You assume a lack of logic. You make this assumption without evidence.
Well, I can’t argue with you complete lack of logic, there.
I don’t trust health service employees in general, doctors included, but not specifically distrusted more than the general subset.
I am a health service employee. I base my distrust on observations over a thirty year period. Don’t get sick on Friday. Especially on the Friday before a holiday.
Since I very seldom have had a serious illness, accident, or chronic condition serious enough to bother me, I don’t know many doctors. I am sure they are fine people, and the ones on this board seem intelligent, and have lots of useful information. But, I do not care to consult one unless I am sick. When I am sick, I call my health service provider, and am advised that I can have an appointment in twelve to fourteen days. I make the appointment. So far, I haven’t been sick for twelve days in a row, so I cancel the appointment.
When I had Scarlet Fever, hey, I decided that it was an emergency, after three days of raging fever. I sat in an emergency room, with lots of other sick people, and their families, for three hours. They gave me penicillin. I got better. I don’t know how many people I infected during the three hours.
Men may, as a rule, avoid physicians, but I suspect that it may be more Male Invulnerability Syndrome (MIS) than the alleged Men are all Babies Syndrome(MAABS).
One of my friends uses me as her medical advisor person, and my biggest challenge with her is to keep one of her feet on the valid/western/alleopathic or osteopathic/medicine. She tends to keep too much weight on the "alternative/crank/unproven/founditontheinternet/“medicine”.
If anything, she spends too much time with the physicians.
“Prodding” is overblown. Get over it. There are a lot of medical procedures, like surgery and its aftermath, that are distinctly less comfortable.
It is well-documented that men in the U.S. are less likely to seek medical or psychological care, and when they do, seek it later than wome do. I don’t know if number of hours a week at work has been factored out, but as a woman who’s always worked long and erratic hours, that seems like an excuse to me.
Okay, I haven’t read any of the replies. Just have an anecdote to add. My dad’s doctor has given his receptionist specific instructions that if a MALE calls in about a pain, he should be squeezed in TODAY. This is based on the idea that if a male calls about pain, he’s probabaly in ALOT of pain and been that way for a while now.
I go round for round with my wife over this concept. (BTW, what color is the ribbon for prostate awareness?)
I’ve had her on my vision-insurance plan for over a year. She has 20-20 and has her whole live. For an extra annual cost of $12 I’ve had her covered for vision care. I keep telling her she has a free exam avail to check her eyes even though it’s not for any corrective lenses. I try to stress it’s important to have the orbs checked regularly to catch anything bad that may be devolping, but she figures 20-20 is 20-20 and nothing bad can happen if glasses/contacts aren’t required.
Any psych games I can play against her delicate sensibilities to ignore eye care? Any women coming up with ways to deal with the weakness of women to deal with eyecare? The main thing I think she’s afraid of is the glaucoma test.
She convinced me to get a prostate exam 2 years ago. I have to tell you, a finger up my bum was less uncomfortable than that damn shot of air on my eye.
I took a digit up my ass to assuage any worries of pending problems. Yet she won’t take a shot to the eye. (Heh.)
How can I man-up my wife to check for something that is unlikely to happen?
You can tell her that glaucoma has essentially no symptoms early on other than the increased pressure that’s detected by that test, and that my boss (ophthalmologist) calls glaucoma the “silent blinder” as a result. The damage done to the optic nerve by increased pressure can’t be reversed, can’t be corrected with glasses. The typical version will very slowly steal away bits of your peripheral vision, too gradually for you to notice until you realize you don’t have much of it left at all, and you won’t get it back.
There’s another big reason why women are more casual about seeking medical care. Between annual Pap smears and childbirth, even perfectly healthy women usually have a few dozen trips to the doctor between the ages of 20 and 50. Men, on the other hand, have no real reason to go to the doctor during that time* unless they get sick. So women get a lot more used to it, and more comfortable with it.
There are other reasons, but I think this is a big one.
Grown Male Baby here. The primary reason I hate going to the doctor is the wait. Really, that’s it–the wait. Not all docs are so bad about it, but I don’t have the time to shop for the punctual doctor. 15-45 minutes in the waiting room with all the other sick people, then at least another 10 minutes in the exam room.
I know there are reasons, I know doctor’s offices probably don’t like it either. But really: why should I trust my health to someone whose staff hasn’t mastered the concept of scheduling? When I have to tell my boss, “I’ll be gone for one to three hours,” it doesn’t go so well.
I have no problem with the finger up the bum thing, really. I wonder about its diagnostic merit, personally, (makes me wonder if the doctors with longer fingers catch more cases) but I have no problem with it. A little more finger up the bum and a little less time spent in the waiting room would be fine with me.
But that’s my favorite thing about homophobia - the irony. Bigotry is supposed to give the majority the opportunity to give minorities hell, but homophopia seems to restrict straight people’s lives much more than gays’.
Honestly ArchiveGuy, even if you make a horrible mistake never back off. Just do more research and if you’re lucky you can make everyone look ignorant.
Ah yes, that works. Assume without evidence that the reason men don’t like rectal examinations is because of homophobia, and then rag on them for the homophobia. Oy, it’s amazing how many things can be dragged around to gay issues. :rolleyes:
I don’t think it’s unreasonable for a casual uh…stab at the issue. I mean I was nervous about my first gynecological exam in part because I was worried I’d “respond” somehow. With men it’s a lot more obvious so I’d think this would be a bigger worry. Tho I wouldn’t chalk it up to homophobia so much as sexual repression.
It’s just a guess! Not an accusation! Don’t get mad!
I’m not mad on my own account 'cos I’ve already said I’m cool with having my bunghole inspected by a male doctor - when a guy starts leaving bright red stains on the toilet paper it’s no time for embarrassment - but I’m surprised to hear your anecdote above as I thought that only happened in Robert Heinlein novels and letters to amateur-gynaecologist magazines.
Personally I’d’ve thought that embarrassment would be enough to swamp any erection-inducing sensations from having a prostate probe, but I’ve no first-hand experience. :eek:
Well it didn’t actually happen obviously. It’s just that as a teenager I didn’t know *what * would happen - what with all the Heinlein novels and amateur gynecologist magazines I’d been reading.
Talking of Heinlein, I seem to remember something of the sort in To Sail Beyond the Sunset - and the doctor was the narrator’s father. Still, mustn’t judge I guess.
Years ago I had prostatitis and the exam lasted a smidgen over one nanosecond. He did what he was supposed to do, with gentle care, and it didn’t matter. I still launched off my feet in incredible pain. That kind of… confirmed the diagnosis. :eek: ( I can’t believe the stuff I write here sometimes. ) I susepct the look on my face was very close to the expression I saw about 23 years ago, on the face of a lover whose cervix I had just tapped by entering a wee bit too deeply during lovemaking. The sudden, " oh god I hurt really badly, very deep up inside and perhaps it’s best we not be in the same room now " expression. I was acutely aware of the pain for hours after that exam.
Point is, not all rectal exams for men will produce some kind of sexual response that we need to worry about. Additionally, it’s not exactly the kind of mind-set and physical setting that’s condusive to erotic response.
Unless Nitrile gloves, white coats, taupe walls and the scent of Astroglide sends you to the moon, in which case, party on Garth !!
! …are you serious? “Without evidence”? I’d have to be feigning obtuseness overtime to pretend that homophobia has nothing to do with an immense fear and shame of being penetrated anally by a doctor. What else would explain a man proclaiming “I will die before someone sticks anything up my bum. That is all I have to say. It isn’t happening”?
