Edit: Gynecologist, not gynecologic. Autocorrect lol.
For context, I’m a trans dude looking to get bottom surgery, and my country requires you to jump through a bunch of hoops, some justifiable, some less so.
Either way, some of these hoops require involving a gynecologist. I recently had an appointment where they talk about fertility and your options regarding it with bottom surgery. Not fun stuff especially not if you’re already depressed due to dysphoria. Didn’t help I’ve done the exact some stuff like 3x before, but they demand you do it anyway.
So the gynecologist I got assigned(you don’t really get to choose unfortunately) was this really young dude who I guess was nice enough, but very clearly trying to come off as a chill dude a bit too hard. Almost “how do you do, fellow kids” style. But alas, I sit through it and hear them yap about the same stuff I heard a billion times.
Then comes pregnancy stuff. And he actually referred to it as putting a bun in the oven. Now the rest of the appointment was kinda meh in general, but that just actually made me uncomfortable. I didn’t say anything because I just wanted to move on, but I’m still thinking…. is it actually a red flag/weird to say that, or am I just thinking too much about it? It just seems like such an out of place thing to say in the context of a medical appointment and also I thought generally it was kinda just a weird thing to say?
Also as a side note I’d like less gendered language in regards to genitals. Maybe in English uterus and ovary aren’t very feminine sounding, but in my native language it translates literally to “birth mother” and “egg storage”. Again really not fun stuff 🙁
Comments
I think it was just a dumb joke. As you mentioned earlier, he tried to be friendly. Well, he tried. Not everyone can do it well, and not everyone realizes when they shouldn’t joke about certain things, especially when it comes to visiting a doctor.
Maybe he’s not sure how to interact with trans people and just wants to come off as seeing you as one of the guys because he thought that would make him seem more relatable?
It’s just an idea I had, but if you encounter it again, I’d bring up the fact that while you appreciate the casual conversation, you’d rather stick with appropriate anatomical terminology.
If you’re in the States, it’s a highly common saying for pregnancy from both sexes as it was popularized in general media through sit coms and other tv shows. A bun in the oven in American English is synonymous with being pregnant. Should a gynecologist use it with a new patient? No, as it’s a little too comfortable/familiar to be used by a professional. Is it a red flag of their capabilities? Also a no, more of a socially inept remark and clearly not a doc you want to see routinely (which you’ve stated won’t be an issue as you just get assigned one).