{"id":395170,"date":"2026-01-06T11:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T11:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395170\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T11:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T11:06:16","slug":"things-you-are-too-embarrassed-to-ask-your-doctor-but-really-should","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/395170\/","title":{"rendered":"Things you are too embarrassed to ask your doctor \u2013 but really should"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are some subjects many of us find hard to talk to our doctors about \u2013 bowel habits, sexual organs, and personal hygiene spring to mind.<\/p>\n

But these are problems that we shouldn\u2019t be afraid to discuss, says surgeon and social media star Dr Karan Rajan, 35, who has more than 10 million followers on social media, has been featured on BBC Morning Live and BBC News and is author of the bestselling guide This Book May Save Your Life.<\/p>\n

His new book, This Is Vital Information, highlights many taboo health subjects, from excessive wind to bad breath and erectile dysfunction, and why we really should not feel afraid to bring up these awkward topics with our doctor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason I\u2019m concerned about the stigma is not just because they are awkward topics. They will continue to be awkward topics and people won\u2019t ever want to share intimate details \u2013 but people could literally die from embarrassment,\u201d he warns.<\/p>\n

He posts taboo-busting videos about health, science and medicine on various online platforms that, although entertaining, come with a serious message. He\u00a0 also hosts a podcast, Dr Karan Explores, meeting experts in science and medicine.<\/p>\n

The Hampshire-based doctor, who is taking a sabbatical as he and his wife are expecting their first child, says that a combination of factors stop people from visiting their doctor to discuss health abnormalities.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome bury their head in the sand because if they do raise a flag and go to a doctor, it means more tests, more investigations, they may receive bad news that it\u2019s a chronic disease, it\u2019s cancer, it needs surgery, things like this, which may disrupt their lives.<\/p>\n

\"Dr(Dr Karan Rajan\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes it may be for fear of being judged by other people. The problem with society is that we often tie a moral value to certain things. For example, if someone has an STD (sexually transmitted disease), you can get an STD through no fault of your own.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s some perception throughout society that you are somehow dirty or have some moral question mark if you\u2019ve got an STD. Things like that are barriers to entry to not only discussing these things but actually going and seeing someone about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first steps towards losing the embarrassment factor is to understand your body, what is normal and what\u2019s not, but also when you should seek attention, he advises.<\/p>\n

So, what are the biggest subjects that people are reluctant to discuss with their doctor?<\/p>\n

Bowel habits<\/p>\n

One of the reasons Dr Karan has written the book was from a patient experience, where he saw a patient in clinic who was coming to the end of their journey, in a fast-track cancer referral from their GP.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe patient was middle aged and had been experiencing rectal bleeding for a number of weeks. On examination, they had a large mass in their abdomen and unfortunately it turned out to be advanced colorectal cancer. The patient passed away not long afterwards and that stuck in my mind for several years,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey told me that for so many months they were actually just embarrassed about going to see a doctor or talking to anyone about their problems. They\u2019d lost a bit of weight, had been bleeding from their bottom and had become more constipated. All of those in combination are red flags.\u201d<\/p>\n

He warns that checking bowel habits is vital, however uncomfortable it is to discuss.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can figure out what is baseline and normal for them and have more of an understanding of their own body.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feminine hygiene<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a billion dollar industry where women are marketed to about feminine hygiene products, which are actually detrimental to the vaginal microbiome,\u201d he states.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are all sorts of odour-filled and scented products that people use as feminine hygiene washes, and actually medical guidance is that the inside of the vagina should not be washed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s also this aversion to talking about discharge, what it should smell like, what it should look like. So people don\u2019t discuss that. They don\u2019t know what normal is and they think it needs to smell fresh as a daisy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lack of understanding and this cultural feeling that female intimate parts have to smell or look a certain way, conditioned by for-profit industries.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says one guest on his podcast advised people to smell their underwear regularly to get used to what smells normal and what doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Male hang-ups<\/p>\n

\"A(Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cMost men, when they go down to the pub or if they are catching up with friends, don\u2019t talk about testicular cancer or erectile dysfunction, or prostate issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are very common issues that affect one in three men \u2013 that\u2019s a conversation to be had. Most men are not taught how to examine their own testicles, something they should be doing very frequently.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a huge issue and probably one of the reasons why things are picked up later in men is because of their aversion of talking about those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Weight issues<\/p>\n

\"Weighing(Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n

\u201cAnother thing is weight loss and weight in general and how we attach moral values to it. We definitely value and place a lot of worth on someone\u2019s appearance and their weight, and we judge them and assign a certain moral value based on that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve always found ways throughout history on how we can find the route to fastest fat loss or weight loss. It\u2019s littered with all sorts of dangerous things, from amphetamines to products which have actually harmed people\u2019s heart health.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lack of understanding about obesity and nuance around that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Death<\/p>\n

\"An(Alamy\/PA)<\/p>\n

Dr Karan says: \u201cResearch shows that the more we talk about death and mortality, the better the psychological outcomes are. We are prepared for life. We\u2019ve got this stigma talking about death.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen it at both ends, especially the end of life in the hospital, when most people are scrambling for, \u2018Do I want CPR? What do I want my feelings of care to be? Do I want to be admitted to the ICU if I plan well?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThose should be thoughts you have when you are in good health. As dark as it may seem, proactively planning for the end of your life should be like you\u2019re planning your finances.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou should be planning your taxes, your wealth management, your pension and your debt. What do you want at the end? You don\u2019t want someone else to make that decision. You want dignity and autonomy.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople don\u2019t want to talk about that. It\u2019s a very weird thing to talk about death, but there are places around the world where they\u2019ve got death cafes, people are talking about death and evidence suggests that the better we plan for that, the better the outcomes are.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Western world we think of death as something awful that we want to sanitise and escape [from] as much as we can. But in Eastern philosophy death is just another natural stage of life, it\u2019s not a problem with people or doctors.\u201d<\/p>\n

He says Western doctors may have to be gently pro-active in this field.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the move from preventative medicine to pro-active medicine. It\u2019s maybe talking about organ donation. It\u2019s maybe talking about healthcare proxies, but aside from that, people should be planning their wills.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Book(Century\/PA)<\/p>\n

This Is Vital Information: Everything You\u2019re Too Embarrassed To Ask Your Doctor (But Really Should) by Dr Karan Rajan is published by Century. Available now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are some subjects many of us find hard to talk to our doctors about \u2013 bowel habits,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":395171,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[64,63,137,500],"class_list":{"0":"post-395170","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-healthcare"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395170","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/395170\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=395170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}