Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for January 29, 2017

Your tests are all good, now go home.

And what about digital rectal examinations of the prostate by women?

Hopefully their nails are short.

My brother is in the fight of his life against leukemia. All of his doctors are male, and he’s not doing well. I’m going to suggest he find a female doctor for a second opinion…

Just ask him what was “interesting”.

I have gotten in the habit of preparing a list of questions, in advance, for any of the several annual upcoming doctor visits on my calendar. As I think of one, I add it to a document with a separate page for each visit. Then I print out that page before going to the appointment, write down the answers, and type them back into the document and save the whole thing. That way I can look back at prior appointments to avoid asking the same questions every year. It has worked well thus far.

Male or female if you don’t communicate to them they many not do so to you. So get talking.

Most patients seem to hear what they want to hear, that said – too many doctors let them.

People here seem to not recall the report, last month, that stated female doctors may be better than male. Google it. There are numerous reports on it from various reputable agencies. It’s a small percentage difference, though. Still, if you’re one of those 32000 (as reported by one newspaper) people that could have been saved, you might think that’s a significant amount.

Maybe he is stressed and having interesting symptoms due to current events. Anybody else check out what happened at a lot of the airports yesterday? Crazy. At least a fed judge stepped in for now. Trump’s ban on people entering the US included many who were seeking asylum from dangerous conditions, some of whom were translators who risked their lives to support our troops!

I’m not sure at the moment if my doctor of record is male or female. When I call the center for an appointment, it’s always “You can see your doctor in six months, or talk to either another doctor or a medical assistant today,” and I go for the quicker one. After four or five years, I met “my” doctor just as he was leaving for another practice. It does seem like all the specialists I see are males, but the people I talk to at my health care outfit tend to be female.

I refuse to carry on as normal under trump, no matter what is being discussed. Nothing is normal anymore. It is up to all of us to speak up.

Another example of prejudice. It really is much simpler to be able to look at an individual and determine their character, their expertise, their experience and the degree to which they actually will care about you by their appearance. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work. The best doctor I ever had was female, the worst was too.

Women love getting the last word in (ducking now). Just kidding, have had male and female docs. Good ones are that way for a reason.

Apparently mike has insurance, so he has more in terms of options for healthcare. Thanks to trump, millions will no longer even have healthcare, so they won’t have the luxury of worrying about whether the doc is male or female. Sorry to bring us back to reality, but here we are. There is no safety net for millions of people without the ACA, as imperfect as it may have been.

My current doctor is male as was my previous one. Both are very good at communicating. Good listeners, and good at explaining their concerns and instructions. No need for me to change.

Every other modern, industrialized country in the world has universal healthcare coverage. Now that we have President* Trump, in the US, we have much bigger things to worry about than whether or not we happen to see a male or female doctor. For example, many are unable to see a doctor, whether the doctor is male or female.

Thanks, Ragarms. I have seen others using the asterisk in regard to trump too. I think it is catching on.

All my medical and dental caregivers are women. And I am a male physician.

I prefer females but not by much if I had a preference.

I don’t find it any worse to have a prostate exam by a woman than a man. The gender of the person who has their finger inside my personal regions is irrelevant next to the fact that a person has their finger inside a very personal region!"