Origins of the nod and the shake. Are breasts involved?

Fully 47 percent of women prefer a female Ob/Gyn like Margaret does, according to a 2001 survey by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). The survey found that 15 percent of women would choose a male, while 37 percent have no preference.

Teat-less wonders can of course collect data, but it helps credibility if they don't claim they can't look when faced with said data.

I just don't think your breastfeeding-based nod-means-yes theory makes any sense, based on my own data and even the data that you say you have gathered. I understand that there are two separate issues, 1) is nod-means-yes/ shake means no almost 100% universal? and if yes, 2) does breastfeeding have to do with the development of the 100% universal usage nod-means-yes/ shake-means-no? My answer to 1) is probably, my answer to 2) is probably not, and specifically I find your argument thereof to be unconvincing.

Oh and where on earth did you get that most young women prefer male gynecologists?

http://health.discovery.com/fansites/bermans/articles/gynecologists.html

Quote:

Fully 47 percent of women prefer a female Ob/Gyn like Margaret does, according to a 2001 survey by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG). The survey found that 15 percent of women would choose a male, while 37 percent have no preference.

Sorry, modestly makes me stare at the ceiling. I know some women get angered at this attitude ("it's the most beautiful thing in the world!" "yeah but there's a baby attached to it!") but I feel like a voyeur and yes I know breasts are for babies first and foremost but I can't help it.

"(Reuters Health) - Nearly half of US women report a preference for a female obstetrician/gynecologist (ob/gyn) while about 15% say they would choose a male doctor, results of a national survey reveal.
Younger women were slightly more likely to choose female doctor, the survey of US women aged 18 to 65 found. Indeed, more than half (53%) of women aged 18 to 29 said they prefer a female doctor, compared with 39% of women aged 55 to 65, according to the results released…by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
'A lot of young women, as they transition from a pediatrician to a gynecologist, might feel more comfortable with someone their own gender,' Dr. Frank Miller, past president of ACOG, told Reuters Health.
Older women, on the other hand, are probably used to seeing a male doctor because women have only recently begun to make substantial inroads into the field, he said.
Indeed, more women are choosing to become ob/gyns than ever before. Women account for more than two thirds of ACOG's membership and 68% of all ob/gyn residents were female in 1999, according to Miller."
-HealthCentral, May 01, 2001

Special Note: "…As far as possible lady physicians should care for lady patients, and gentlemen physicians have the care of gentlemen patients. Every physician should respect the delicacy of the patients. Any unnecessary exposure of ladies before male physicians is wrong. Its influence is detrimental.
…Never should a lady patient be alone with a gentleman physician, either for special examination or for treatment. Let the physicians be faithful in preserving delicacy and modesty under all circumstances.
…Women should be educated and qualified just as thoroughly as possible to become practitioners in the delicate diseases which afflict women, that their secret parts should not be exposed to the notice of men…It is a most horrible practice, this revealing the secret parts of women to men, or men being treated by women.
…Women should be thoroughly educated to work for women, and men to work for men…
Some medical men are unfit to act as physicians to women because of the attitude they assume toward them."
-Counsels on Health, pp. 363-365

No, it was just the first cite I found that had anything about preferences. Would be interested in seeing your cite. It is profoundly counterintuitive to me, but if there are studies, there are studies.

You made rather a big deal about not looking back there a ways:

Craven de Kere wrote:

Sorry, modestly makes me stare at the ceiling. I know some women get angered at this attitude ("it's the most beautiful thing in the world!" "yeah but there's a baby attached to it!") but I feel like a voyeur and yes I know breasts are for babies first and foremost but I can't help it.

I know this doesn't preclude you noticing anyway -- it's not the same as saying "I have never ever seen a breastfeeding baby" -- but it hardly suggests rigorous collection of data.

Of course you can have your opinion. Duh. I just have been saying why your opinion doesn't make sense,

Do you dispute that babies who want milk are at least as likely to make side-to-side movements as up-and-down movements?

So, young women are even more likely to want a female OB/GYN...

Younger women were slightly more likely to choose female doctor, the survey of US women aged 18 to 65 found. Indeed, more than half (53%) of women aged 18 to 29 said they prefer a female doctor, compared with 39% of women aged 55 to 65, according to the results released…by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters Health) Apr 29 - Whether women generally prefer female obstetricians and gynecologists has been long-debated, but new research reported Monday suggests that, to most women, gender is not an issue.

Furthermore, women appear to be equally unlikely to prefer a female doctor who specializes in family practice or surgery.

In research presented here at the 51st annual clinical meeting of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 73% of women said that the gender of their ob/gyn made no difference.

Moreover, women tended to rank gender as the least important characteristic they use when selecting a gynecologist, obstetrician, family doctor or surgeon, reporting traits related to communication as the most important in their decision.

Women generally ranked expertise and reputation as moderately important when choosing an obstetrician or gynecologist.

However, a survey of physicians revealed that doctors appear to have a very different perception of what is important to their patients.

Doctors ranked nearly all of the characteristics as less important to patients than did the patients themselves -- all, that is, except gender, which physicians ranked higher than patients did.

"Physicians think gender is more important than patients do," reported Dr. Peter Vasilenko of Michigan State University in East Lansing and his colleagues.

The findings are based on surveys of 1059 patients and 72 physicians.

Only 23% of patients said they had chosen their current obstetrician or gynecologist because she was female, and only 4% said they had chosen their doctor because he was male.

Women tended to rank the characteristic of "expert in my problem" as more important for an obstetrician or gynecologist than a family doctor. In contrast, they believed being "easy to talk to" and having a "good reputation with friends/family" as more important in family doctors than obstetricians and gynecologists.

Qualities more valued in a surgeon than an obstetrician or gynecologist included "expert in my problem," "business-like and efficient," "is nonemotional," and "provides a lot of information."

Peter Franks, M.D., Klea D. Bertakis, M.D., M.P.H.



Abstract and Introduction
Abstract
Background: Studies of the effects of physician gender on patient care have been limited by selected samples, examining a narrow spectrum of care, or not controlling for important confounders. We sought to examine the role of physician and patient gender across the spectrum of primary care in a nationally representative sample, large enough to examine the role of gender concordance and adjust for confounding variables.
Methods: We examined the relationships between physician and patient gender using nationally representative samples (the U. S. National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys from 1985 to 1992) of encounters of 41,292 adult patients with 1470 primary care physicians (internists, family physicians, and obstetrician/gynecologists). Factors examined included physician (age, gender, region, rural location), patient (age, gender, race, insurance), and visit characteristics (diagnoses, gender-specific and nonspecific prevention, duration, continuity, and disposition).
Results: After multivariate adjustment, female physicians were more likely to see female patients, had longer visit durations, and were more likely to perform female prevention procedures and make some follow-up arrangements and referrals. Female physicians were slightly more likely to check patients blood pressure, but there were no significant differences in other nongender-specific prevention procedures or use of psychiatric diagnoses. Among encounters without breast or pelvic examinations, visit length was not related to physician gender, but length was longer in gender concordant visits than gender-discordant visits.
Conclusions: Female physicians were more likely to deliver female prevention procedures, but few other physician gender differences in primary care were observed. Physician-patient gender concordance was a key determinant of encounters.

Introduction
Interest in the impact of physician gender on healthcare delivery has risen with the increase in the number of women entering the medical profession. In 2000-2001, women constituted almost 46% of new entrants to the medical schools in the United States, and significant numbers of women are entering primary care fields.[1] This expanding percentage of female physicians has highlighted the importance of evaluating how physician gender impacts patient care.

Early studies have provided preliminary evidence for the influence of physician gender on healthcare delivery.[2] Female family and general practitioners in the United States and Canada are more likely than their male counterparts to work in salaried, office-based practices in urban settings. It has been suggested that these findings are the result of differences in original training site, the need for predictable, more flexible work schedules, and differing priorities between male and female primary care physicians.[3,4]

The length of time spent with the patient has been demonstrated to differ between male and female physicians. Female physicians have been found to spend significantly more time with their patients,[5-9] although this time difference may be related to the gender distribution and health status of the patients seen. Female physicians see more female patients,[10,11] and female patients have lower health status.[12] The observed difference in visit length between male and female resident physicians at one medical center decreased to insignificant levels when patient gender and health status were controlled.[12]

Other specific practice style differences appear to be related to physician gender. Female physicians have been demonstrated to provide more preventive services, such as Papanicolaou (Pap) smears, breast examination, and mammograms, as well as more preventive counseling in most[8,12-17] but not all[18] studies.

Physician gender potentially affects the physician-patient relationship and its outcomes in a variety of ways. Physician gender differences in personality and attitudes, especially with regard to gender roles, might influence interactions with both male and female patients. Patients also may have differential expectations of their physician based on gender. For example, they might expect the female physician to be more supportive and empathic and, thus, to disclose more information. Another way in which physician gender might be important is in the status relationship between patient and doctor. As gender is a substantial component of social status, same-gender physician-patient dyads may be closer in social status (greater status congruence) than opposite-gender dyads.[19,20] Congruence in status may facilitate communication and mutual understanding. In order to independently assess the effects of physician and patient gender on the physician-patient encounter, it is crucial that same-gender and opposite-gender dyads be examined.[7,8,18]

The purpose of this study was to explore these issues of the impact of physician gender on patient care in primary care practices using the National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys (NAMCS). These large nationally representative surveys allow examination of a broad spectrum of care provided in physicians offices in the United States, with adjustment for patient sociodemographic and clinical factors. In addition, we had access to previously unreported, confidential information about physician gender and age. The data were used to explore gender differences in the practice setting, patient demographics, visit length, and practice style of male and female physicians. In addition, the data were analyzed using same-gender and opposite-gender physician-patient dyads to more fully explore the influence that physician and patient gender have on the delivery of primary care.

A man conducting a study on breastfeeding is hardly the same as the image you had yourself conjured of uncomfortably looking in the other direction when a breastfeeding mother was in the vicinity.

Really gotta go (had to go a while ago, but this has been interesting), but will just close with, even if we are talking about "more pronounced", that still doesn't seem nearly strong enough to be a basis for "nod-means-yes."

Why do women prefer old gynecologists?
They have shaky hands!

2. Feed your baby whenever he seems to want it--in other words, follow his cues. How will you know he is hungry? What are his cues, you ask? The following list shows some ways your baby will let you know he needs to nurse:

squirming,
increased alertness or activity,
making rooting motions,
snuggling or rooting at the breast,
clenching his fists by his face,
putting his fist in his mouth,
sucking on his hands,
making sucking sounds,
crying--but hopefully you can catch it before he cries!!!

It might be interesting to conduct a similar survey in India, where most of the obstetricians and gynaecologists in north India are females but there are relatively more male gynaecologists and obstetricians in southern India, Mumbai and Kolkata.