female chaperone male patient experience

Two weeks ago here in the States, my brother was told he needed a scrotal ultrasound. The more visible this issue becomes, the more likely things are to change. I would be interested in hearing about similar experiences from other men, and how you responded to them. The whole encounter left me feeling insulted, disrespected, and humiliated I had trouble sleeping and focussing at my job, and ended up seeing a therapist for a few months.Īs mentioned, I have discussed this encounter on other websites, so I'm not necessarily seeking feedback for myself. Before this encounter, I had never even heard of “chaperones,” and had never been undressed in a doctor’s office for anyone but that doctor. I was so shocked and embarrassed I literally couldn’t speak – the NP hadn’t said anything beforehand about bringing in a witness, never explained why it was necessary, and never asked my permission for it (which I certainly would not have given). Then the NP pulled the drape completely off me, and I was exposed to both women from waist to ankles.

Without a word to me, they positioned themselves directly across from each other at my hips. But when she opened the door again, one of the intake nurses (also female) was right behind her.

After the initial discussion, she left while I undressed, lay down on the exam table, and covered myself with a drape as she instructed. Then I had my first “intimate” exam with her - regarding a mass I’d noticed on one of my testicles. I’d been seeing a female NP for 5-6 years so thought I had a good working relationship with her.

I've posted about this on other blogs, so if you follow the subject already you may have seen this before. Since my goal is to initiate some discussion of this topic here, I'll share an 'ambush' experience of my own. Not always, but far more often than not: 'You don't have anything we haven't seen before.' 'We don't have modesty here.' 'Do you have a problem with women? Usually, men in these situations say nothing about their feelings of embarrassment, exposure, anger, and/or humiliation - but when they do, their responses are usually dismissed. But the reverse happens all the time: more and more female physicians and NP's are bringing in so-called 'chaperones' when performing intimate examinations and procedures on their male patients, and those chaperones are almost always female. It's unthinkable for a female patient to end up undressed in a room with a male doctor and a male assistant. There is no such thing as a male mammographer, but the vast majority of scrotal ultrasounds are performed by female technicians. There's a growing awareness that one of the major reasons men stay away from health care providers is the fact that their needs for modesty and bodily privacy are seldom respected. Patients indicated that they felt comfortable asking for a chaperone.Īlthough most patients have no strong preference, female patients, especially female teenagers, should be given the option of having a chaperone present during an examination of the breasts, pelvis, or rectum by a male physician.Given that the home page for this website prominently mentions the well-known male tendency to avoid medical treatment, I was extremely surprised that my search on the terms 'modesty' and 'privacy' yielded no results. Adults of both sexes felt the nurse would be the best chaperone, whereas teenagers ranked a parent first and the nurse second. Thirty-six percent of adult women and 63% of female teenagers wanted a chaperone present during a first examination of these regions. However, substantial proportions of adult women (29%) and female teenagers (46%) preferred that a chaperone be present during a breast, pelvic, or rectal examination by a male physician. The majority of patients of either sex and all ages did not care if a chaperone was present. Preference survey data were obtained from 251 female subjects and 201 male subjects over the age of 13 years who visited a family practice center in a midwestern urban community. The study was designed to quantify preference differences between male and female patients and between teenagers and adults, and to determine whether the sex of the examining physician influenced chaperone preference. This study was undertaken to determine the preference of patients concerning the presence of a chaperone during physical examination of the breasts, genitals, rectum, heart and lungs, or abdomen.

Female chaperone male patient experience