I had an emergency surgery to remove a tumour from my neck - the surgery that was supposed to last 3 hours extended to 9 hours due to complications and I woke up severely effected by the anaesthetic and feeling very vulnerable. I was in hospital for 2 weeks and couldn't walk for the first 5 days after surgery.

On the women-only ward there were several male nurses - some straight some gay. I felt deeply vulnerable and disturbed as a young women to be looked after by males. One man in particular was so rough in his "caring duties" that my mum, a nurse in another hospital, made a formal complaint and the man was sacked - apparently there was a history of complaints about this person. As a survivor of sexual assault, I felt frightened to be around men in my vulnerable state. It left me feeling constantly in a state of hyper alert and panic.

I didn't come into contact with any men who called themselves women - but this one experience tells me that under no circumstances should women only spaces, like hospital wards, ever be mixed.

#unitedkingdom #hospitalward #womenonlyward #malenurses