I absolutely think there is a hypocrisy and double standard going on in this regard as well. There are so many stereotypes and misconceptions that society is operating on to justify the way in which we do things. Regardless of orientation not all men or all women will be attracted to everyone. People are always fearful that they will be found attractive by someone they are not interested in and that's just crazy. Everyone has different tastes and I would hope in a medical setting that the person conducts themselves professionally.
I don't think people fear that they will be found attractive so much as that a doctor may be inappropriate with them. I'd experienced this with a male doctor, and don't think I'd ever be comfortable with a male doctor I didn't know well. I really hate that I'm implying that I see all men as potential threats, but I don't know how else to deal with the situation other than to have a chaperone. I have a male colorectal surgeon who I've seen for several years, and I'm ok when he does a rectal examination even if there's no one else there. But with a doctor I don't know I have no way of making sure he can be trusted. I think it was towards the end of last year that I saw a male gynaecologist who I'd never seen before, and as he was talking to me and explaining that he was going to have to examine me, I started panicking and saying I didn't want the exam, but after he'd got a nurse to come in and they talked to me a bit more I went through with it.
It seems really unfair that the actions of a tiny minority of men/doctors make me suspicious of everyone, but I'm really not sure what else I can do about it. The fear isn't something I'm able to control. It's not logical of me, as females can also behave inappropriately, whether with men or women, although it does seem it's much more common for it to be a man. lsgs's point about physical strength doesn't really apply to me either because I'm tiny and have the strength of a kitten, so the vast majority of women could physically dominate me if they wanted to anyway.
My female GPs have never even mentioned bringing in a chaperone, although I actually have had a female gynaecologist get a nurse - also female - to chaperone on two occasions. One was quite recently, and I'm not really sure why she brought in a chaperone or if that's typical or not. The other was when I was still in a children's hospital. I was in-patient, and my parents weren't there at the time. I think I had about three female nurses present. I didn't really understand what was going on at the time, but looking back on it now I reckon at least one nurse was there simply to talk to me and distract me, and I think possibly they had so many chaperones because as a child you may well not be aware of what is and isn't appropriate touching for a gynaecological examination. However, I think this could apply to adults too. What you actually experience during gynaecological and digital rectal examinations is extremely weird and invasive when you think about it, and patients, even adults, wouldn't necessarily know whether what the doctor is doing is appropriate or not.
I do think the doctor's personality plays a role too. I really liked the female gynaecologist I saw, I don't think I would have minded if she hadn't got a chaperone. She made me feel very comfortable, which wasn't much to do with her gender so much as she had really taken the time to listen to me and seemed to understand. Whereas when I saw the male doctor who'd made me panic, I wasn't comfortable with him even before he talked about an examination. He just didn't seem to care about the symptoms I was talking about, and was very short with me. He became very irritated when I couldn't remember which tests I'd already had, and was just generally off-putting.
So perhaps I could get round the problem of not trusting men by making sure I only see doctors who I'm comfortable with, making it not so much an issue of gender but of personality.