Content warning: this story describes and quotes incidents of sexual harassment.

I am a medical professional and also a mother of two. I became a patient at my own hospital where I worked and was referred to a popular male ob/gyn. Within a month of my delivery, I started to hear stories that he and many other male ob/gyns, including the department chairman, were sexually inappropriate with their patients and female nurses.

During C-Sections, patients’ anatomy (the pyrimidalis muscle) was often referred to as “orgasm muscles.” Patients’ backs and buttocks were often commented on in a sexual manner during spinal blocks. There were harassing remarks about co-workers’ bodies and especially their weight such as, “If you have another doughnut, no one will have sex with you.” There were stories of alcohol-involved social events where my ob/gyn and other male physicians would make rape-implying comments like, “If you have another drink, it would be easy to have sex with you.”

These stories are told in a humorous, harmless way, but never reported seriously because jobs are at stake. As a patient, I had no choice, and it was too late for me to switch to a female provider. As a co-worker, I am not subject to these comments by these male providers, but I feel helpless in supporting the female staff.