I have no preference regarding the gender of my gynecologist. I also wouldn’t care about the gender of an observing medical student.
Now that I think about it, I guess I would prefer not to have a student observing, but I also would prefer not to have to be checked out by the cashier-in-training at the supermarket. I’m willing to accommodate either because people have to learn.
I can’t imagine something that I wouldn’t be comfortable discussing in front of an observing med student, but in the event that I really wanted to talk to the doctor privately, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask for that. The gender of the student in question wouldn’t matter.
I don’t care one way or another, and also didn’t mind the male OB student nurse in the hospital where I delivered (and I think I saw more of him because I didn’t mind and some of the other long-term antepartum patients did). I am generally happy to have student doctors or nurses, even though I have some funny stories about nursing students bollixing things up on me (at two different hospitals).
Some people are cool with being “guinea pigs” and some aren’t. I work in medical research at a medical center (which also has a med school) and some people just don’t want stuff out of the ordinary. I prefer having a female gynecologist but would be OK letting a med student of either gender in for the exam. I figure med students are just there to learn; for my doctor, I have to be able to relate to her, and prefer smaller hands in general for that exam.
I’m definitely not saying that female gynecologists are always the best. My mom had one who had zero “bedside manner.” I tend to prefer them but had one who rather dismissively asked me if I was into rough sex when she noted a bruised cervix during my exam.
Hmm. I can be glad at least that my mid-teens first gyn exam was only by an old male doctor who was utterly unsympathetic to my feelings about the matter. I might have had an embolism if I’d had a crowd observing me at that age. :eek:
I said I was OK with male gynecologists and the presence of male students. I’ve never had a male gynecologist, though. Mostly because I’ve only seen two doctors who as it happened were female. If I needed to change, I’d be okay with a male doctor.
I’d be OK with the presence of students of either gender. Just as long as they’re not doing any touching or prodding. Just observe and report, please!
The two nastiest OBs I ever had were both women, which shattered my illusions that women would be more sympathetic… I’ve had very nice OBs of both genders though, so have ended up not wanting to decide who I wanted on basis of gender. (Not that I have ever had very much choice under my particular circumstances.)
I also never minded being a guinea pig until giving birth with placenta previa in a huge teaching hospital. I found that the group teaching sessions were exhausting and it was hard to refuse. It wasn’t the students - I found them all very polite, interested and respectful; it was their teachers that I had trouble with. Three of the senior doctors were very arrogant and would harangue the students and nurses in front of me, which I found very distasteful and stressful, and one of them actually caused me to have contractions with his rough handling of me - a huge no-no for placenta previa.
The students were called on to examine me one by one, and he got angry with them for being timid, shoved them aside and proceded to roughly manhandle my belly till it went rigid. I was livid and shoved him off and gave the students a mini-lesson about WHAT NOT TO DO for placenta previa patients. After they’d gone I needed extra anti-contraction drips and my own OB was really angry, stomping about my bed and muttering under his breath about asshole arrogant teachers who simply could not resist showing off in front of students. I made a formal statement that that doctor nor any of his students was to come near me again, and for the rest of my 11 week stay, they mysteriously vanished. Other students and teachers came but there was a big red “no touching” note on the cover of my file, which was very reassuring.
I have a slight preference for a female gynecologist (actually I prefer a Nurse Practioner over a OB/GYN) but I’ve had one male gynecologist and it was fine. When I was younger I had a stronger preference for a woman, feeling, bascally, I didn’t want anyone putting a speculum inside of me who hasn’t had one put inside of her! Like I said, over time the intensity of that opinion has faded greatly.
I used to go to a practice in a teaching hospital, and always gave permission for students to observe. I’ve also given permission for a more senior studet to do a part of the exam. I can’t remember any of them being male but it maks no difference to me really. I’m not terribly modest, and I know they have to learn somehow.
That said I can perfectly understand a person wanting their trusted doctor and ONLY that person, to see them in such a state of complete vulnerability/exposure/indignity.
I’ve only seen women, but after having a kid and some surgery, I lose most of my inhibitions and modesty in medical settings pretty easily. So while I choose a woman on purpose, I’d be ok with a guy observing.
During my pregnancy, my doctors’ office had you rotate through the staff so you’d meet them all before the big day. There was one doctor who was just freaking gorgeous and charming and my age and I would be like “ok baby, don’t come on his day cause I don’t want him to see DOWN THERE.” He was not on duty that day, but he did visit me several times on his rounds, but never got a look at the goods.
My first OB-GYN, back when I was a shy tender young thing of 21 and only just sexually active, was an old man. Oddly enough, having a male doctor didn’t bother me even back then, when I was still painfully modest.
A few years later, I had to switch OB-GYNs, and I ended up with a female nurse practitioner. A year or two after that, I began seeing my current NP, also female. I really like her a lot, but I think that’s largely because she’s so personable and not necessarily because she’s female. But it is kind of nice to talk about things with a person who owns the same equipment.
Last fall I had a breast issue that entailed several sessions of being poked and prodded by all sorts of people, male and female, sometimes several at once. (Breast gang bang!) During one procedure, they tried to keep the unaffected breast draped, but the covering kept falling off, and after a while I was like, “Who cares?” It’s not like I had anything they hadn’t seen a zillion times, and we were just trying to get the stupid thing over with.
So I guess even though I haven’t given birth, which I’ve heard can decrease one’s modesty issues quite a bit, I’m at a point where I’d say, “Sure, bring 'em on.” I’m all for education; they might as well learn by observing me.
My mother, on the other hand, has a strong preference for female medical people dealing with her girly bits. She has written up a document expressing her preferences for nursing care if she is unable to express them herself when the time comes, and she has asked for female caregivers only. (I think she only thought to add this after hearing that my CNA husband performs personal hygiene for both men and women; she had thought that women would not be cared for by male CNAs.)
While I don’t really have a preference and I would not mind a student, god only knows what I would say if you popped that question on me when I was in the stirrups. I tend to answer random, unexpected questions really weirdly–I call it “drive through syndrome”, because, when faced with an unexpected choice at the drive through I never give the answer that makes sense to me later. I just totally freeze when I am put on the spot and I don’t really care, and I tend to say what I think people expect to hear.
I think this is it. Some women who might have been fine being observed during a regular exam, or an exam when everything feels okay down there, may not want a student hearing them reveal their number of recent sex partners, talking about their one-night stand, requesting STD tests or abortion advice, describing vaginal itching, etc.
Heh, the most embarrassed I’ve been (as an adult) at a doctor’s visit was with my neurologist. I had a seriously handsome resident doing the physical exam, looking for anything that might help diagnose the cause of my migraines. So he pulled out the ophthalmoscope (that handheld, light-up tool they use to look in your eyes), turned out the lights, and leaned into me. He pressed close, shoulder to shoulder, nearly cheek to cheek, peering into my eyes. Then he flipped on the lights and took my blood pressure and pulse immediately after. :smack: My pulse rate came up as being “elevated.” As an employee of the same medical center, I felt compelled to advise him on how he might want to rearrange the order of his exams, but I just couldn’t bring myself to say anything and embarrass him as well. I said something about being out of shape, which isn’t wrong, but wasn’t the reason. At future visits he switched out the order - I wonder if he noticed that certain patients always had elevated BP/pulse?
At one point, not long ago, I had to have a transvaginal ultrasound. (For the uninitiated in this procedure, you basically have a long probe stuck up your vagina for this scan. I also had a catheter stuck through the cervical opening and fluid squirted around in my uterus, to get a good image of what was going on in there, if anything. This is not part of all transvaginal ultrasounds.) The tech was female but the radiologist was male. He noticed my work ID (same hospital) and we chatted about our respective departments’ imaging equipment while he did the scan.
I don’t really care. As long as things are done quickly and professionally I don’t care if it’s a Japanese tentacle monster that is giving me my exam. A dick or vag is not what makes someone a good doctor.
I only see female gynos. In fact, the practice where I go now does not have a female ob/gyn, so I can only see a nurse practitioner.
I put that I would allow a male student, just because I like learning and stuff. So I’d take one for the team and let a boy watch. Not every time, tho. Just that once
For the record, my mom prefers a male ob/gyn and she has had the same one for 33 years.
My primary care doctor once had a shadowing med student with him when I was there for a checkup, and the young guy participated fully, to the point of putting his finger up my ass just like the regular doctor. He may have been just a student, but as far as I could tell, he was a natural.
I prefer a male gynecologist. Most of the women gynecologists I’ve seen have been rude and insensitive. One even burned me. When I told her she burned me, she didn’t seem to care. I was in pain for days.
But if I had a choice to have a male student watch the procedure, I’d decline. It’s already an uncomfortable time. I wouldn’t want to add to it. For me, it’s about the watching, not the gender of the person watching.
I prefer female GYNs, mostly because from personal experience, the male GYNs, no matter how knowledgeable, just don’t seem to be on the same wavelength as me. I don’t know why this is. I just know that after several exams where I came out feeling stressed and full of self-doubt, I am more comfortable seeing women.
That being said, I have no problem at all being examined by a male medical student, if only for the chance to tell him “every time you use a cold speculum on a patient, your penis will shrink by an inch.”
I have no real preferance either way. And I love med students!
In fact, just to prove how small the world really is, one of the med students who saw me when I went in with bleeding at 23 weeks of pregnancy was a guy who went to high school with my husband 20 years ago, in another state! He recognized the last name, then looked at my husband, and after they said their hellos and howyabeens, carefully explained that this was the last day of his rotation at this hospital, and he totally understood if he wasn’t the best baby doc for us and he’d excuse himself from the case if we wished. We told him (after conversing privately) that it was totally fine with us if he stayed on board.
He ended up in the OR assisting with the emergency c-section. We thought it was pretty hysterical that the guy who used to be in a garage band with my husband had his hands inside my guts!
I’ve had two bad gyn exams in my life and both were by male residents. I’ve had two bad gyn experiences in my life (one attached to a bad exam, one not) both involving male residents. And residents have had more experience and practice than students. For that reason, no one gets near my bits now who isn’t both female and fully board certified, ACOG membership and the works. (Or nurses/nurse practitioners as needed.) It’s just a matter of experiences for me.
