess strangers in line for the ATM or whatever–he looks like I could get an 18 gauge angio in sans tourniquet (young guy with prominent hand veins) or that old lady looks like she’s got COPD etc. I don’t do this as often as I once did, but disease is all around us, if you know where to look. Oliver Sacks discusses this in one of his books (I think it’s An Anthropologist on Mars) re how once a disease has been “discovered”, one sees it everywhere–Dr Parkinson had that experience. But I’ve digressed… ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/58 "2009-01-31T20:14:48Z")
> [@eleanorigby](#): > > But I DO assess strangers in line for the ATM or whatever Well, that is a totally different thing. I pay attention to things which that interest me or I have expertise in and which others are not aware they are even there. Those antennas on that building are strange in some way. The structure of that building, is it under tension or compression? The rig of that boat, how does it work and is it easy to furl? Even worse. When I am walking in a hurry on the sidewalk and need to get around people I will mentally blow one whistle (BOOOOOO!) if passing on the right and two whistles (BOOOOOO! BOOOOOO!) if passing on the left (as per nautical rules). ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/59 "2009-01-31T21:04:56Z")
> [@sailor](#): > > But several more people are buying things, including more topless women, interrupting our conversation. How much were the topless women selling for? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295/60 "2009-01-31T21:08:06Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > How much were the topless women selling for? And was the exchange rate favorable in Spain at the time? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-med-school-students-sex-drives-diminish/483295.md?page=4)