[ANOther]

This article appeared in the Star Tribune today:

http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle.../17294474.html

It's about reaching out to teenage boys so that they can discuss their concerns about sexual and reproductive health, and go in and be examined. In a couple of spots, it makes the claim that boys usually don't like to go to doctors' offices because they have a feminine ambience, and clinics should maybe try to put out rock-n-roll posters and guy-type magazines so boys don't feel out of place.

That last is where I laugh. I remember about 7 years ago I went for a mammogram. The place where I went was the x-ray department of one of my HMO's centers: it wasn't just a clinic for mamos or fetal ultrasounds but my gut feeling would have been that those two categories would be their biggest patient load. Anyway, I was waiting to be called in (they were running behind schedule), and while I realize this might have been luck-of-the-draw on that one evening, every. single. magazine. on the tables and racks in the waiting area was Sports Illustrated, Outdoor Life or other sporty or techie magazines; there were no women's magazines, and the only "gender-neutral" 'zine there was a copy of Time, whose cover story was about Dale Earnhardt (the race-car driver who'd just been killed)! I don't mind reading the Sports Illustrated, but there would have been a lot of other women patients who would have been climbing the walls looking for something fem-y to read!

Just a thought ...

[just keep swimming]

I know exactly what you're talking about. I usually just end up doing, like, the "What's wrong with this picture?" in Highlights or something...

[murphmitch]

I love Highlights! I have a problem going to the OB-Gyn office and everything to read is about pregnancy or parenting. I'm 51, my kids are grown and I've had a hysterectomy! I usually take my own newspaper anymore.

[ANOther]

That day they didn't even have Highlights!

[LindseyLouWho]

Haha, that's great. Usually I don't have problems at Dr.'s offices, but I do remember having that problem at the car dealership when I was getting a recall fixed on my car. They only had three magazines... one on motorcross, one on stock car racing, and the other on home improvement. I ended up slowly flipping through the home improvement magazine, even though I rent an apartment! Haha.