Gynaecology or gynecology (see American and British English spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the female reproductive organs.

[8] The gynaecological treatise Gynaikeia by Soranus of Ephesus (1st/2nd century AD) is extant (together with a 6th-century Latin paraphrase by Muscio, a physician of the same school).

In the medical schools of the early nineteenth century, doctors did not study female reproductive anatomy, seen as repulsive, nor train in pregnancy and childbirth management.

That women, because of their anatomy and the risks of the dangerous birthing process, had unique medical concerns and challenges, enough that a doctor might specialize in them, is an innovation widely credited to J. Marion Sims and to a lesser extent his trainee and partner Nathan Bozeman, physicians from Montgomery, Alabama.

Sims developed his new specialty using the bodies of enslaved women, who could not refuse the extended glance of any white male that cared to observe any part of their anatomy.

While performing these surgeries he invited eager physicians and students to watch invasive and painful procedures while the women were exposed.

If their condition requires training, knowledge, surgical procedure, or equipment unavailable to the GP, the patient is then referred to a gynaecologist.

Gynaecologists typically do a bimanual examination (one hand on the abdomen and one or two fingers in the vagina) to palpate the cervix, uterus, ovaries and bony pelvis.

Pre- and post-operative medical management will often employ many standard drug therapies, such as antibiotics, diuretics, antihypertensives, and antiemetics.

Additionally, gynaecologists make frequent use of specialized hormone-modulating therapies (such as Clomifene citrate and hormonal contraception) to treat disorders of the female genital tract that are responsive to pituitary or gonadal signals.

This is done through postgraduate medical education and training development, and the publication of clinical guidelines and reports on aspects of the specialty and service provision.

Urogynaecology is a subspecialty of gynaecology and urology dealing with urinary or fecal incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse.

Improved access to education and the professions in recent decades has seen women gynaecologists outnumber men in the once male-dominated medical field of gynaecology.

[22][23][24][25][26] Surveys of women's views on the issue of male doctors conducting intimate examinations show a large and consistent majority found it uncomfortable, were more likely to be embarrassed and less likely to talk openly or in detail about personal information, or discuss their sexual history with a man.

[34] A male nurse complained about an advert for an all-female obstetrics and gynaecology practice in Columbia, Maryland, claiming this was a form of sexual discrimination.

[35] In 2000, David Garfinkel, a New Jersey-based OB-GYN, sued his former employer[36] after being fired due to, as he claimed, "because I was male, I wasn't drawing as many patients as they'd expected".