Being a woman in a male-dominated profession has its challenges, sexual harassment being at the top of the list.

#MeToo in Medicine

The simple fact that a woman doctor will at times examine a male patient does not always sit well with people. Some men see it as an uncomfortable role reversal. They make jokes to lighten the mood. Others become aggressive or assertive. In either case, they try to turn the tables to put themselves in the driver’s seat.

The doctor-patient relationship is supposed to be about trust. It requires that both parties be open and vulnerable, one to listen and the other to express their concerns. Together, the goal should be to better your health. Unfortunately, that relationship falls apart when sexual harassment comes into play.

#MeToo As a Medical Student

My first clinical rotation as a third-year medical student was in a family medicine office. I remember being excited because this was the speciality I chose. Sure enough, after four years of medical school and three years of residency, I became a family doctor. It was a shame that my first patient encounter made me feel so uncomfortable.

The gentleman was a middle-aged man who seemed quite nervous when the senior doctor (a male physician) and I entered the room. He was already in a gown and sitting up on the exam table. The doctor introduced me as a medical student and asked if I could assist in the procedure. Without hesitation, the man said yes, but he peppered the entire visit with innuendo.

“Will I be so lucky as to have the pretty girl handle the family jewels?”

You see, he was having a vasectomy, and the doctor played right along.

“I’m sure she has never handled a finer pair.”

Obviously, the man was uncomfortable having a female student present, but when I asked if he would be more comfortable with a nurse, the senior doctor gave me a steely stare. He told me to stay put. All the nurses were female too, and without an assistant, he would be unable to perform the procedure. I stood by and did my job.

#MeToo As a Resident

As a second-year resident, the emergency room paged me in the middle of the night to evaluate an older man with weakness in his arm. His wife sat by his side in obvious distress. Other than a limp arm, the man, however, seemed completely at ease.

While I leaned over to examine his abdomen, he reached up and squeezed my breast. This was no accident, not if he had to lift his arm against gravity to do it. His wife looked at me in abject horror. To this day, I am not sure if it was because she was embarrassed or if she blamed me somehow.

A professional, I brushed his hand away and asked him not to do it again. I went on with the examination and ordered the necessary tests. As it turned out, he had a stroke and that stroke involved the frontal lobe of the brain. The frontal lobe is essential for impulse control and can even affect sexual behaviors.

The next day during rounds, in front of the attending and my peers, the man grabbed my backside. I gently swatted his hand away and gave my presentation to the group. I made a point to mention the changes in behavior. As we were leaving the room, he pinched me again. Whether it was his fault or not, I could not go on this way. I asked a male resident to swap patients with me, but he refused to do so. He said, “It’s your job. Get over yourself.”

#MeToo As an Attending

There are the men who call you “babe”, “doll”, or “girl” even when you ask them to address you by your title. Some demand a rectal exam but refuse to have a chaperone in the room. Others make misogynistic jokes about women during their visits. There was the one man, a police officer, who always brought a gun to his visit. It didn’t matter if he was on duty or not, he wanted me to know he was armed. Whenever I said something he did not agree with, i.e., “I do not think you need antibiotics”, he’d smirk and his hand would move not so subtly to his holster.

For the record, if I ask a patient to call me by my title, I also call him by them by their full name. If a rectal exam makes me uncomfortable, I won’t do one. If they offend me, I tell my patients their jokes are not appropriate. Despite any attempts at intimidation, I give the treatments I feel are appropriate.

My point is that things like this happen all the time. What I experienced and what many other women doctors have gone through shows that we are not always treated with the same respect as our male counterparts. We are made to feel like objects simply because we are women.

It’s Time for a Change

A medical student shouldn’t be objectified by a patient or her teacher because of her gender. We should not accrue #MeToo. A medical resident shouldn’t be made to accept sexual advances because it comes with the job. A doctor should not be put in compromising positions where she feels harassed or threatened. Somehow, these things keep happening. Studies show that doctors in training do not always feel they have a voice to speak up about sexual harassment. The same goes for those in clinical practice. This can create a hostile learning and working environment.

It is no wonder that #MeToo and #TimesUp have taken the world by storm. It is time for women to speak out and set the standard by which they should be treated, not only in medicine but in all areas of life.

 

Komaromy M, Bindman AB, Haber RJ, Sande MA. Sexual Harassment in Medical Training. N Engl J Med. 1993; 328:322-326. https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM199302043280507

Witte FM, Stratton TD, Nora, LM. Stories from the Field: Students’ Descriptions of Gender Discrimination and Sexual Harassment During Medical School. Academic Medicine. July 2006; 81(7):648-654. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.ACM.0000232421.04170.d2