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Hospitals Slowly Changing Pelvic Exam Policies

A March 11, 2003 article from the Associated Press says that hospitals are slowly changing their policies of allowing student doctors to do pelvic exams on anesthetized women without their consent or knowledge.

There has been a decades-old tradition of hospitals bringing in as many as three or four students to do pelvic exams on unconscious women just before their gynecological procedures. In recent years, student doctors who felt these exams were unethical have been initiating the changes in this practice by refusing to conduct them.

Doctors who support the practice say that anesthetized women are the perfect teaching tool because they are relaxed and unable to feel the sometimes painful mistakes of the students.

Dr. Jessica Bienstock, residency program director at Johns Hopkins University says, “I don’t think any of us think about it. It’s just so standard as to how you train medical students.”

Fortunately, many of the students surveyed disagree. In 1995, 70% of medical students, who had not completed an OB/GYN clerkship, said it was important to ask women for their consent. Unfortunately, once they completed their clerkship, that number dropped to 51%.

Dr. Michael Gregory, a Boston public health doctor, says, “It’s this paternalistic, patronizing view that the doctors know best...We underestimate people’s incredible charity, and their willingness to let us train,” he said. “But I think that at a gut level, doctors understand that if they actually told patients that this was happening without their consent, people would be outraged.

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