Hi, I understand how you feel about hospitals. Now that I’m in my 70s, I’ve had a few hospital stays in the past few years, either for out-patient surgery or for one stay of a few days (I’m in the US). I always tell every nurse or doctor I deal with about my paruresis. I’ve found that about 90% of the nurses are very familiar with the condition, and are very sympathetic and accommodating, either by giving me maximum privacy, or cathing me if necessary. One thing that helps is that my hospital has all private rooms, and the pre/post op rooms all have their own bathrooms. Doctors are a different story: every one, including a urologist and his staff, have never heard of this. This hasn’t been an issue though, they all believed me. Only one actually took an interest in the condition, and genuinely wanted to learn more about it. My long time primary care physician (now retired) also suffered from paruresis, and was shocked when I brought it up to him after years of seeing him. Like so many of us, he thought he was the only one who had to deal with this his whole life!
