I am a guy. While there are some that would find that reason enough to shun me, there's not much I can do about my gender...at least not much that I'm willing to do that doesn't involve surgery. I'm generally averse to the concept of surgery. Which is kind of what this rant is all about.
It's time to establish a new specialty in the medical world. Guy Medicine. Think about it. Women have their own specialties (Obstetrics, Gynecology), and so do children (Pediatrics and all the pediatrics sub-specialties). While it could be argued that men are just another form of children, I would have to say...well, yeah, we are...but put the emphasis on the fact that we are another form of children. So? We need Guy Medicine.
Why Guy Medicine?
Ok...what general statements can definitively we make about guys?
Guys don't like to talk about personal matters
Guys don't like to show that they are in pain
When in pain, guys generally think the best think to do is "walk it off", "rub it up", "shake it off", or "tough it out"
Guys are not completely comfortable being naked around other guys
Guys don't like to ask for directions - asking for help is a sign of weakness. Weakness is the first sign that a man's imminent demise is fast approaching. The only proper response to such a situation is to devise a quick but noble death.
Now...going to the doctor involves:
Talking about personal matters
Admitting to a level of discomfort that cannot be walked, rubbed, shaken, toughed or otherwise gotten rid of
Possibly getting naked in front of another guy
Asking for directions....about one's own body.
This is clearly a problematic situation. How can a guy go to the doctor, when everything about actually seeking medical attention is antithetical to the very nature of being a guy?
What to do?
The time has come to establish training for physicians. Just as children need special handling, guys do to. If I've dragged myself in to see the doctor because I can't raise my arm at all without screaming and passing out, I'd like to get plenty of sympathetic understanding about how well I toughed it out for so long, not admonishments for whatever the stupid thing was that I did to cause the condition in the first place. If I have discomfort in some place I don't want to mention, or don't have an appropriate way of mentioning without getting embarrassed, a physician should be able to lead me into a description without making it a bad time...or at the very least just let me point. Pediatricians can diagnose illness in children with vocabularies more limited than mine, why can't my physician do the same for me? Or, if I do want to talk, then let me just talk about it....after all, if I've gone to the effort of actually coming in, something must be wrong.
