I have heard many ladies say that doctors are very promiscuous, are big flirts, are dangerous, and other variations of the idea. And as a male doctor, I get to hear some patients casually say to me that all of us male doctors are very promiscuous, including myself. I often laugh over it and continue my work while throwing a little joke into the conversation.
Of course, I sometimes engage in playful conversations with my nurses and patients’ relatives. I try to create a welcoming environment for my patients too; I found out it makes them recover faster in addition to getting the right medications.
However, I have also heard from some of the female nurses I have worked with telling their younger female nurses that we [male doctors] should never be trusted stating that “After they have had their way with you, they would end up not marrying you”.
But I have constantly questioned why this is so. Why do the ladies think all doctors are promiscuous and should be feared? And even worse, why is the general assumption that all doctors are promiscuous?
If you ask the question “Are doctors promiscuous?”, the simple answer is “anyone can be promiscuous irrespective of their profession”. However, in this post, I will seek to show you some reasons for the assumptions that doctors are promiscuous and whether or not they are true.
What The Statistics Say
Concerning infidelity, 75% of men have admitted to cheating in some way at some point in a relationship while 25% of married men have admitted to having had at least one extra-marital affair with only 15% of women doing the same.[1]Extradyadic Involvement during Dating – Michael W. Wiederman, Catherine Hurd, 1999
About 74% of men and 68% of women admitted they would cheat in a relationship if they knew they would never be caught.
Also, men (41%) are more likely to be unfaithful than women (38%), and people who work nighttime emergencies are more likely to be unfaithful (60%) while those who worked part-time had the lowest rate of infidelity (9.3%).[2]Incidence and Related Factors of Infidelity among Medical Doctors and Nurses – PMC
Doctors happen to belong to the earlier category of those who work nighttime emergencies, go through a lot of stress, and spend days to weeks away from their families.
Reasons identified for the higher likelihood of infidelity among nighttime and long-duration shift workers like doctors and nurses were related to the demands of their job, such as being away from home for many hours; being a way to release stress. And because of the nature of their work, it was easy to justify why they were not at home without the spouse thinking they were probably cheating.[3]Ibid., PMC
Why Doctors Are Considered More Promiscuous
It is easy to assume that doctors are promiscuous, even more so than most other men. The reasons are not far-fetched. Here are some of those reasons why one may easily believe that doctors are more promiscuous.
1. Doctors are easily taken for their word
The profession of medicine makes it such that doctors must stay as honest as practically possible in the practice. They occupy a position that accords them with respect and trust from the society.
What that means is that it is almost as if a doctor can make jokes, or casually flirt with anyone, especially of the opposite sex. Their words are received with all levels of seriousness even when they are jokingly flirting with someone.
Flirting is an innocent behavior used to arouse emotions in someone, especially of the opposite sex. It can enhance the quality of the relationship among workers and clients in the workplace, even though it can also lead to sex.
Because doctors are easily taken for their word, ladies might misinterpret subtle jokes as serious and begin to fall in love with someone who was literally just joking with them.
2. Doctors are naturally loved by ladies
I have asked myself why many ladies naturally love to be with doctors but a few thoughts come to my mind. Could it be because of their decency in dressing, or their self-composure? Maybe they are financially stable; we could think so.
Whatever the case, doctors seem to be well-loved by ladies, maybe not for marriage but some ladies would definitely love to see how making out with a doctor would be.
Given the available opportunities to cheat, a doctor has a higher likelihood of cheating. And even when he is not interested in any intimate relationship with women, spectators might misinterpret the scenarios to mean that he is promiscuous.
3. Doctors may be more expressive
Doctors may be more expressive than most other men. This may be because their training involves interacting with several patients, both old and young, thus inculcating in them the skill of interacting with different categories of people without fear.
This confidence and expressiveness can make them more likely to win the hearts of ladies in their corner. This means that they are likely to be more promiscuous than many other men, or that people may assume them to be promiscuous even when they are not.
4. Doctors are financially comfortable
Indeed, doctors are usually financially comfortable but at what cost? Doctors have to work their eyes out for pay that is barely enough to meet their basic needs and a few luxurious needs that most people expect of them.
Doctors are financially stable due to a significant monthly income but they are not as rich as most people think. However, while there is not enough time to explain this to them, this already gets them as many ladies as they desire; again re-emphasizing the fact that doctors are more likely to become promiscuous by virtue of their profession.
5. The stress of the profession
One of the reasons identified in the study above why doctors may engage in promiscuity is the need to release stress in the profession. In most parts of the world, the medical profession comes with a lot of stress, sometimes depriving the doctor of spending quality time with their wife and family.
Some doctors may actually engage in promiscuity to release related stress, thus increasing their likelihood of being promiscuous.
6. Many ladies are too expectant
Many ladies are too expectant when having an affair with a doctor which might lead to them getting painfully disappointed when the doctor ends up not marrying them. This can make the woman utterly aggrieved when the doctor makes it clear to them.
This can explain why a lady who is severely traumatized by the development would do everything possible to spread the news that doctors are not only shamelessly promiscuous but also dangerously wicked. That’s the news you may have probably heard.
7. Some doctors are promiscuous
After having seen some favorable reasons to cheat as a doctor, we can agree that doctors are humans too. If other men who are not doctors could cheat, why couldn’t doctors do the same?
Just like for other men, some doctors are promiscuous but it will be fallacious to assume, as a result, that all doctors are promiscuous. The stress of the profession may predispose many doctors to promiscuity but this problem is often solved simply by getting married.
Are Female Doctors Also Promiscuous
You may have noticed that most of what we have been discussing is about male doctors and whether or not they are promiscuous. But one might begin to wonder if these same factors also predispose female doctors to promiscuity as well.
From my experience as a medical student and now a medical doctor, I can tell you that female doctors are not promiscuous. They may get wild sometimes to release stress but it is uncommon to find them using sex to relieve stress.
Female doctors like to get married faster so they can concentrate on their husbands and get all the sexual satisfaction they need from them. However, that is not to say that they are not human beings either. If there is ever any proportion of women who practice infidelity, there are chances that female doctors might make the number too.
Reasons Doctors May Be Less Promiscuous
While looking at the question of whether doctors are promiscuous or not, on the flip side, doctors may even be less promiscuous than most other men for the following reasons:
- A good level of self-control after having seen and touched the most private parts of the human body.
- They are almost always busy caring for their patients.
- They are well aware of the health risks of promiscuity including the risk of contracting STIs.
- Higher emotional maturity is expected by the time they leave school due to their long stay in school.
- Many of them are bookworms. Yes, you heard it right.
Final words
To say that doctors are promiscuous all in the name of being a doctor may be a fallacy of generalization. The profession may confer on them some chance of becoming promiscuous, but it also offers some basic knowledge and a sense of responsibility to protect doctors from promiscuity.
That is also not to say that there are no promiscuous doctors. Doctors are humans too, and if there are reports of people engaging in promiscuity, there are chances that doctors would be included in the numbers too.
