Mo Yan was momentarily taken aback, only then realizing that this fellow had been wanting her to examine him from the start. For a moment, she truly didn't know what to say.
In that era, if a family were childless, people generally blamed the woman, or else there wouldn't be such contempt for women unable to bear children, comparing them to "hens that don't lay eggs." Many women were divorced and sent back to their parents' home, often for the reason that they had "produced nothing."
Nobody thought that the inability to conceive could be a man's fault, and even if someone did ponder this, they wouldn't easily voice it unless a doctor had examined the issue and confirmed the fact. However, for a man to let a doctor investigate such matters was seen as a disgrace; even if the issue was his own, he would hide it and let no one know.