****

Medical student, female

One thing I always noticed every time I interviewed at a medical school this past year, was that there were always more guys than girls. I was also never interviewed by a female member of faculty. At each interview I was surrounded by other prospective doctors, most of whom were men, and I felt proud. So very proud. Proud that I, a girl, was given an interview. That they were considering me to join the ranks that have been occupied by a majority of men for too long. Although it’s getting better, the numbers of women and men applying and matriculating into medical school are not yet at 50-50. But I am proud because I brought those numbers a little bit closer.

****

Attending physician, female

Surgeons were especially fond of belittling women. “You can’t me a surgeon, you should be a nurse.” I had a direct experience which paralleled this quote. In our third year we were required to spend 8 weeks in dog lab. This is something which no longer exists. We were required to operate on dogs and keep them alive for ongoing surgery. The week that I was the surgeon, I was busy removing part of the stomach when the attending surgeon who was supervising us came to our table to watch me work. “you have very good hands. Have you ever thought of going into surgery,” he asked. Then he looked at my face and saw that I am a woman. He snickered and said, “yes, take those hands away. You belong in the kitchen.” I responded, “and that is why I would never think of surgery.”—Constance Shames MD. From “Death of a Scholar,” an autobiography including tales of Downstate in the 60’s.

****

Nurse, Female

1966:  There I sat, a young female nurse, at the nurses’ station carefully writing my patients’ notes, when in walked THE DOCTOR (male of course!).  He looked around and seeing no chairs, looked at me with a stern frown and said, “You, get up, I want to sit down!”  Who else was in the area?  A couple of other doctors, male, who were also writing notes.  They looked up at him, smiled, and went back to their work.  What did I do?  What would you expect?  I was a good obedient nurse.  I got up and provided a place for him to sit.  Ah, those were the days!!

****

Medical student, female

I volunteered as an EMT in college. During training and on the job, I found that the machoness of the field could be overwhelming sometimes. One call sticks in my mind in particular. I had a Friday night shift, with a male partner. The patient on this call had too much to drink, and we were called in to check him out.  He was a rather effusive drunk, and proclaimed that I was beautiful and asked if I wanted to marry him. My partner’s response was “Yeah, she’s pretty.” I really wished that my partner had instead said something to the effect of “That’s inappropriate, she’s here to take care of you,” because that response made me feel worse. I care a lot more about being good at my job than looking good, especially at three in the morning when my job is making sure someone doesn’t aspirate their own vomit.

****

Medical student, male

If I had told anyone that I didn’t expect my first pelvic exam to be awkward, I would have been lying.  Of course it was going to be awkward.  It was to be composed of me trying to interact professionally with an area I had previously experienced only in the least professional context possible, absolutely no idea what I was supposed to be doing, while the woman I was supposed to be examining actively judged my performance.  I was just hoping to make it through without any trauma that couldn’t be solved by laughing at my ineptitude over a few beers with friends.

However, I’ve never been one to think that delaying the inevitable will make dealing with it any easier.  It just earns you more time sitting there dreading what’s to come.  And so, talking among the other people in my group before our patient for the evening showed up, I volunteered to go first.  The two girls were moderately relieved, and I was happy to get it out of the way.  Our instructor, in her late 20s, arrived and walked us through the exam.  Her demeanor was professional but kind, and other than the natural, inevitable feeling of forced smiles and artificiality that accompanies situations like that, things felt relaxed enough that I started to think that things might actually go OK.  When she asked who wanted to go first, I gave my best professional smile.  “I’ll go first.”

She opened her mouth to speak, then broke off awkwardly, the first hitch in her practiced routine.  She looked at me for a second, at the two girls, and then, through an increasingly heavy silence, back at me.  “May I ask why?”

What?  Why?  Why does she want to know why?  I was completely thrown.  It was not a question I was ready for.  And then I became suddenly and painfully aware that I was the only man in the room.  And she was a young woman who was about to make herself exceptionally vulnerable, and I had volunteered.  I instantly convinced myself that I had been too eager, and that my smile had been much more creepy than professional.  But more than embarrassed for myself, which I was plenty, I felt completely ashamed that I had made this woman uncomfortable.  It was so anathema to the way in which I was and am trying to relate to my patients as a medical student and future doctor.  I wanted to apologize, to assure her that I meant absolutely nothing by it, and we could go back to being calm, fake-smiling professionals doing a perfectly artificially-normal thing.

But, I couldn’t acknowledge that it had happened, not and go on with what I still had to do.  So, I did my best to hide my guilt, explained as plainly as I could that we had decided previously that I should go first, and proceeded as best I could with the exam.  But it was already broken.  My hands were shaky, I was awkward and apologetic, and the entire time I couldn’t stop thinking about it.  At first, I was kicking myself for whatever mistake I made to make her feel so threatened.  But then I realized that had a woman volunteered, she would not likely have given it a second thought.  And I will not tell you that did not breed some resentment in me.

I finished the exam, smiled, and thanked her for her time.  I think I’ll carry that experience with me for a while, though I guess I’m not sure what to learn from it.  At any rate, I certainly didn’t learn how to give a proper pelvic exam.  But in that, anyway, I think I’m probably not alone.

 She will lead a discussion about “everything you won’t learn in medical school about abortion and contraception”, followed by a hands-on workshop learning what the abortion procedure is by doing it on a papaya.

• Tuesday, Feb 14^th, Classroom 1B at 12 pm
• Health and Sexuality In the Caribbean
• Speakers: Dr. Ramotse Saunders, Dr. Tanya Zangaglia, Marvelle Maloney MS2, sponsored by Family Medicine Club

All Downstate students get to work with the Caribbean community served by Kings County. But how do you approach a Caribbean patient about their personal and intimacy issues? Not sure? Well, come on Valentine’s Day, during free hour, to listen to a panel of members of the Caribbean community, to find out!

• Tuesday, Feb 14^th, Student Center Main Lounge at 4:30 pm
• Rape Crisis Counseling and the SAFE Exam
• Speakers: Barbara Schnoor, RN, CNM, NYSAFE and David Saphier
• sponsored by Emergency Medicine/Wilderness Medicine Club

Barbara Schnoor RN, CNM, NYSAFE  has worked as a midwife in various settings in NYC and NJ since graduating in 1979 from SUNY-Downstate’s midwifery program.  For the last nine years she has been a SAFE (sexual assault forensic examiner) with the Crime Victims Treatment Center of St.Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan, where she is the SAFE Clinical Manager. Her talk will focus on compassionate medical care for victims of sexual assault seen in the emergency department, as well as the NYS-DOH SAFE program.

• Wednesday, Feb 15^th, Faculty Lounge 8^th fl HSEB at 12 pm
• Exploring Paraphilias
• Speaker: Dr. Meg Kaplan

• sponsored by Psychiatry Club

Dr. Meg Kaplan will speak about paraphilias. What are they? How can we as medical professionals treat patients with paraphilias respectfully and appropriately?

• Thursday, Feb 16^th, Student Center Main Lounge at 12 pm
• Towards Gender Equality in Medicine: 50 Years of Experience, Struggle and Vision
• Speaker: Michael Wilson, MA
• sponsored by AMSA

A lot has changed since women came into medicine in the 1960s, and a lot has stayed the same.  Join healthcare professionals and students of both genders for a candid lunchtime conversation about victories, defeats, and the possibility of gender equality in medicine.  The conversation will begin with stories from your colleague’s lives and then open into a discussion facilitated by community-based theatre artist Michael Wilson. Your voice is needed.

Friday, Feb 17^th, Lecture Hall 1A at 12 pm
Improving Transgender Healthcare
Speaker: Nathan Levitt, RN
sponsored by LGBT club

Transgender people face many barriers within healthcare, including discrimination, ignorance and fear. The lack of informed care, sensitive language, research and education prevents access to competent care and screening. This workshop will explore ways to improve transgender health education in schools with curriculum ideas and case studies, as well as ways to integrate transgender informed health care in hospitals, health centers and social service organizations. As the “T” often gets grouped in with the “LGB” without necessary understanding and resources,

We are looking for stories, long or short, about your experience with gender in medical, allied health and public health fields.

No matter who you are or where you came from, whether you are cisgender, transgender, male, female, or anything in between, you’ve all had experiences worth sharing, and we want to hear about it.

Here’s a few questions to ponder as you prepare to send us your stories:

When was the first time that you were aware of your gender at school or in your work in healthcare?

When were you proud of being your gender when you were at work or school in healthcare?

When have you faced barriers in the medical system because of your gender, if at all?  How have you addressed them?

Stories will be posted here, on our website. Stories will also be used in our event in February.

To submit stories: email to robin(dot)brehm(at)gmail(dot)com, or simply comment on this post. If you would like to remain anonymous, please let us know.

Events throughout the week. Scroll over selected dates on event calendar.

We kick off this year’s events with a frank discussion of sex and medicine.  As future health care professionals, we will likely be presented with a wide range of challenging questions from our patients.

Can an HPV infection really be cleared?  Is it safe for a patient’s partner to swallow the secretions or ejaculations of a patient on powerful chemotherapeutic drugs?  When is sexual activity contraindicated?  Is sexual function preserved in patients with quadriplegia or with other neurological injury?   Does washing the genitals before and/or after sexual activity increase or decrease transmission of STIs?

At this Q&A session, our panel of physician experts will field all of your clinical questions about sex.    What are some of your burning questions?  What will your future patients need to know?

Presenters: Q&A Panel Guest Speakers

	Dr. Bat Sheva Marcus, LMSW, MPH, PhDFounder and Clinical Director of the Medical Center for Female Sexuality
	Dr. Richard Sadovsky, MDAssociate Professor Family Medicine SUNY-Downstate Medical Center
	Dr. Ridwan Shabsigh, MD Director of the Division of Urology at Maimonides Medical Center Associate Professor of Urology at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University

Sponsors: Psychiatry Club