Why do certain people choose to study proctology, urology or pathology?

Why do these have to be the only options. Maybe, just maybe, these doctors wanna, I dunno, help sick people?

First and foremost: You do realize that women can become gynecologists as well, right?!

Some people become proctologists and urologists because they've known friends and family members who have been inflicted and/or died from diseases related to those areas of expertise. Or they themselves have or possibly have a genetic disposition towards certain diseases that are covered by that specialty. Others probably become specialists in that area simply because they have an accidental greater understanding that area of the body and its related diseases then other areas of medicine. Hey. They just have a better grasp of medicine covering these areas of the body then other areas of the body.

I'm guessing the way you wrote this thread that you aren't mature enough to study any medical degree let alone any of the specialties in which you ask about in this thread. Not all people become or want to become doctors simply because of the money. And as Jespah mentioned, sometimes people become doctors so they can help cure sick people.

Why do some want to become ENT's and look up people's booger vaults, ear wax holders or down the throats where all sorts of yucky things grow?

Why do they want to be gerontologists so they have to look at gross old people all day? Gross old people who poop and pee pee on themselves sometimes.

Why do they want to be cardiologists where they have to deal with clogged arteries and dead heart muscles?

Why do they become oncologists when all they do is look at really sick people with tumors and other types of icky cancers?

It's just all so stupid, isn't it?

Well, if the urge to help sick people is your only motivation, you can always become something 'cleaner' like a dentist, ophtalmologist, chiropractician or a GP. Guess all the jobs mentioned in the OP would take a pretty masochistic, self-sacrificing saviour complex, if we are talking in terms of idealism, and anyway, a pathologist can't really save anyone, can he? I still believe there must be some other motivation.

Actually, I believe that if you had met my ENT, you'd have only approved of the freak theory.
But anyway, being a cardiologist and performing heart surgeries, no matter disgusting it may be, can still be considered noble in a certain way. If a guy says "I am a heart surgeon," he is admired instantly. But try to introduce yourself to a stranger as a proctologist or gerontologist and you'll see what happens.

I like your suffering relative explaination. Never thought of it before, but I must admit it makes sense.
As for the gynaecologist part, when I visited website of my local hospital, I found out that there were 4 male and 1 female gyneacologists working there. Perhaps just a coinsidence, but anyway, as long as there is at least one man in the world working as a gynaecologist, the question is relevant, isn't it?
BTW, despite Your effort, no offense taken.

Most OB/GYN doctors also deliver children. I see a story in the local newspaper about once a year about the beloved doctor who has been delivering children for forty years who is now retiring. Seems like a job that gets a lot of respect from the community.

Doctors (like just about everyone else) work in fields that interest them and make money. You may not understand their choices but that doesn't really matter. You don't have sufficient information to always understand what goes into various choices. Also what you find gross other people may find commonplace. I changed my kids' diapers without a thought. I've watched people in other countries collect cow droppings, form them with their hands and place them in the sun to dry for fuel. The body is not nearly as disgusting as you make it out to be.

I like you, sir.

My real admiration is for the Emergency Medical Specialists who make bazillions of life/death decisions and often with minimal scientific data. I have two friends who are oncologists and they both went into the field of specialty because both of their mothers had terminal cancer and they wanted to be part of the fight against the disease. I have another friend who is an emergency med director of a large hospital in Pa and he , while he makes a salary thats comfortable, he could have had a much more lucrative practice in any series of specialties, He was always a quick analyst in our chem labs, I think the "detective role" is what turned his head toward EM.
One of my partners is a medical toxicologist--She is a LAB RAT from the word go. Ive never seen anyone so interested in knowing whats in food and liquids. With her, its a hobby and a life.

I have a urologist who was originally an aeronautical engineer and got the shits of that and decided to switch to medicine. He was talked into urology by one of his mentors who convinced him.

Hes doing ok and he actually likes the practice. (I too was interested in why some people choose specialties or make career changes)

Not at all it's just you. Next time you get sick try to think about it. Are you over 12 years old? If you are you may have a cognitive delay issue.

as a result of their investigations and observations, future lives will be extended

~~~

why does anyone become any kind of doctor if all people will eventually die?

I imagine that so few people wish to engage in such activities that entry requirements are looser than for other professions and the course easier to pass.

A forensic expert used to come in our pub and his job was quite grisly. Even ghoulish.

Most senior medical staff here are of overseas origin presumably because less and less of us are prepared to mess about with unhealthy flesh.

I have often wondered about gynaecologists from that point of view. The Barber of Seville wouldn't be burdened in the same way.

Why do they charge such astronomical prices then? Real missionaries make sacrifices and take personal risks. Africa is the place to cure people.

It's crafty too. When we have all been saved we get dementia and then they get maybe ten or twenty years more out of us.

Bankrupting the country in the end.

So gynecology is a female dominated field for the most part. Historically midwives helped women deliver babies.. And then in the Middle Ages they were accused of witchcraft and the practice changed over. Studying these particular elements of anatomy doesn't necessarily make it "creepy". Most medical really one bodily fluid is as nasty as the next no matter how cute you think you are on the outside. Science and their followers view things from a different perspective and realize " we're all gross on the inside". But medical people are not trivialized by this fact.

You seem a tad low on your irony level.

Maybe.. But have you ever experienced social medicine.. Your views might change. Why do you think wealthy Canadians choose to have medical interventions here?

We have a National Health Service. My experience of it is that it is excellent.

It is showing signs of strain.

It was claimed on Newsnight yesterday that we have 800,000 dementia cases. And the figure is constantly increasing. In all such feechewers on TV, the Medical Profession's PR, we are shown a sufferer. I won't go into the details because you can see from the down-thumbing that we have a somewhat delicate audience. Carers on three shifts and understandably close to the edge of their tether. Especially when the relief has rung in sick herself. They are always ladies on minimum wages. What they say makes one wonder how they find anybody to do it.

As far as I can see it looks to be a system, saving lives I mean, by which the assets of the sufferers are diverted from the relatives in the direction of the Medical Profession. The Government has introduced legislation which is intended to reduce, but not remove, the diversion. The parental homes were being sold up to pay the fees leading to nerve-wracking decisions when to pull the plug.

I don't know why wealthy Canadians choose to have medical interventions. I would assume some need them and some are to get attention.

btw Germie--have you read Medical Nemesis?