I was out for lunch with a Girlfriend yesterday and she was talking to me about this article she saw in the paper last week about Pelvic Exams (aka Pap Tests) being done on unaware and unconscious woman in Canadian Teaching Hospitals as part of routine medical training.

I was shocked and so, when I got home I looked it up online and was totally blown away to find out that it was 100% true. I read through the article from the Globe and Mail and found myself becoming more and more upset; I could not believe that it would be considered acceptable or ethical for a Canadian woman to have her rights or privacy violated in this way!

Sorry to all the men who are reading this blog, I am sure you don’t need to know the deets of a Pelvic Exam but, it is basically a very invasive and vulnerable moment for a woman. We need to go through it every year or two and it is never something we are excited about.

You have to place trust in the person who is preforming it on you; you want to be able to meet the person and have a good feeling about them so you can feel comfortable and safe during the procedure. It is not something I would ever want done on me without my consent and certainly not while I was unaware and unconscious.

The reason that is given for this blatant disregard for human dignity and rights is ridiculous.

“The long-standing argument in favour of allowing these exams to be done on surgery patients is that it provides a unique opportunity for students to practice the delicate, invasive examination without causing the woman pain or embarrassment.” —- From the Globe and Mail Article by Andre Picard

WTF!! How do they know they are not causing the woman pain… she is unconscious!! She can’t feel anything you freakin fools! You could be using a hot poker sick for the exam and she wouldn’t know!! And about the not causing embarrassment thing. Are you kidding me? You don’t think any woman would be ashamed and embarrassed to find out that a throng of medical students took turns completing a Pelvic Exam on her while she was out cold? If you want an unresponsive and unmoving patient just use a freakin cadaver!

Give your freakin heads a shake, this is wrong!!! There has to be a better way!

I am shocked and dismayed that this practice is considered acceptable in Canada. I am proud of the Canadian health care system and this makes me ashamed and, quiet frankly, it leaves me feeling sick to my stomach thinking of all the woman who have been violated in the name of medical training.

Just because a Doctor is doing something does not mean it is right. My body belongs to me and me only; if anything is going to be done to it, (other than in a life saving situation) I want the right to say yes or no.

I have scoured the internet looking for people and places that one could contact regarding this issue. So far, I have no concrete answer as to where one could send their thoughts or concerns to regarding this subject. The best thing any Canadian could do would be to contact their local MP and ask why this practice is allowed in a progressive country like Canada which values and promotes Human Rights.

If you are a medical student, you can easily put a stop to this by refusing to preform an exam on a woman unless they have given their explicit consent before hand. If I ever have surgery and any medical student or doctor does a Pelvic Exam on me without consent, you can be sure I would hunt them down and I would fuck them up give them a stern talking to! Actually, let’s just be honest here, I would fuck them up because to me, that shit is twisted and wrong.

Apparently, this is also a typical practice in the United States. The documentary, At Your Cervix, enters U.S. medical and nursing schools to break the silence around the unethical ways in which medical and nursing students learn to perform pelvic exams.