Wow. Um, here's another one of those things guys don't have to worry about.

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.



Can you explain what happens during these non-consensual pelvic exams?

They are usually "bi-digital" exams. This means students insert two fingers as deeply as they can into the vagina with one hand and use the other hand to feel around the outside of the abdomen for the ovaries. What they're trying to do is trap the ovaries between their two fingers and their hand and feel for the internal organs from the inside. Sometimes, speculums are also used in the exams.



What stops students from simply asking the patient for permission?

When I was a student and approached the chairperson of my department and said I was uncomfortable with this, and he said, "I don't see anything wrong with it." My response was, "If there's nothing wrong it, then you won't mind if I ask permission." He said I couldn't do that. He knew that women would be absolutely outraged at the thought, and so, no one would tell them anything.



So, how can a woman prevent non-consensual pelvic exams happening to her?

All you can do is ask and hope that your doctor will honor your request. Once you're asleep, however, you have no power. And what a powerless thing for women to know this goes on and think, "Well, I'm just going to have to trust my doctor."

What if you don't trust your doctor?

Women can write on their bikini line, "I do not give consent for medical students to practice pelvic exams on me" in marker. Then as soon as the clothes come off or the robe is lifted and all the medical students are getting on their latex gloves they can see that message. And that will stop them. I was inspired to think up this tip because of patient advocates like Bernie Siegel, M.D., who recommend that patients use a magic marker to write "Wrong leg" or "Wrong arm" on their healthy body parts to prevent them their doctor from performing surgery on the wrong limb - a common mistake.