I was just diagnosed about a month ago, after the rapid onset of symptoms and high blood glucose readings. (I'm being treated as type 2, as the hospital doctors have refused to run c-peptide and antibody tests in spite of my requests, and I'm responding to a low dose of metformin.)
The problem is, my own doctor (a naturopath) doesn't have drug prescribing rights, and I'm hesitant to use online no-prescription pharmacies to obtain the metformin.
I have a prescription for the first few months from the hospital clinic, but they don't do follow up and I'll need to find someone who can renew it. The problem is, I don't visit "family doctors"/GPs, because I'm ethically opposed to some parts of their 'medical practice.'
I'm looking for someone with prescribing rights who maintains an ethical practice -- e.g., who doesn't use unchaste diagnostic or treatment procedures (bodily exposure, sexual violation) with any of his/her clients. Obviously, I need to be able to trust and respect anyone whom I am consulting, so I consider this a must. I've emailed several organizations who work in the area of women's health/advocacy/rape counselling, but so far been provided with no leads on an ethical doctor/clinic.
I define ethical as following the accepted principles of right and wrong that govern the conduct of a profession. I consider it unethical for a doctor to accept bribes from phamaceutical representatives. I don't think that is what you want.
I think what you want is a doctor that will understand and respect your moral standards about what is and is not appropriate to respect your beliefs. The best thing would likely be to simply look in the phone book and find all the endos listed. From there, you can look into the background of your endo (see my discussion on how to do this). In the end, you can ask the doctors front staff about them and how they might treat you and you can just walk out from an appointment if you don't like them. From what you have written, you would probably be most comfortable with a female doctor.
You may not get a response asking for an "ethical" doctor/clinic. You might consider rephrasing your request to finding a doctor who understands and respects your moral choices.
Thanks for your reply. No, I don't think I'd be more comfortable with a female doctor -- I don't think it's any more likely that a given female doctor would refuse to perform sexual exams. Unfortunately, the good values with which some people go into the profession tend to get hammered out of them through the training process.
It's more than just finding a doctor that respects my moral choices, though -- for a clinic/office to be a 'safe space', in my humble opinion, unchaste exam practices must not be carried out there. It seems ridiculous that in a geographical area as large at the GTA, no one is advertising this prominently, as there are a great many people, both men and women, looking for chaste medicine.
I am looking into endocrinologists, however, to see if I can find someone suitable who only practices diabetes-oriented medicine (no reproductive health care, etc).
I guess I am just confused about what you are looking for. An endo does not routinely perform sexual exams, they are a specialist in the endochrine system. There may be work that they routinely do to deal with the hormone systems related to reproduction (i.e. estrogen, testosterone, etc). But that is hardly what I would term "reproductive health care" which is generally provided by an OB-GYN and your general physician.
And when you say chaste, I interpret that as meaning that you seek a doctor which would refrain from any sexual topic. I think there are many doctors who would be happy to respect your wishes in that.
Go to Dr Ian Bloomer's website, http://ourdiabetes.com He is an endo and may be able to help you. You can email him. He is very good and works out of a clinic near TO.
There is a shortage of doctors in Ontario. Once you are diagnosed with T2 diabetes, they don't seem to have time to discuss anything else... just the 5 minute appointment to renew the meds. Hopefully, you won't be pushed to have any other exams etc. Here, one must have a referral from a GP to see an endo so that can be a problem. Your inability to have someone provide the tests you mentioned is common. They don't seem to run the tests here.
That being said, there is a website for the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons. There you can look up GPs and specialists in your area. It would probably be best to call them and explain your problem.
