Med students practicing pelvic exams?

Medical Students Regularly Practice Pelvic Exams on Unconscious Patients. Should They? - entertainment - att.net

Can you believe this? How terrible. I'll make sure to tell docs "no" before I get put under next time.

I gather they also do prostate exams on knocked-out men?

Thank you for posting the article TravelingLady. I read several articles a while ago on unnecessary exams performed by male doctors on women without their consent....or with misconstrued justification. Interestingly, the articles I read were written by male doctors. One male doctor in particular had a hunch that something was not right. I think he was a GP who was referring patients for surgery. He started researching and checking the case notes of female patients. This included his wife. She was having a surgery (I don't remember what type) on a part of her body which did not require a pelvic exam. The patients husband (a MD) checked her chart later. He was horrified to discover that a male MD performed an unnecessary pelvic exam on his wife prior to her surgery. There was no medical necessity, nor was consent for that exam obtained. The husband ( a MD) continued his research. He found that the more "physically attractive" a female patient was deemed, the more likely she was to have experienced completely unnecessary breast and vaginal "exams" by male MDs.

After reading these articles, I advised all of my female friends to see only female OB-GYNS, dentists, urologists, surgeons....anything involving invasive exams etc. Obviously, your article @Travelinglady indicates that female med students are likely crossing the line too!

I've had more than one inappropriate experience while fully conscious with male MDs. I unfortunately cannot say that I am shocked by this info but I know that many would be.

I always wondered why nurses tell patients to remove their underwear prior to surgery that does not involve a need to access the genital area. A line goes around that it's due to hygiene.....then why not offer the patient sterile underwear? I think based on the article we have a new insight as to why the patients are instructed not to wear underwear beneath the medical gown....easy access for vaginal or prostate exams to which they did not consent. And we do need to remember that touching someone's body (any part) without their consent is assault....whether under anesthesia or not. Is this really very different from Bill Cosby's efforts? Not the same, sure. But not radically different.

There are still a few women in my offline life who deem me unfair to male MDs or crazy for mentioning these issues. I think that is because they are judging male doctors by their own standards. The women I know would never violate someone's boundaries like that so they assume that male OB-GYNS, urologists, dentists, and general surgeons would not either. Unfortunately, that is not the case. I read a really bad case about a male dentist but I will spare you folks the details.

Best we can do to protect ourselves is to request only female MDs for surgery or invasive procedures and to ask a great deal of Qs about the consent form etc beforehand.

One thing that troubled me about the tone of the article...
why the emphasis on patients who have previously survived sexual assault? Of course this could re-traumatize a person which is thoroughly wrong but shouldn't we be insisting on bodily autonomy and informed medical consent for EVERYONE? Men, women, children. Those who have and have not previously experienced assault? The author may not have intended it that way but it came across to me as odd.

This has been going on for years. I can remember reading an article about it, at least 20 years ago. Until med schools change their policies around how students are trained, this will likely continue.

splitimage

In that case, I don't think I have to worry about being "attacked." I am a 64 year old, obese lady.

I think I'll ask why I can't wear underwear with surgery, if I am told to take everything off, though !

This topic is a strong, negative trigger for me, but Im working on managing triggered emotions.

I will just say I completely disagree with this practice and am appauled that it continues. I would call it abuse. A blanket, hidden, vague consent is not consent at all for something so deeply personal.

I do not see why I personally would object to having medical students at teaching hospitals practice doing pelvic exams on me, whether I am conscious or under general anesthesia - training future doctors is a worthy goal, but I think a separate call-out should be made available in the consent form. If we take what the European data protection law says about consent - that it should be specific, informed, and freely given, then a blanket authorization falls short.