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Pelvic exam without my consent? No longer!

A recent poll of Canadian medical students found 72 per cent had done exams on unconscious patients, without consent. Reuters - A recent poll of Canadian medical students found 72 per cent had done exams on unconscious patients, without consent. Reuters

Photo credit: The Globe & Mail

Back in January, I wrote a bit of a concerning post titled “A pelvic exam without my consent?”

The concerning part is summed up quite well with this description from a Globe & Mail article:

Imagine that you are undergoing a fairly routine surgery – say, removal of uterine fibroids or hysterectomy. During or right after the procedure, while you are still under anesthesia, a group of medical students parades into the operating room and they perform gynecological exams (unrelated to the surgery) without your knowledge.

Do you consider this okay, or an outrageous violation of your rights?

Regardless of your feelings, you should be aware that this is standard procedure in many Canadian teaching hospitals.

Shocking as this sounds, it has apparently been happening for years now, with the blessing of the the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada (SOGC).

But I have very good news for you my friends! The SOGC and the Association of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynaecology of Canada has revised its policy on pelvic exams performed by medical students to explicitly say that consent is required.

I’m not sure if the SOGC really wanted to change the policy or even felt the change was necessary, based on my reading of this article in the Globe & Mail. But nonetheless, the public outcry forced a change in this policy.

And I don’t know about you, but I sure feel better knowing that “implicit” consent is not good enough for using my body (and pretty darn important parts of it!) as a practicing ground. I’ve given consent to plenty of medical students — in fact, one even broke my water for my first born — but I like to know what I’m consenting to, thanks very much.

Thanks to PhD in Parenting and The Unnecesarean for letting me know about this policy change.

Comments

  1. To be honest, at my stage, I just wish I could find a gynecologist. I would consent to whatever exam they want.

    6 years after becoming a permanent resident, I still don’t have a GP and I haven’t seen a gynecologist in almost ten years, basically since I left France. It sucks. I’m on every waiting list you can think of but because I don’t have any major health problem (knocking on wood), I’m not a priority.

  2. The problem is, how do you prove you’ve been examined without your consent while under anesthetic?

    I had my gallbladder removed last week. The day after the surgery, I thought I was coming down with a vaginal yeast infection. But I spent most of that day, and the next one, asleep, recovering from the surgery. By the evening of the second day, though, I was awake enough to be very sure that I did have a yeast infection. The next day, I bought the remedy at the pharmacy. I have to hope it works.

    I haven’t had a yeast infection in five years. I hadn’t had sex for a week before the surgery. I do know what a yeast infection is, and how it feels. What I don’t understand is why someone put something inside me, without my consent, while I was in surgery, and why whatever they used wasn’t clean. I have an appointment to see my doctor and I will ask about this. But how can I prove that it happened? It’s only my word, my history and my knowledge of my own body against a bunch of people I don’t know who don’t have to admit that something happened.

    Having surgery is difficult enough. Coming out of it with an infection that I didn’t go in with is very troubling. Getting an infection in a hospital is unnerving: hospitals are excellent places to come down with nasty illnesses and infections.

    Do I feel violated and confused? Oh, yes! What are my options? Not many.

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