Many accounts of the medical experiences shared by women on this site and others do not paint a pretty picture. Some accounts are about sexual abuse by doctors and other health care providers. Some are about being bullied into unwanted vaginal exams and screening, often at the dismissal of more pressing health issues. Other accounts are about the pain and suffering as a result of gynecological interventions.
A poll on this site asking women about their experiences with doctors indicates that 80% of women have stopped going to doctors due to the coercion they face to undergo pap tests. A whopping 89% of women indicate that they undergo coercion to undergo unwanted intimate exams when they visit the doctor. Where is the “health” or the “care” in the reality of these women’s experiences? And still women’s voices and choices appear to go unheeded.
The pelvic exam is particularly questionable. The American College of Physicians (ACP) published a landmark systematic review in the Annals of Internal Medicine concluding that routine pelvic exams provide no benefit for asymptomatic, non-pregnant women.
The study and the ensuing debate highlight three key issues:
- Unmonitored Harms: Routine exams frequently lead to false positives, which trigger a cascade of unnecessary, invasive surgeries that the medical system fails to track or monitor.
- Vested Interests: Organizations like the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) pushed back, defending the traditional practice based on “expert opinion” rather than clinical evidence.
- Silenced Voices: The heated debate largely focused on physician habits and institutional protocols, completely excluding women’s experiences, comfort, and right to informed consent.
The study: “recommends against performing screening pelvic examination in asymptomatic, nonpregnant, adult women (strong recommendation, moderate-quality evidence)”.
Critics and patient advocates have noted that this debate largely took place over the heads of patients. The medical community focused heavily on clinician habits, financial reimbursement structures, and traditional protocols, while women’s lived experiences of pain, anxiety, and the lack of informed consent regarding the actual utility of the exam were effectively sidelined
Media coverage and women’s personal shared experiences continue to reveal a disturbing reality where women are being dehumanized, victimized, harmed and exploited. When you strip away the context of so called health care and look at what is happening to many women you are left with coercion, bullying, abuse, and other disturbing outcomes.
Where is the “health” or the “care” in any of this?
Great new post! They started doing internal exams on me in my teens and by the time I was even ready to have an intimate relationship it was no longer an option due to the abuse I suffered at their hands. I still don’t know exactly how many I had (dozens?) or how many people’s hands were in my body. It was a complete violation of my body and life. It wasn’t until I found this site that I learned what they were telling me was wrong, that it was mandatory and that I would be in poor standing with the practice. I was in my mid 20s before I had a framework to understand what had happened to me. Before that it was a blur of these extremely invasive exams, coercion, being confused, and blaming myself for being so “difficult.”
anonymous that’s awful! Sue, thank you, brilliant post. It was deemed necessary at my old GP practice in SE England to harass me about smears after I’d opted out, and during a consult on migraines meds and also anaemia (I was post menopausal)
when I moved to Wales the first practice I tried informed me it expected me to have all smears, mammograms, blood tests etc as a given. I said sorry I wasted your time and left. My second practice leaves me alone thankfully
tha above comment is from me, Kat Rehman, no idea why it’s anonymous too
Thank you so much for all the awesome feedback on this new post. Once in a while I can post something that’s almost as good as all the comments on this site lol.
Kat thanks for the feedback on commenting. It seems this site sometimes takes a while to fully load and update, and that might be causing some glitches.
Wonderful new post that validates the experiences of so many of us. I would add mammograms to the list of things women are pressured into. In the U.S. at least, there is an almost hysterical coercion to have them and at this point they are basically being presented as “required.”
Judy
Judy, interesting, here in the UK I think the push for mammogram is less than the smear pressure, practice nurses do smears in doctor surgery and there’s financial incentives to get as many as possible to smear. Mammograms are done in hospital or mobile units and I don’t think there’s incentives
This is a great post!
Where I live a medical corporation has been buying up doctor’s offices and since then the demand to do pap smears has become unbearable (and it was bad before). I was screamed at by a receptionist that told me smears are mandatory and I do mean screaming, as in complete loss of emotional control. She also let slip that the doctors would be making less money because of “people like me.” Oops. Probably wasn’t supposed to admit that to a patient! The level of entitlement to our bodies have skyrocketed and are through the roof. Even administrative staff now think they get to decide.
Me again, sorry I think I shared this story before here (sorry for the repeat) but it’s still bothering me immensely.
I don’t recall seeing your post before Anonymous and actually, I don’t think you’re in the UK but I recognise the tactics being used to get you to smear. Here doctors get incentive payments the more of their women patients they can round up and smear; lots of women here have been told it’s mandatory/ compulsory, and you can’t even get your asthma meds or any appointments at all until you have a smear, they tack smears onto pill/HRT appointments, no definitely no pill til you smear. And obviously they HATE informed women, or even women who just say a clear NO! stand firm ladies!