When you're face-to-face with people's genitals all day long at work, the last thing you want to deal with when you get home is another crotch, amirite?
Honestly, I have no idea. I don't work with the junk in people's respective trunks in a professional capacity. I hang out online and talk about people being snarky.
For me, no, I'm not tired of it when I get home at night; but dealing in snarkitude isn't so much a job as it is my life's calling, sooo...
We don't know if that's the case with people who deal with a person's more intimate areas professionally. Does work come home with them? Are their sex lives changed?
Reddit user ObviouslyYTA asked:
There isn't anything overly graphic here, but it's definitely a "for mature audiences" kind of deal.
A Look Ahead
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I work with the elderly and I weirdly get this question a lot from friends. They want to know about giving showers etc. What I can tell you is that it's a job, you are being a professional and looking at the task at hand objectively.
Seeing someone naked in a professional setting is just completely different than being intimate with a partner. The only thing I guess is seeing an old woman's vagina and thinking dammit that is what mine will look like one day.
Some Personal Limits
Aside from seeing genitalia and doing urogenital examinations, there is also the aspect of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of STI's. The latter can certainly set some personal limits on your own sexual practices.
Flashbacks
So most of these are saying no but I'm saying yes.
I'm currently working in gynecology. I have never seen any genitals or body part during work and thought of them in a sexual manner, however there are times when I am getting jiggy (to use the Latin) with my girlfriend in which I might have flashbacks to something earlier that day which is suddenly a turn off for me.
It's often when I have to do something non routine. For example during an operation the usual instrument used to move the uterus around (via the vagina) during key hole surgery wasn't working, so I had to basically stick my fingers in as far as they would go and move the uterus around with my hand, all the while it's got blood and discharge all around it and down my arm. To then go home 4 hours later and be face to face with my girlfriend's vagina you have to push certain things out your mind.
I'm sure after a while you get used to it but right now as I'm choosing specialties this is a factor for me.
Potential Significant Others
As other people have said, it never had an impact on my attraction/relationship with my SO because it's a totally different context.
I will say, though, that I scared away potential significant others because they were super not into the idea that I had to be in close contact/had seen a lot of male genitalia in a clinical setting. Which is weird to me, but whatever. And none of my male friends ever wanted to hear about my day at work haha.
Ego Check
I'm a 27 year-old male medical student and weeks from graduating. I've not had nearly the experience as doctors. During my gynecology rotation I saw many surgeries involving the vagina.
One thing that was eye opening was how wide a vagina can be opened to access the uterus. It made me realize no matter how big a man thinks his dick is. It ain't nothing compared to what a vagina can handle. So ego check out there for all guys.
With that being said; overall it hasn't affected my sex life at all. If you're in the field of medicine you're typically desensitized from things and don't really care much of the gross things with you.
- stephenw78
ALL About Context
Urologist here. We do indeed compartmentalize. It's all about context. I see penises all day every day, but if I'm in the gym and I see a guy walk out of the shower with his member hanging out, I will still cringe and look away quickly. It's weird.
Regarding sex life, my job has had no impact at all. I was with my wife when I decided to go into this field. She's proud of me. If I was in the dating game and a girl asked me what kind of a doctor I was? I'd probably just say "I'm a kidney surgeon" or something generic like that. People don't go into urology to pick up chicks.
Wax
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I used to body wax in Miami and I have seen more private parts than most people ever have in their lifetime! At first it was a little strange but it's amazing how desensitized you become.
I never thought I would be so nonchalant about telling people to take their clothes off and gett all up close and personal with their most intimate parts, but it made me realize there's really not much to fuss about... we are all human and while some of us are different it's really all mostly the same.
It didn't affect my sex life negatively but it did make me raise a few eyebrows from time to time. It certainly affected my views on sex and sexuality in general. Some people have amazing bodies that you'd never guess looked so good because they are modest dressers, other people who you think are quite attractive can sometimes have dirty habits. There were a few girls who had their waxes paid for bu sugar daddies which was interesting.
It really made me appreciate the amount of effort people go through to look and feel good. Some girls were so hairy and I know the waxing had to be incredibly painful. I had pregnant and breastfeeding moms sit through bikini waxes no problem. I waxed a few buttholes for gay dudes and an 80-year-old woman's nipples. EDIT: I forgot the guy whose back was so hairy it bled. Although most of our guests were women there were a handheld of men who go all out too which I have a lot of respect for!
There were gross times too... massive ingrowns, discharge, weird smells. People sometimes were a little too open about their sex lives. Thankfully no one was creepy with me.
I guess it made me appreciate my own body more. I'm not at all self conscious anymore about it, before I used to be a little shy and wonder if it was "normal" like a lot of girls. Also it confirmed for me that my sex life is pretty normal too. It was really empowering to see so many people of different shapes and sizes looking and feeling their best, that confidence was definitely something that would rub off on me and I'd take home to the bedroom.
UnassistedÂ
As a urology nurse, I've had to get up close and personal with otherwise healthy men my own age. Yes, some of them have been attractive. It usually results in a blush on my part, a half-erection on their part, and then I never ever think about them again until a Reddit post sparks my memory. It's all professional and it stays in the professional part of my brain.
The only time my job crosses over into the bedroom is when I'm feeling silly and I try to find my boyfriends vas deferens. Then I scare him by talking about how a vasectomy is performed and whether or not I think I could successfully do one unassisted.
- TaylorKenji
Scarring The Patient
As a main part off my job I put in catheters. It does not affect my own sexual life all all. But I think that some situations may have scarred a few patients despite my best efforts.
One story that stands or is from my newbie days. One patient, 25ish male needed a cath asap. I'm a kinda ok looking woman approx his age and that can bring some awkwardness for these patients. But I'm the one available, so no other choice. When you cath a male you have to give a numbing agent to minimize pain, this us in a gel you squirt in to the penis using a syringe with a nozzle. Then you have to firmly hold the gel in for 5-10 minutes.
So everything goes alright until we are, well... waiting. I hold the gel in and as usual pull a blanket over so he can feel mode covered. That's when he gets a woody. Poor guy is beet red, almost crying and starting out the window. Ten minutes is a looooong time in that situation, you can't just ignore it. And the gel is slippery even when using dressings to hold the penis. So I'm struggling to keep the grip, he is in pain from filled bladder and totally embarrassed. I try to use the normal line: "It happens all the time, don't worry" My hand slipped slightly and he is...twitching. He goes all "oh no no no" and well, gel and other stuff is trying to eject. That moment his girlfriend comes in because none bothered to stop her and I guess you don't knock when worried. So yeah, guy just had a orgasm, girlfriend comes in and I'm losing it. Trying not to laugh at the absurdity I just politely tell her that he is ok and that I need to finish the procedure, she can see him in a bit. Luckily he felt numb (hopefully all the way to the soul) even though the gel came out, so I just wiped him off and gave a bit more gel, got the cath in as quickly as I could, acting like it's normal business for me and get out of there.
I now tell this story to all males I'm gonna do a catch on, it really helps them but I feel sorry for the poor guy.
He did send flowers to the ward for his excellent care so maybe I just gave him a good memory, like to think so anyways.
- Gikkwife
Variety
After seeing over 100 vaginas as a medical student in my Ob/Gyn rotation, I've learned a lot! The biggest thing was how variable women's anatomy can be!
I know people's anatomy varies person by person, but I was not expecting the range of differences. For example, some vaginas are much deeper than others and difficult to find the cervix when performing a speculum exam for a pap smear. Others are very shallow.
Another aspect is the clitoris. I never had a precise idea where it was since I had never really spent a lot of time examining women's anatomy in a precise way like I did in medical school. They vary in size quite a bit among women. One of my patient's actually used to be a body builder and admittedly used steroids in her past and her clitoris was huge (medically termed clitoromegaly). I can also now find it pretty quickly whenever I'm with a romantic partner since pelvic exams give you a pretty good sense of the anatomy.
Above all, I'm very thankful to all of the patients who were nice enough to let a male medical student examine them in order to learn more about women's health.