Friday, April 21, 2006

Pakar Sakit Puan

My kids at TKC asked me to help them prep for a very interesting topic today...This House Believes that Male gynecologist Should be Limited...After the initial snicker about the mental image of droves of disappointed male doctors whose applications get rejected...I started to realize that this could be a serious issue indeed.
Should a quota be imposed? My girls told me that the current percentage of male gynes is a staggering majority of 90%. Is that such a bad thing? Shoudl females be given more room to enter gynecology? Do they want to in the first place?
I guess that Malaysia, being a country very much aware of its Islamic majority should also start to realise the important of having a healthy amount of female "pakar sakit puan"
I wonder what the position of the Syariah is on male gynes?
Views appreciated guys :-)

6 comments:

mediha_m said...

That IS a staggering fact. I had no idea we had so many male gynaes around!

I've been told that the Islamic view is that, if there are competent, skilled female gynaes available, a Muslim lady should opt for her.

The choice is 1. Muslim female gynae. 2. Non-Muslim female gynae 3. Male gynae.

Honestly, I had no idea so many men were in this line...

zati said...

Zati from matrix here.Do we need to fix a quota for gynaes?-even when there are male gynaes who are competent and more qualified..or in other words...better off than female gynaes.And don't we have enough gynaes to cater all of the patients...so where is the need??

which is more practical?To have more female gynaes just for the sake to fullfill the patients need or favor -or- utilise the gynaes we have now (which happen to be dominated by males) and make full use out of it...

Points to ponder..And of course as a muslim women,I rather have a female doctor.But looking at today's circumstances,if in case of emrgency,it is ok,right?

Anyhow, the WMD article made me and Iera sleep at 4.00 am yesterday...aren't you proud?..hahaha..but then.just forget it=)

Melorina said...

Obviously a female gynaes is preferable from the religious point of view.

However there is no possible reason for the lack of female in this field except that it fails to interest the female doctors. After all there is no restriction for these doctors to specialise in it.

Encouragement in form of incentives and scholarship would be good. However by forcing the female doctors to do 1/2 of their housemanship time would be to severe and could even be considered as a form of discrimination.

Furthermore, upon consulting some of my friends that had seek the services of gynaes, there are general consensus that:

1) Yup, it is embarassing to go to a male gynae, but...
2) If the guy is recommended and nice, there is no reason to not go to the gynae, and...
3) For some reason, a friend of mine told me that a male gynae tends to be have more sympathy towards expecting mums compare to lady doctor. Not to say that lady docs are not kind and nice. But to them, it is normal occurence and they have gone through the same thing (giving birth) themselves. So they will tell you its nothing and to toughen up(my own words : ) ).

So... which one you want?....

Fareez said...

Everyone:

Thanks for the feedback

halian:
Can something which is Haram (looking at the aurah of a non muhrim be turned into something which is Fardhu Kifaya'? Is it Fardhu Kifaya' upon males or solely on the females muslims?

Maverix
Can't vouch for the authenticity of the statistic...it came from my kids in TKC...but if it is true, it is indeed quite staggering.

Melork
Men perceive pregnancy from a distance, vaguely thinking that it is this crazy period in a woman's life where our children somehow pop out of our wives and she gets really angry really fast. Pretty confusing time actually....but then again...ost men are confused by women every month anyway :-)

Zati
I am ALWAYS proud of you guys..I just don't show it. People might think that i'm going soft around the edges.
READ!!!

W. A. Matiin said...

Salaam,

just to add to the discussion. With respect to healthcare and medical assistance, I'm aware of the view that certain interactions between the genders otherwise disallowed are in fact, permitted under specific circumstances--namely touching, viewing the awrah, probing and the like. In fact, male gynaecologists shouldn't be looked at in a different light from male doctors, surgeons, and nurses for the fact that they all interact very closely with their patients.

From another angle, the need for female gynaecologists is consistent with the objective of creating a more effective healthcare service, which is actually two-way in nature. A patient's needs and preferences undeniably play a major role in healthcare, as opposed to the popular belief that the only driving force behind healthcare are the professionals. It is necessary to provide a comfortable, trusting interaction between professionals and patients, and in so doing help remove the barriers, such as distrust, embarrassment, suspicion, etc that prevent certain women from seeking the assistance they need.

This is basically analogous to the discomfort (and sometimes distrust) that arise among rural societies when it comes to receiving healthcare services like vaccination and AIDS prevention advice. Rather than disregarding this aspect, which results in a continued cycle of disease and other health problems that are otherwise treatable, if not preventable, it won't hurt to widen the options for the patients so as to optimize the effectiveness of healthcare services and thus decrease health risks and barriers.

Anonymous said...

a muslim must follow Ugama Islam...therefore the requirement on having a female doctor to attend the female patients is compulsory and undeniable to them who have the ability,like enough salary and they must choose it.....not making up any favour in practicing Islam when ownself is muslim....it is not a little thing to look lightly on it...if no money and in emergency its right to apply male doctors to deliver. it is said in the holy AlQuran,by as sunnah, ijmak ulama and qiyas...dont play yourself all to be afool playing around with Isalam!once u tried u will never stops....soon you will be a followwers to dajjal al-maseh if u dont have faith in Islam...