Project 365: Day 341 — I eavesdropped on the weirdest conversation in a gynaecologist’s waiting room and here’s what happened…

In my defense, I was being prepped for her to examine me.

I was at my gynaecologist’s today for a check up. When my turn came, I was escorted inside by an assistant who took my weight and then asked me to change so that the gynaecologist could take a look. When I entered the cabin, there was already another patient seated in front of the doctor’s desk while I was taken behind a screen to change. I’m very sensitive about being examined down there and thus already nervous (something I needn’t have been nervous about at all as the gynaecologist was a great woman).

So while I was lying on the patient bed, in a state of semi undress, the gynaecologist walks into the cabin and addresses the other patient. She sits with her and we continue to be separated by a screen, but both of them are very audible. The patient asks about some reports, and then begins talking about her sex life, very aware that there’s someone behind the screen in the examination area (me), probably eavesdropping.

I’m no prude, but I find it extremely intrusive and would also be very uneasy had I been in this woman’s position, talking about my sex life, details, positions, friction, lubes, sex moves — while someone else listened. This particular part of the conversation was most uncomfortable when she insisted on describing some parts of her experience.

While I appreciate this woman for being able to talk so freely while there’s someone else in the room, I’d personally feel extremely uncomfortable talking in graphic detail, not to my gynaecologist but in front of someone that doesn’t know me intimately but is in the same room.

In some way, it added to my anxiety about being examined, as I thought that it was a very personal conversation that was spoken about in front of someone else. I suppose it’s absolutely normal for doctors to listen to patients’ queries about sex, birth control, contraception, conception and everything else that happens. How comfortable are we listening to the woes of someone we don’t know especially when we feel like we’re eavesdropping on someone else’s private moments. It felt voyeuristic in a very bizarre way, like I was being shown someone’s intimate moments without wanting to access them to begin with.

My own visit was great, the doctor allayed some of my fears about certain facts and procedures. She was/is extremely proficient at her job but I wonder if it was ethical for her to have a conversation with one patient while another was in the same room. Of course, I know to them it’s all the same, but isn’t privacy a part of a doctor’s job?