Trope Workshop:Iatrophobia

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It's time to go the doctor, for whatever reason, be it a checkup, someone's sick, injured, or whatever. However, there's a catch, someone doesn't want to go and they'll do whatever they can, kick, scream, bite, etc so they won't have go. Actually, in more extreme cases, they'll do medical procedures on themselves (which may or may not make much worse).

This trope has a few variants:

• Afraid of Blood (Haemophobia)
• Afraid of Needles
• Odontophobia (Fear of Dentists)

Examples of Iatrophobia include:

Anime and Manga

• Fruits Basket's Rin plays with this, while she does have a traumatic memory to do with hospitals, it's unrelated to medical procedures, it's because of her parents' actions getting her hospitalized and then, insult on top of injury, they showed up to disown and kick her out. As a result, Rin hates going to the doctor or being hospitalized.

Comic Books

• Teen Titans (Comic Book) (Geoff Johns) justifies in Beastboy and Superboy's cases, as they were experimented on when they were kids, the former being even more terrified of needles.
• Wanda (a transwoman) from The Sandman (the 1989 comics) is afraid of surgery. However, given the time period and other overarching circumstances, this might be a bit justified.

Fan Works

• In Cellar Secrets, Ryuuko's (otherwise canon) fear of needles extends to do this, as being a rescued feral child, she remembers her stay in a hospital and institution, where she was stuck with IVs and needles.
• One More Time, One More Chance extends Ryuko's Fear of Needles to this trope, due to some kind of experiences she's had in the past and the narration says she's always hated hospitals because of them.

Film

• The titular Ferris is implied to this, as, according to him, going to the doctor's is worse than going to school. Funnily enough, the plotline of the movie is him playing sick to skip school.

Literature

• Amoridere explores this in her poem Finding Out What's Wrong, with the subject (possibly herself) being afraid of doctors, though for slightly justified reasons.
• Harry Potter: It's not uncommon for magicals to feel this way about doctors, though, it's not out of fear, it's because anything that isn't of the Wizarding world (like getting stitches) is weird to them. On that note, they don't know too much about the Muggle world and the info they do have is out of date.
• The Flock in Maximum Ride, though this is justified as they were raised as experiments and were kept in dog cages when they were little. In one scenario, Max does put up with getting seen because of a bullet wound, so it helps that Dr. Martinez is so nice.

Western Animation

• King of the Hill
  • The plotpoint of one episode involves taking Lucky (Luanne's boyfriend) to the hospital but he adamantly refuses to go because, according to him, he lost a lot family members after they went to the hospital to get treated. Did we mention that Lucky is Too Dumb to Live? Well, he is, as he ignores the fact that his relatives died because they didn't get treated in time.
  • While he isn't outright afraid of them, Hank is apprehensive towards seeing one and has to be prodded. If anything, it's probably due to his stubbornness than actual apprehension.
• The Simpsons:
  • This trop is the reason why "Bleeding Gums" Murphy is called "Bleeding Gums" because he's afraid to go the dentist and so likely suffers from gingivitis.

Real Life

• If you have any animals, they might experience this with their vet visits. This might make for some hilarity if you have a dog or a cat because, at most, they'll just run and hide from you, while this is dangerous in terms of bigger animals like horses, as they might instinctively kick, buck, and bite.
• As mentioned in an Extra Credits video, a history of exploitation and abuse in medical history is a reason why people of color, specifically, African-Americans, distrust the medical field.

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