2 Simple Reasons Why Males Should Avoid OB/GYN

Hoover  1 Apr, 2007  OB/GYN

9 Comments so far »

1. Alouette said

   April 1 2007 @ 4:09 am

   I think that you (and most doctors) have been trained badly in OB/gyn, Hoover!

   I have a GYN (he only does GYN) and he talks to me privately in his office before the exam and then walks in with a nurse during the exam tells me funny stories and jokes around. His nurse makes remarks during the exam and is animated and funny. Afterwards, he has me in his office again and tells me what he needs to do with my condition. (I have either developed endometriosis after having had many kids or it suddenly got worse– we are figuring it out.) I felt as excited about seeing my gyn as you do about practicing it– until I met this guy!

   My former OB would expect me to tell whichever nurse he had on duty whatever was going on without me knowing her and wouldn’t let me talk to him alone, which was embarrassing because sometimes I had things to tell him that sounded weird coming out of my mouth for the first time, like about symptoms that had me scared (not to mention grossed out!) His nurses were a tad bitchy and would stand like gargoyles in the room watching him with unblinking eyes, not responding with any facial reactions and I was on edge with them, but I was high risk and wanted to see the OB (his wife is a perinatologist and the real brain of the family– if you saw him, you had a better chance of seeing her if you needed her. She was and is amazing.) The guy was like Eyore and surrounded by unsmiling females– I was a wreck around them and leaving his office after being done having babies was a relief.

   My new GYN has said that when he gets women who are diseased or in prostitution or unhappy marriages, he will talk to them about their lifestyles and ask if they want out and he knows people who can help them and refers them. It turns out that his father and grandfather practiced GYN and he has a desire love for the field. He hires nurses who think like he does. When I told him that the other gyn’s nurses mocked patients in the back room (I also knew a few of them in college and they lacked respect for patients) he said that that is why he hires people to take care of his patients who come to the job to help and honor people, not for the good pay and easy schedule.

   Did medical school try to teach you how to work with the GYN patients? Do you think that your training may have made you not like the work? How my gyn treats his patients is a combination of how his father taught him and how his wife, a nurse mid-wife at another clinic, likes to be treated– medical school taught him to deal with physical problems. I think that he wins people over to better health and good living. I wish more doctor-teachers were like this man and got their students and staff to be like he has trained his. This man is a healer– he makes every other doctor I’ve ever seen seem like mere body technicians.

2. The Peanut Gallery said

   April 1 2007 @ 7:02 am

   I think that looking at diseased vaginas and being around irritable women are reasons for both males and females to not go into OB/GYN. My ownership of a vagina doesn’t make we want to see them all day, particularly when they belong to women with terrible hygiene. Nor do I want to deal with bitchy residents and attendings.

   That is my last rotation and I sure do dread it.

3. The Angry Medic said

   April 1 2007 @ 11:28 am

   Touche!

   Thanks a lot, Hoover. I am SO looking forward to that rotation now.

   Then again, I am SO looking forward to the rest of medical school, so…

4. The Peanut Gallery said

   April 1 2007 @ 12:12 pm

   Hoover,
   I just went back and read your post “OB/GYN” from Dec 2005. The comments you got on that one are atrocious. I would not have done that exam either. At my school, you are not allowed to do procedures on known Hep B or C, or HIV+ patients as a student due to “liability issues.”
   I wonder why they, meaning the medical schools, don’t ask medical students when scheduling third year if there is a shot in a hell that they might want to do OB/GYN or surgery. If they think they would or are just a general gunner, then they can do those rotations. Then the rest of us who know we are not interested could do an abbreviated version or just read the stuff we need to know, which is what we end up doing for tests anyways.

5. Cherokee said

   April 1 2007 @ 10:34 pm

   I think that the core rotations (IM, Surgery, OB/Gyn, Psych, FM, Neuro, Peds) should be 4 weeks each. That’s it. Let students do a ton more electives. If you like OB, you can do 12-16 weeks. The rest of us can thank God above that it’s a finite amount of time.

   For those of you who are religious, I believe that some circle of Hell involves dealing with OB/Gyn residents, attendings, and patients. Thinking of something like that being eternal might force you back into church again…

6. The Peanut Gallery said

   April 2 2007 @ 7:37 am

   Cherokee, that sounds great. Why on earth do I have to spend SIXTEEN weeks on surgery? Does everyone do eight weeks of general surgery and eight weeks of subspecialty surgery? It’s ridiculous.
   With the current system, how are people interested in Radiology, Emergency Medicine (our school doesn’t give experience in that 3rd year) or Derm supposed to know they like it? They definitely need elective time.

   Since I have my OB/GYN rotation last, I have been using it to my advantage. Every single time there is a pelvic exam to be done, the attending asks, “Have you done one of these before?” And I say, “Only once, over a year ago, I have OB last.” And then I only have to watch.

7. Paul said

   September 20 2007 @ 6:19 am

   “Riding the cotton pony”

   That is solid gold. Solid.

8. Samantha said

   March 26 2008 @ 9:27 pm

   Wow. Unbelieveble. I have always dreaded the yearly trip to my gyn and after reading this blog it only confirms my worst fears.
   Maybe plastic surgery would be more enjoyable for you - breast augmentations? Perhaps proctology? Urology? Maybe you should choose a specialty with less physical contact like practicing law?
   Years from now when you need some ‘work’ done on the old prostate think back on your OB/GYN rant….the doc treating you has to look at assholes all day and can probably spot one a mile away!
   Kind regards,
   Samantha

9. shorty said

   November 28 2008 @ 5:53 pm

   I don’t know whether its just me, but when I need an examination or surgery dealing with my “vagina” I have so many nurses (females) that want to be in the room and watch my vagina, but if i have a sore throat or cramp leg, I could barely get 1 nurse to look at it. It seems to me those nurses LOVE to look at other vaginas and get an orgasm- isn’t their a law in which i can only have 1 nurse at a time to look at my vagina?

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