Have you ever seen a male lab tech?

According to this, males make up 31.5% of “Clinical laboratory technologists and technicians” and 48.6% of “Medical, dental, and ophthalmic laboratory technicians”.

LOL! I was attended by a male lab tech once who wore skinny jeans and make up. He was very flamboyant. He sashayed when he walked. :D He was a nice kid. I complimented him on his nails which were longish and nicely filed, and painted really cool.
But, come to think of it, in all my years that was the only one.

I have had a boatload of medical issues, and I have never seen a noticeable discrepancy in numbers between male and female lab techs. 40 years, 6 states, lots of tests.

Where I live, they sure do. I have a quarterly blood check, and many of my lab techs over the years have been male. I’ve seen male nurses attend my son in the hospital, male aides start IVs, etc. And of course plenty of female doctors. Nobody seems to have expectations either way about the sex of their healthcare practitioners, at least not in my awareness.

One of our formerly active members here liked to joke about his Transylvanian ancestry and the fact that he worked as a phlebotomist—on the night shift.

Not here. In my experience, lab techs are 99.9% female – at least in my part of Atlanta.

I have seen male orderlies at the hospital, but not lab people.

Mostly female here. I’m in a strange area though, a red state but in a trendy hipster town. The pressures to be “such and such” for political reasons don’t really apply as much and people seem to just do what they want. There are some strikingly clear professional lines and I frankly don’t see anything wrong with it. People should be who they want without any pressures. If a gender favors a particular profession over another who cares! Trying to pressure or mandate some sort of artificial balance is just wrong.

I’m male and worked as a Medical Technologist (AMT) and Medical Laboratory Scientist (ASCP) for 38 years.

It is a profession donimated by women. I got along OK. Generally we worked so hard under a lot of pressure that there was no time to think about gender. But everywhere that I worked (5 medical center laboratories) there were always a few of us men.

EC was a nurse at one point in his life.

yes, my wife has several working for her now and has usually worked with or employed at least one throughout her career.

If you are looking for a career this might be worth consideration. Medical technologists are in short supply, at least in the US, many who are still in the field are within 10 years of retirement and few new ones are entering the field, so pay is pretty good and job prospects abound.

Gosh, I had a bout with wonky electrolytes for a while. At one point it got critical, when my sodium level bottomed out at 118. Should be 125. They threw me in the hospital for the weekend. At any rate, I had standing orders at the hospital for lab work. I went in about once a week for testing. At one point the lab tech said, kind of snotty-like, “Do you even know why you’re coming back week after week?” assuming, I guess, I was just blindly following orders with out a clue why.
I said, “Yes.” I told my Doc about her. That was extremely unprofessional and rude. Plus it was none of her business. Apparently they’ve had similar problems with other patients with that tech.

Maybe because women are the dominant gender and can handle the sight of blood better?

* 135 *. Normal is 135. Not 125.

All the techs I’ve asked said women handle being stuck better than men. The last one said she only had one person pass out on her, and it was a guy.