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Male VaJayJay Dr? WHY?

by Tracee Sioux on April 19th, 2007

I went to my annual OB/GYN exam today. It’s really no fun. You all know that. Never your favorite day. The anticipation feels more like anxiety – even though you know what is going to happen and you know you will live through it.

I have the added anxiety of my OB/GYN being a man. I confess I have always wondered what the heck would motivate a man to want to spend 40-60 hours a week on the vagina. I mean, he’s in medical school and decides, Hey I want to major in vaginas. That’s my calling.

I’ve heard the theory that they are all perverts and really every guy on the planet wants to major in vaginas. But, think about it. No one is calling their OB/GYN and asking them to take a look at their healthy vagina. Aside from the annual visit, you call your doctor when it’s itchy or something strange is coming out of it or it’s bleeding too much or it hurts or any number of icky and unpleasant reasons why you’re going to see this doctor.

My friend is entirely convinced it’s all about the babies. They love to be present at the birth of a baby. Hey, if you’re the nurse assisting mothers on the labor ward and are present for births every day I can see the birthing miracle being your motive. But, not for an OB/GYN. I mean, he probably spends maybe 5% of his practice assisting births. The rest of the time he’s got a swab or a finger in a VaJayJay checking for problems.

And why does he want to be listening to us whine about the cramping or the hot flashes or the break-through bleeding? The complaining this guy must hear! People go to the doctor when something is wrong. And with women, well my husband really doesn’t want to hear the complaints of one woman, why does this guy want to listen to the complaints of hundreds of women?

I admit, I have never chosen a male gynecologist before. I’ve always preferred women. At least they have a vaginaand understand the problems associated with having one. I mean, don’t you just want to smack a male doctor and yell, How the hell would you know?When he tells you the pain during an exam or the extreme cramping during your period is normal?

I can see why a woman would choose this as her specialty. But, I didn’t like the care I was getting from my female gyno. She wanted to refer me to an expensive fertility clinic when I was having trouble getting pregnant and I felt it was not too much to ask for a little blood work and some tests before I was shipped an hour away to a clinic that has a policy against billing my insurance.

Really, I choose my current doctor due to peer pressure. Everyone I know goes to this guy. That he has a fan club would not be an exaggeration. My mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, acquaintances from church and work, and friends all see this guy. He’s delivered six out of eight of the grandchildren. No one would shut up about how great this guy is. So, I went with the man everyone was talking about – even though he’s in possession of a penis rather than a VaJayJay.

Honestly, I’m still a little uncomfortable with it. I mean I’ve had a baby since I started going to him and still, when they call me and tell me it’s time to see him – I wonder, why is he even in this business?  

So today, I asked him. We had done the exam and I’d lived through it and I decided – I want to understand his motive. I want to know that he’s not some sort of deranged freak. I KNOW he’s not a deranged freak, because I’ve spent enough time with him and know him well enough, but I can see a deranged freak picking this as a profession. In fact, I do want to say that I am very grateful to this man for doing a little reconstructive surgery on my own VaJayJay after my second birth, since the OB/GYN that delivered my first child didn’t put everything back where it was supposed to go.

What he said was he’s in it for the variety of what he gets to do.

He said during the rotation of residencies when a medical student is given the opportunity to explore the various kinds of medicine, one of the first things they get to see in the OB/GYN rotation is the delivery of a baby. Which is exciting and interesting and fun. Then they spend a little more time doing a C-section and a hysterectomy and they think surgery is pretty fun. Everyone knows, from Grey’s Anatomy that surgeons do think surgery is fun. So I can buy that, it’s not my hobby, but I’m glad it’s someone’s.

He also said he really likes talking to people, the patients. Surgeons don’t really get to know people and don’t get to hear much about their patients’ lives because after a few visits, hopefully they never see them again, he explained. With gynecology he gets to meet patients and their families and he gets to follow up on them and hear about how their lives are going over time. He said he also wants to be of service to women in crisis intervention, which he probably wouldn’t be able to do in another kind of practice.

He said gynecologist don’t really understand that the great majority of their time will be doing vaginal exams and pap smears and that it’s really not his favorite thing to do. But, it pays the bills and he has to do it. He basically said he sucks it up and didn’t realize in the beginning how much of his time would be spent doing vaginal exams.

Mainly, he thinks being an OB/GYN is really the only way he would be able to have close, prolonged contact with patients and still get a lot of time in surgery and be present during the miracle of birth.

I have to say, I believe him. I feel better knowing his motive. I also feel a little better knowing that he too thinks it’s not much fun to be investigating the problems of the vagina. I’m glad to know it’s the surgery and the patients and the births – the variety that keeps him in the profession. Maybe next year the fact that he’s a man won’t bother me a bit.

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