Use of male and female professional patient teams in teaching physical examination of the genitalia.

The use of the gynecologic teaching associate, or professional patient, for teaching pelvic examination to medical students is well established in the United States. The genitorectal examination of the man, however, has received scant attention. Most U.S. medical schools continue to use either male medical students or real patients for this part of the physical diagnosis course. We offer a course that uses male and female professional patient teams. All the students rated the course highly. Male students appreciated the teaching of the examination on women more than did their female colleagues. Female students rated the male patients higher than the female patients in all the categories. The female students found the male patients to be more helpful in discussing their anxieties than did the male students. Examination of the female pelvis and the genitorectal examination of the male may be threatening to both student and patient. The use of male and female professional patient teams built confidence in the examination technique and alleviated student anxiety. The use of a professional patient was particularly appreciated by students of the opposite sex. In this era of gender equality in medical school and in society at large, equal attention to the genital examinations of both men and women is clearly mandated.