My family doctor is male and everything goes through him first (unless I’m dying or it can wait until the next scheduled girly checkup), no problem. The previous family doc was also male and I just loved him. Our pediatrician when we were little, male too.
I’ve had bad doctors (refusal to believe what I said, clammy hands) and good doctors in both genders. Plus, after the way I got fondled by a female security guard in the airport at DC, nobody can convince me that “gender” is the important detail. Groping hands unwelcome, thank you much.
My GP is female, and I will shortly be looking for another one, because we’re moving at the end of the month. Since most of the problems I tend to see my GP with are gynaecological, and this is the doctor I’m going to have the biggest relationship with, it’s the situation with which I’m happiest.
Now, specialists, any gender or orientation with a good attitude and an ego that can fit in the consulting room and I’m happy- after all, I’ll probably only see them once or twice.
I know from personal experience that when you’re examining a patient you’re in a mindset of complete professional detachment, so that’s not why I prefer a female GP. I get on with women more easily (hell, I want to be an OB/Gyn, so I’d better) and generally, as a female doctor, I’d prefer to have a GP who was able to relate to me on that level.
Either is fine with me. My OB/GYN is male and I am very happy with him. There are two other doctors in the practice, one male and one female. I’ve seen the other guy once and liked him a lot. I’ve seen the woman once and spoken to her once on the phone and I disliked her both times. So for me it’s more about competence and personality/“bedside manner”.
I’m female and would strongly prefer a female doctor for everything except dentistry. I would demand a female doctor for gynecological, breast-based (sorry don’t know the adjective form), or psychiatric exams. It’s not because I’m worried about the male doctor “checking me out;” it’s because he doesn’t know and can never know certain things. A man doesn’t know what a pain in the cervix feels like. A man can’t know what I mean when I describe a certain twinge in my breast. And as for the psychiatrist bit, if I did have a therapist I might want to talk about sex, and I wouldn’t feel comfortable talking about that in front of a man, no matter how professional or gay he was. The only place where I don’t see a big difference in biology or mindset is the teeth, so I don’t care about having a male dentist (I’ve had one before). It would probably be the same for dermatology or podiatry or something, but I’ve never had to see a doctor about any of that stuff.
Well, I used to say I didn’t care, and then I went to a male gynecologist once, and it did bother me a little. I mean, not that I think he cared, I just wasn’t as comfortable with it. (Also I didn’t really like him personally, doctor-wise.) I’ve since got a very nice female one, which was hard to find here - most of them are men! For my general doctor I don’t care, I just happen to have a female doctor because I go to the same one as my parents - she’s very good. When my dad first went to her he definately had his doubts about the “lady doctor”, though.
I thought I might be embarrassed by a doctor of the opposite sex but it turned out not to be the case. I’m eqally unconfortable with any doctor when it comes to medical problems south of the equator. As I type this I’m trying to decide how much time to allow for some current discomfort.
I actually prefer male doctors - opposit sex. I want my doctor’s experience to be as formal and as brief as possible. I am not there to make friends with the doctor, and it seems to me too many female doctors try to get chatty and too personal. I particularly prefer male doctors for gyn…I know it sounds weird, but I haven’t had an experience yet where a male doctor refuses to listen to a complaint.
The only instance I have had trouble with doctors is their absolute refusal to sterilize young women. And I have heard that line from male and female doctors equally.
I haven’t ever been to a gynecologist and don’t plan on it*, but if I needed to, I wouldn’t be comfortable with a male doctor. If I had a problem bad enough to drive me to the doctor, I’d want someone who had a chance of understanding - not that there aren’t wonderful male gynecologists, I’m sure there are, but…they’re not women and therefore don’t know what it feels like.
Any other medical issue, I don’t care. I’m already humiliated as it is, so the gender of the humiliater doesn’t really come into it.
*Blah blah blah regular checkups are important etc. I know that, please don’t lecture me.
I’ve had both male and female doctors for various minor things; physicals, skin problems, stuff like that. The only time I got a semi-stiffie is when I was 16 and watching paint dry could turn me on. The middle-aged woman doctor I had, who was doing the testicle palpation/hernia check didn’t even pay any attention, which was probably the nicest thing she could have done.
Probably the person who made me feel most embarrassed was the female at the clinic when I had my first AIDS test at 19. I could tell she was dying to be disapproving of any answer of “yes” to a high-risk behavior from the survey she had to give beforehand.
Strictly anecdotal, but when going for a gynecological exam, only the women have ever bothered to warm their hands or the speculum. Heck, at one clinic, one of the woman had sewn flannel covers for the stirrups, because they got cold. It’s usually the women who warn “ok, this is going to pinch now”.
So yes, I do assume that a female doctor or nurse has had a pelvic exam, has had a speculum used on her, and has had her bare feet stuck in stirrups for a while.
I’ve had it the other way. Women doctors who don’t care about warming up the speculum or whatever because they’re like “I had my exam and the speculum was cold and I* dealt with it*, so TOUGHEN UP!” I don’t wanna toughen up. On the contrary my male doctor warms the speculum and is very gentle.
I don’t give a crap if it doesn’t bother them to examine me and it’s a clinical blah blah. It bothers me and it’s my health we’re discussing so that’s the important thing.
It isn’t really even on my radar what gender my doctors are. I mean yeah I notice it same as I notice what color hair they have and so on… but it doesn’t register with any more weight than the hair color does, either.
Let’s say there’s something going on with my butt. I feel like if I go to a typical straight male doctor he’s going to be all, “what, you want me to look at your butt? Why? Okay, I’ll look if you insist. It appears to be Something Wrongicus withus your butticus. The treatment is takeitus officus your butticus. Tsk, tsk, tsk.”
A gay doctor would be more, “okay, let’s have a look. Dude, you got a wart. You using condoms, dumb-ass? You know this has been going around. Let’s take care of this.”
I’ve been to the gyno once (I’m 20 & have the “if it aint broke, don’t fix it” attitude in that area). I didn’t have a referral or anyone in mind so I just said “as long as it’s a woman”. I was happy that she was young-ish and petite. Petite, because I get iritated hearing “You’re so little!” and often scorned and scoffed at by other females because I wear a size 0. I especially don’t want that from someone inspectng my stuff.
Other doctors: as long as a male is not seeing me naked, I don’t have a preference. I love my body but I’m also very pivate with it.