Three 20-something women trying to figure out what it means to be lay, Catholic, and modern all at once.


December 9, 2008

Hippocratic, I mean, Hypocritical Oath

Doctors are supposed to be looking out for our health.  Doctors who are female are supposed to intuitively know our bodies, hormones, emotions, and well-being.   They are supposed to take an oath that says they are going to treat us as more than our diseases, more than mere biological matter.  Shouldn't they also treat us with respect? 

I have gone into two doctors' offices now in which I have dumbfounded the attending, as if I had this mind-blowing medical mystery that needed to be solved.  The disease?  Virginity.   "Really? Not yet?  You're in your mid-twenties! You should definitely get the HPV vaccine, because you'll probably start soon."  Or the condescending OBGYN: "Still not sexually active, Julian?"  

Is the concept of choosing one's virginity and safeguarding it so foreign that now one cannot even enter her doctor's office to ask for medical advice without being judged?  Checking "N/A" under the million questions about sexual activity on a medical form really shouldn't make me sweat profusely under the lights in the waiting room.  I should have the luxury of reading a magazine that will tell me how walking ten minutes a day will make me drop 20 lbs (see, it's a lose-lose situation, I guess.  It was easier when there were plastic blocks to play with at the pediatrician's office).  

I should be looked at by doctors as a healthy, well-formed, strong, and happy woman.  If virginity has become the disease, then I think more people should catch it.  

1 comment:

Shannon said...

i so can relate to this post!
i've stopped going to the female doctor.... because, quite frankly, I don't need to go.

don't want to go on the pill, don't want another pap smear, don't want to feel like i must justify my virginity.

great post!
love the blog!

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