[Maru]

Originally Posted by Jamie89

Thanks Maru that's all very interesting to think about.

It's interesting you mentioned your grandma's experience. My Grandma is currently experiencing some problems with mental health issues and without going into too much detail on a public forum lol (and it's all pretty complicated), but basically she recently refused help from her GP (who is a man) or to discuss what's been happening recently with him. It wouldn't have even crossed my mind that his gender might have been a factor in her shutting herself off from medical help. And it might not be that, she has quite a complicated history, but it's interesting to consider that she might be more willing to get help or communicate with a female doctor. It's something to think about anyway.

Yeah, obviously it it varies by situation/circumstance, but there are times when being with someone who is better in sync with your specific differences are key to your care. A transgender may prefer another transgender physician for example, because they may see or consider things in someone's care that a non-trans would see. It's just better to have a choice. Obviously, there are times when it doesn't really matter. Like an ER, unless there's some sort of religious practice that not to have a male physician work with you, it should be reasonable enough to deal with whatever. And I don't think God would be too upset if you were unconscious and really had no say... and you wouldn't be aware of it anyway.

My other grandmother when she worked nursing (20+ years ago), she had to deal with elderly pt's who didn't want to be seen by African American men or other men, etc. They had mental issues as well (things like Alzheimers) and would flip a **** and get violent (like panic attack sorta rage) if you didn't comply with them. She's very understanding despite this and says it's pretty inhumane to try to place one's personal/politic motivators over the care of the pt. It's also not worth the time and effort to sit there and argue with them to convince it to do it their way. When she quit nursing, she started care-taking and some of the people she care-taked for were some of the most vile/obscene... like she would drive one old man around and he would scream out at other passengers in other cars "You *****ing n--" (etc)... he had been shot one time for doing that and that didn't change his behavior. He was quite vile. Some people you can't change no matter how much social conditioning you add to the equation... everyone has their neuroses. It's just a fact of life and something she not only accepted but affected her practice. She treated them all the same and they love/trusted her for it. In fact, part of the reason she quit working at the nursing home and went into caretaking was because too many people kept requesting for her. (plus she was getting too old to be doing as much of the heavy lifting)