Doctors and gender
Sep. 25th, 2010 02:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
next_to_normalQuestion for the ladies: Is gender a factor when you're picking a doctor?
This is something that's been on my mind, as I am once again perusing my insurance company's provider directory (which I hate doing, btw - exactly how much can you tell from a listing that tells you the doctor's name, address, and medical school?). It may be more of an issue for younger women, since, as my mother pointed out once, you're pretty likely to be comfortable with male doctors if you didn't have a choice when you first started going. But regardless of age, I'm curious whether or not you have a preference.
And if you do, is it for all doctors, or just certain specialties? Have you had prior experiences that led to these preferences? Do you feel that a female doctor has a better understanding of your body/issues/lifestyle? Do you feel that, because you're a woman, a female doctor will take you more seriously than a male doctor would? In choosing a doctor, is gender more important than other factors, such as office location, reputation, or length of wait time for an appointment?
I definitely feel more comfortable talking to a female doctor about whatever's wrong with me - and the more vulnerable I feel talking about it, the more the doctor's gender matters to me. I can talk about a toothache with anyone, no problem, but my mental health? Absolutely prefer a woman. Except that's how I picked my current therapist and I hate her. :-P But I still would prefer to find another woman, because I just cannot imagine feeling comfortable expressing my feelings to a male therapist. When I first started going to the gynecologist, the idea of having a male doctor responsible for my girly bits weirded me out (though I've since gotten over that). In general, I tend to think that male doctors won't take me seriously, or they won't understand why I feel the way I do.
The thing is, my experiences with doctors haven't necessarily borne that out. On average, my experience with female doctors is that they don't necessarily understand me better, and they're not necessarily more sympathetic or respectful than the male doctors I've seen. Some of my worst experiences have been with female doctors, and some of my favorite doctors have been male. My family doctors growing up, my gastroenterologist, my gynecologist, my ophthalmologist, my ENT, even my dentist - all are male, mostly after bad experiences with female doctors. (Oh, although I did prefer my female endocrinologist and dermatologist, even though I don't see either of them anymore... and now I'm starting to wonder if most people see as many specialists as I do, lol.) So it's intriguing to me that whenever I go back to the directory, I still find myself immediately gravitating toward female names.
This is something that's been on my mind, as I am once again perusing my insurance company's provider directory (which I hate doing, btw - exactly how much can you tell from a listing that tells you the doctor's name, address, and medical school?). It may be more of an issue for younger women, since, as my mother pointed out once, you're pretty likely to be comfortable with male doctors if you didn't have a choice when you first started going. But regardless of age, I'm curious whether or not you have a preference.
And if you do, is it for all doctors, or just certain specialties? Have you had prior experiences that led to these preferences? Do you feel that a female doctor has a better understanding of your body/issues/lifestyle? Do you feel that, because you're a woman, a female doctor will take you more seriously than a male doctor would? In choosing a doctor, is gender more important than other factors, such as office location, reputation, or length of wait time for an appointment?
I definitely feel more comfortable talking to a female doctor about whatever's wrong with me - and the more vulnerable I feel talking about it, the more the doctor's gender matters to me. I can talk about a toothache with anyone, no problem, but my mental health? Absolutely prefer a woman. Except that's how I picked my current therapist and I hate her. :-P But I still would prefer to find another woman, because I just cannot imagine feeling comfortable expressing my feelings to a male therapist. When I first started going to the gynecologist, the idea of having a male doctor responsible for my girly bits weirded me out (though I've since gotten over that). In general, I tend to think that male doctors won't take me seriously, or they won't understand why I feel the way I do.
The thing is, my experiences with doctors haven't necessarily borne that out. On average, my experience with female doctors is that they don't necessarily understand me better, and they're not necessarily more sympathetic or respectful than the male doctors I've seen. Some of my worst experiences have been with female doctors, and some of my favorite doctors have been male. My family doctors growing up, my gastroenterologist, my gynecologist, my ophthalmologist, my ENT, even my dentist - all are male, mostly after bad experiences with female doctors. (Oh, although I did prefer my female endocrinologist and dermatologist, even though I don't see either of them anymore... and now I'm starting to wonder if most people see as many specialists as I do, lol.) So it's intriguing to me that whenever I go back to the directory, I still find myself immediately gravitating toward female names.
