How do husbands feel about male gynecologists?

What does the Bible say about doctors? Asa was diseased and his feet and died. He sought the physicians and not the Lord. A woman with an issue of blood spent her money up on physicians, but none could help here.

There aren't that many references.

If someone, male or female, just feels it is wrong for a man who is not a woman's husband to put his hands in certain places, we should respect that person's conscience and not mock them. If a wife has a husband like this, she should respect his wishes, also, and a husband should respect his wife's conscience as well. A man having these concerns and convictions does not make him an ogre.

I am thinking about the comment on Malaysia. I don't know if there are many female OBGYNs in Indonesia. We didn't find one. There are female doctors and dentists. I do not know of a highly professional midwifery practice in Indonesia, but I seem to recall hearing about dukun beranak, which I think is probably a traditional midwife even though dukun by itself usually refers to a witchdoctor/shaman. I suspect traditional options are available in villages. Nursing did not seem to be as trained in Indonesia as they are in the US (letting the blood go up in the IV and such), and I believe the midwives that helped my wife deliver our first baby were nurses who had gone on to specialized.

If any of you in the US have a clinic that has midwives like this, I would encourage you to consider it. My wife was really pleased with the service. They have a different philosophy. They don't treat pregnancy like a disease. They try to make the wife comfortable and they offer a lot of education and other services. Ours reported to a doctor and connected to a hospital. They would bring in a doctor if they were complications. I don't remember seeing a single male midwife, either. The hospital or clinic had a program for teaching new parents, not only the breathing techniques and all that stuff, but also basic parenting and care for a newborn.

I was about to say women in the 1800's were probably more likely if they went to the alternative to male doctors-- female midwives-- because of the lack of handwashing.

As it turns out, a doctor in the 1800s observed a natural experiment that illustrated this. The women who gave birth under doctors' care were five times more likely to die of 'child bed fever' (sepsis) than those who were under midwives' care. The doctors performed autopsies, didn't wash their hands, then delivered babies, spreading the infection.

Midwives have been around for a long time. They had them in Egypt. It is a basic need. The medical profession has been around a long time, but it has only recently gotten sophisticated. In the early 1900's, there were doctors who would give patients concoctions containing cocaine and opium for a variety of ailments or to help little babies sleep at night. It wasn't until the 1800's that bloodletting fell out of favor. The body was supposed to have four humours, and fevers were supposed to be caused by excess blood. Not only doctors, but also barbers with their dirty blades and whoever else might let blood. In 1799, doctors bled 40% of George Washington's blood as a treatment for his ailment, and of course he died after that.

As long as he doesn't see wrists and ankles...

If you don't like the thread and aren't interested in it, why post in it?

If you feel that way, I hope your wife respects your wishes. You had also make sure you live in an area with a female OB if your wife gets pregnant. What would you do if the doctor cannot make it to the hospital and the only one there to deliver is a man? It happened to us.

Why is it odd? There is some sense to the idea that 'uncovering nakedness' could be broader than sexual intercourse. There were to be ramps in certain places to prevent nakedness from being exposed.

It's odd because that is what a doctor does, it's not sexual. Any male doc goes out of their way to protect privacy in that manner. A female doc is not always available. To a doc, your foot is the same as any other part of your body.

No,he's going to have no feelings at all. A doctor sees one body part same as another. An EMT may have to also see certain body parts and the vast majority of them are male. They see hundreds or more people in their practice. They are professional. Not all men are driven by sexual desire. And that's not a knock against anyone.

presidente said:

I had a conversation with a friend of mine who had gone to a high school reunion. One of his classmates had become a gynecologist. His old high school buddies were teasing him about what a great job he had. He told them, it wasn't like that. Women usually came to him when they were sick and diseased. But what about those who aren't? Men aren't robots. Old men have feelings, too.

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Exactly,it's not like that.It's a professional business.Doctors see a body part that needs medicine, that's all.Anything else is a judgement call. All kinds of Christian male docs that see female patients.

presidente said:

That being said, I don't see how childbirth can be 'sexy.' I'd imagine they get desensitized to some extent. i wonder how that affects their marriages. There are OBs with kids (if the Cosby show was any indication), too, so it must not totally destroy everything. I read the OBs have a higher divorce rate than other physicians.

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Have no children of my own but have been with my sister when she had her two. It's messy business for certain.

How much experience do you have being a male medical doctor, a male EMT, or a man in general? I've never been a medical doctor (but I played one on TV once.) But I have been a young man.

Maybe these guys compartmentalize somehow and it doesn't effect them. But when I was young and single and looking for someone, a beautiful young woman would catch my attention. OBGYNs probably do plenty of exams without sensing those emotions, but all of them? Really? How would you know what they feel or don't feel.

Something else to keep in mind is that we have no reason to think of the medical profession as a sanctified holy thing. Normally, if a man put his hands on another man's wife's intimate areas or if a woman put her hands on a married man's intimate areas, we would object. But we have this institution in our culture of doctors and the medical profession. We make an exception for them because it is culturally acceptable. There was sense in many traditional societies having female midwives. So I can understand this anti-male-OBGYN mindset. I'm not totally convinced by it, but I don't think we should despise those who hold to it.

I would prefer it if all OBs were women. That wouldn't work with our legal framework, though. I'd prefer a society that has all male soldiers and policemen, and heads of state, too. But it doesn't work with my countries current national philosophy.

Majority of the top gyne in my country, Malaysia are male. They must be out of job soon and probably being sued for sexual immorality.

There is problem with this. Doctor is a doctor to me.