i donāt trust male ob/gyn doctors
Excerpt from Eros Modestica, GENTLEMEN DONāT LOOK UP LADIESā SKIRTS Ā February 14, 2014 āThe most searing indictment of male gynecology is the book by Dr. John M. Smith entitled Women and Doctors (The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1992). After spending nearly twenty-five years in gynecological training and clinical practice, Dr. Smith paints a dismal picture of the womanās specialist. āMale gynecologists, like all men, go through the kind of āattitude settingā that occurs in the proverbial locker rooms while they are growing into manhood.ā Dr. Smith, whose practice was in Colorado Springs, says that āIt is common and acceptable among practicing gynecologists to speak about their patients bodies, sexual behavior, or medical problems indiscriminately, in terms that are demeaning and reflect a lack of kindness and respect.ā (p. 27) Becoming more explicit, he charges them with eroticizing the medical scene: āIt is a rare male who is able to see women day in and day out, examine their bodies, hear details of their sex lives, and not only never have a lascivious thought or abuse that access but always remain clinicalā¦ā (p.29) He confesses that āI have had a colleague invite me to do an exam on one of his patients under the false guise of a consultation because āshe has a body you wonāt believeā.ā āI have seen a physician walk out of an exam room and tell a hallway full of doctors and nurses about the disease his married patient had contracted as a result of an affair. I have seen more than one gynecologist walk into an operating room where another doctorās patient was already asleep for surgery, lift up the sheet, admire the patientās breasts, and continue his conversation without pause.ā (p.27) Dr. Smith concludes dramatically: After twenty-four years of medical education and clinical gynecological experience, it is my opinion that males should not be gynecologists. The role properly belongs to women.ā (p.29)Ā
after reading this, Iām not even sure that men should be doctors at all
