I know exactly what you mean.
I hide in the girls section at my gym so I save myself the embarrassment. Ive only been out in the main section once with my bf doing weights, and it was so embarrassing. Everyone was staring while he was showing me how to do deadlifts for the first time, I did like 1 sets and then a whole pile of guys came and sat on a machine right behind me (cause 4 guys need to use 1 machine right). I felt so self-conscious that i did my 2nd set and then went off back to the girls section as i felt so uncomfortable.
On a good note, im now deadlifting 4lifts of 90kg. horray!