Fair point, I'm not sure! But I should mention It wasn't actually that profound. You'd kind of have to be looking for it and that was DURING the surgery. I'd imagine with healing it would be neglible. Possibly some scarring? It's not my area of expertise, but I imagine it would improve with time and be worth it from the patients perspective the vast majority of the time.

It could have been purely poor word choice? However I do think there was truth to it in that it would be hard to notice in the first place.

I'm not familiar with how to do specific sections of your comment as quotes, so sorry is a bit disjointed! I firstly totally agree that it may have been some non optimal word choice. She's truly awesome and her patients love her!

I know I suffer from some occasional wicked "foot-in-the-mouth-itis" we all do.

And I should clarify now that you mention it... this isn't r/medical school.

I'm not doing the surgery or anything high stakes during the procedure. We're talking closing laparscopic port sites, parts of open incisions (after the attending has got them started or gotten the key bits done) and certainly not doing anything major with knife. And all under active guidance from the surgeon. Not to worry anyone 😅. We start with watching and work our way up gradually as we prove ourselves competent as patients would, as I imagine, hope.

This is gold. Med Student here. I was never sure how to broach the husband stitch matter with my OBGYN attendings, usually during deliveries the perineal repairs have made perfect sense! For all the reasons you mentioned. Where it's gotten a bit more grey for me is where I was a part of a particular vaginal reconstruction+prolapse repair surgery (the former was an add on by the patient) with an awesome urogyn I've learned under (she is a great surgical educator, actually let's me cut and stitch and enjoys teaching) , but I still remember one comment of "don't worry about how the tissue looks here, it'll feel the same and neither will notice, it doesn't have to be aesthetically pleasing. Her husband and her are gonna love this." It was very frank and I enjoy that about her sense of humor. I was at a bit of a loss though about what to make of that on a grand scale as it did remind me of the "husband stitch." At this point I'm interpreting it as something the patient wanted for their own sake? Kind of like how some men opt for penile lengthening/entension surgery? (Although that's less common) I'm no expert on this topic I'm just trying to parse the situation with the now very negative, rightfully so, perception of the husband stitch. I understand a major difference here is of course the patient being the one to make this choice. Ie there's a respect for autonomy here. (At least from what's visible on our end)

I should clarify too, I only participate in procedures or surgical operations with patient permission as to how exactly I'm participating*