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China Elevator Stories
Men Not Allowed To Enter
One day in mid-November 2013, my husband and I go to a women’s and children’s hospital in Shenzhen.
25/02/2014
Ruth Silbermayr
Author
We haven’t been to this hospital before. After being sent for a blood sample one too many times at another hospital, we decided to change hospitals, and this one was recommended by a coworker.
It’s time for the first ultrasound. On all the doors, there are signs saying “Men Not Allowed to Enter.” The doctor asks me if I’m taking folic acid, and when I say yes, she sends me for the ultrasound. I have to drink some water before the procedure and wait for my name to be called.
When they call me, I walk into the room. There are two beds for ultrasounds, and curtains that could theoretically be closed, but aren’t, for some reason. The employees performing the ultrasounds aren’t women, but actually men. This is the first time I’ve seen men perform ultrasounds on women.
I ask, “Can my husband come in too?”
The man performing the ultrasound says, “No, men aren’t allowed to enter the room because of the other patients.”
There’s no other patient in the room, and the curtains could be closed, I think. Instead, I say, “But aren’t you guys men too?”
He still wouldn’t allow it, and that was the end of the story.
On a side note:
In public hospitals in China, you usually don’t have as much privacy as you would in a Western hospital. When you see the doctor, there are often a whole bunch of other patients and their family members or friends in the same room, and everyone listens in and comments on everyone’s ailments.
Have you ever had to go to a hospital in China?