At my girlfriend’s hospital, there was a female Muslim nurse who worked in the operating room. She loved her job and took great pride in being an OR nurse. Unfortunately, her boyfriend pressured her to quit. His reason had nothing to do with her skills or safety—it was because he was uncomfortable with the idea that she might see male patients’ genitals during surgeries.
This situation highlights a deep misunderstanding of the medical profession.
Many people outside healthcare assume that whenever patients undress for examinations or surgery, something inappropriate or sexual is happening. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth. In medicine, the human body is not viewed through a sexual lens. It is seen as a system of organs and tissues that sometimes become sick, injured, or dysfunctional and need treatment.
I’ve experienced this misunderstanding firsthand. Since I’ve been in a relationship with a urologist, I’ve been asked countless times, “Doesn’t it bother you that she touches male patients’ genitals every day?” Some people even add, “She must have seen thousands of them by now!”
It doesn’t bother me at all.
First, people forget that urologists treat both men and women. Second—and more importantly—they forget that these are patients. These are not sexual encounters; they are medical examinations. Patients come in because something is wrong: pain, infection, cancer, infertility, or other serious conditions. There is nothing attractive, exciting, or inappropriate about examining a part of the body that is diseased, injured, or causing distress. As doctors often say, “There’s nothing sexy about something that’s infected.”
Healthcare professionals are trained to separate personal feelings from professional responsibility. Doctors, nurses, and surgeons preserve a patient’s dignity by being professional, respectful, and focused on care. Drapes are used, procedures are explained, consent is obtained, and privacy is protected. What matters is diagnosis, treatment, and healing—not gender, modesty anxieties, or misplaced jealousy.
When someone pressures a medical professional to abandon their career because of insecurity or misunderstanding, it’s not about morality—it’s about control and ignorance. Nursing and medicine are honorable professions built on trust, ethics, and compassion. Suggesting that a nurse or doctor is doing something improper simply by performing their job is both unfair and insulting.
At the end of the day, medicine is about helping people when they are at their most vulnerable. Professionals don’t see “men” or “women” in a sexual sense—they see patients who need care. And that’s all it is.
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