Something I think every woman should be aware of...

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Medical student Hilary Gerber of Mom’s Tinfoil Hat was offered the chance to perform a pelvic exam on an unconscious female patient by an operating room nurse at the local hospital not affiliated with her school. Wrote Gerber:

I participated in a dilation and curettage on a woman who was experiencing an incomplete abortion. I was in the room before the procedure and the OR nurse offered to let me do a pelvic exam on her, since the patient was already anesthetized.

Gerber declined the offer.

Although I was fascinated by the opportunity, and initially was tempted by the learning experience, I didn’t want to do it without her permission, and made myself consider her as a patient and a person, not as a pathology or anatomy in front of me. Yes, I knew she was going to have a pelvic procedure that she already consented to, and I even had the opportunity to introduce myself to her before she was anesthetized, but I knew it wasn’t diagnostic for me to do a pelvic on her in this situation, wouldn’t change the course of her treatment, and questioned the ethics of it.

She is not alone in her unwillingness to perform a pelvic exam on an anesthetized patient without her consent. Dr. Michael Greger, author of Heart Failure: Diary of a Third Year Medical Student, refused to perform nonconsensual pelvic exams on anesthetized patients as a student. This 2003 interview with Michael Greger is archived on the now inactive ShamExam.org website:



Are all women who are put under general anesthesia in a hospital practiced on by students while unconscious?

All women in the OB/GYN department at most teaching hospitals and hospitals affiliated with a medical school are. If you’re anesthetized and you’re in the OB/GYN department, you probably have had students practice pelvic exams on you regardless of what you’re in the hospital for - even if the procedure you need doesn’t require a pelvic exam!

Additionally, while doctors don’t go to other departments — such as general surgery patients, neurosurgery patients or cardiac surgery patients — if your surgeon is an OB/GYN, odds are there’s going to be a team of hungry medical students waiting for you to fall asleep.



When you say a team, how many people do you mean?

That depends. There’s the attending, a few residents, an intern and then as many medical students as they can round up.

However, I’m less concerned about interns and residents. They are doctors that have a role in that patient’s care, so doing a pelvic exam might be useful for them. But for medical students, no one even pretends it’s about the patient. Patients are strictly tools for our education. There’s no thought that there’s any benefit to the individual patient when medical students are just lining up in there.



When you were a medical student, did all your classmates perform non-consensual pelvic exams on women?

Yes, particularly the male students practiced pelvic exams on anesthetized women. As of last year, which was the last time I checked, they still do.



Why are male students more likely to perform non-consensual pelvic exams?

The medical community assumes that women will be less likely to allow male students practice on them if asked. So the male students are quicker to jump at the opportunity to practice on women who are unconscious.


There's much more here... http://www.theunnecesarean.com/blog/201 ... ed-pa.html

I've heard of this practice and find it somewhat disturbing indeed. I can understand practicing on dead bodies (as long as there's no visible damage), but with live people there are two issues:

a) the student can mess up (they're a STUDENT!), the sleeping patient does not react to pain, yet injury can happen, and then this becomes a crime.

b) the student can see who the person is, and may encounter them later in real life, and/or brag to their friends about how they've "seen their you-know-what" (yes I have low faith in humanity in general).

The dead have no social reputation to worry about, and they cannot be "hurt" per se. They are the ones who should be practiced on.

If you go to the link, it talks about why doing this on a sleeping woman is useless.

This is pretty bad, too.

I would be pissed if a doctor looked in my ears or up my nose without me knowing of it let alone my genitals. If I could not beat up the doctor who did it any doctor would do. I feel anxiety over being touched by strangers stuff like this is what keeps me from getting procedures done to me.

I wish that something could be done. But the only thing I can think of is stay away from giving birth in a hospital. Its sick. Its sick. Its sick what they do to women and their bodies, their babies, all under the guise of "making things better". I can not even begin to explain to you how dangerous a hospital really is. but please, If you need to use one. READ BEFORE YOU SIGN ANYTHING! this includes reading plackes on walls. and fine print.
Write up a birth plan, bring a midwife, and have the doc sign it. Make sure you are in charge of your care. or they will take charge of you and leave you with the trauma and the bills.

Thank you for posting. I hate to say it. but I wasnt too surprised that there would be places that practice this kind of "training". it takes a very disconected veiw of humanity to work in the medical/surgical professions. I am not surprised that they would be taking advantage of a good "teaching opritunity". I mean, she wont feel it, wont know about it. whats the harm? right?

Fukin Scary.

P.s that website. its a keeper, its scary and its all true.
and I'm so sorry for all women kind, not jut myself, but everyone...

You can do your own exams, you can be in charge of your own prenatal care, you can check for breast lumps, and yes, you can even birth your own babies, all you have to do is take charge.

It's definitely a good site. I've read a lot of the stuff they publish.

I had my children in a hospital, and probably would again if I planned on any more. (I don't) Home births are just too much for me, but I went into the hospital armed with knowledge. At least, the second time around.

Hospital births have come a long way since just the 70s, but there's still a long way to go.

Interesting...when I was in the hospital for OB/GYN surgery, I had to sign a form giving the surgeon permission to perform a pelvic exam while I was unconscious. (Basically, giving me one while I was awake was too painful. Seems to me that at that hospital, they can't just shuffle students in to give an unconscious patient a pelvic without her permission. The form had the surgeon's name on it; it gave him and him alone my permission. I am sure there were students watching the exam and the surgery, but allowing any of them to examine me would have been against the law. However, should I ever have to go under again, I'm getting my own form drawn up stating that no one except the surgeon is allowed to give me an exam! (My father is a lawyer; I'm sure he could help me find someone to draw up the paperwork.)

And on another note, I have an ex-bf whose older brother is an OB/GYN. My ex told me that his brother would tell his patients what they were about to feel (i.e. a pinch, some pressure, you know the terms they use). The women would typically ask, "How do you know?" and he would say that other patients had told him...so clearly, he was working on women who were conscious. Frankly, I'd be a lot less upset about letting a male student perform a pelvic while I was conscious than otherwise! (I mean, I'd rather see a woman, but he's a doctor-to-be, so I don't see it as a problem.)

Rose, I've heard similar stories at my mom's site. Fact is, just because you sign a paper doesn't mean they don't allow this to happen.

Regardless, this was written in 2003. It's likely there have been some strides to preventing this since then.

Did you read the entire article, or just what I copy/pasted?

I recommend doing that thing the writer suggested of writing on your lower abdomen in black marker: I DO NOT CONSENT TO A PELVIC EXAMINATION WHILE UNDER ANESTHESIA. (Not sure of exact wording..)