SUPER IMPORTANT LADY PSA
Sep. 7th, 2010 10:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plasmoidsOkay, so, I came across this a few months ago, but apparently the story just was just picked up by the mainstream media, so it seems it's true. (I didn't know if it was at the time I originally read the first article, and it was the only one I could find.) This is a a very important post if you are a woman and might need to go to a hospital which many of us probably will at some point.
Article 1, from ABC: Students Perform Pelvic Exams Without Consent
Article 2, the one I originally read from a Canadian new site: Time to End Pelvic Exams Without Consent
Article 3, a really helpful Q&A: Medical Student Won't Perform Pelvic Exams on Anesthetized Patients
Like I said, THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT. Yes, medical students may perform pelvic exams on you when you are knocked out in a hospital after any sort of surgery. They are ALLOWED and ENCOURAGED to do this. This really makes me mad, as not only is it a horrible invasion of privacy, but it's just WRONG: If you don't give your consent for this, they shouldn't be allowed to do it, but they don't ask; they just do it anyway. Having your genitals messed with when you're unconscious? Does that scream "date rape" to anyone else?
If you're worried about the articles being triggering (because they kind of are), the suggestion of one med student was if you have to go in for surgery, write on your bikini line that you do not give your consent for a pelvic exam while you are unconscious. If they don't stop when they see that, well, you have a serious reason to sue then, don't you?
And it all comes down to money. This practice apparently takes place because hospitals are too cheap/lazy to hire volunteers and don't want to have to pay said volunteers, so they just do it on unconscious women cuz I guess that's cool or something? I don't even fucking know.
I love all of you on my flist and I think you all deserve to know this. Even you dudes; tell the ladies in your life! Everyone should know about this, and if they find it questionable, they should QUESTION it!
This has been a PSA.
Article 1, from ABC: Students Perform Pelvic Exams Without Consent
Article 2, the one I originally read from a Canadian new site: Time to End Pelvic Exams Without Consent
Article 3, a really helpful Q&A: Medical Student Won't Perform Pelvic Exams on Anesthetized Patients
Like I said, THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT. Yes, medical students may perform pelvic exams on you when you are knocked out in a hospital after any sort of surgery. They are ALLOWED and ENCOURAGED to do this. This really makes me mad, as not only is it a horrible invasion of privacy, but it's just WRONG: If you don't give your consent for this, they shouldn't be allowed to do it, but they don't ask; they just do it anyway. Having your genitals messed with when you're unconscious? Does that scream "date rape" to anyone else?
If you're worried about the articles being triggering (because they kind of are), the suggestion of one med student was if you have to go in for surgery, write on your bikini line that you do not give your consent for a pelvic exam while you are unconscious. If they don't stop when they see that, well, you have a serious reason to sue then, don't you?
And it all comes down to money. This practice apparently takes place because hospitals are too cheap/lazy to hire volunteers and don't want to have to pay said volunteers, so they just do it on unconscious women cuz I guess that's cool or something? I don't even fucking know.
I love all of you on my flist and I think you all deserve to know this. Even you dudes; tell the ladies in your life! Everyone should know about this, and if they find it questionable, they should QUESTION it!
This has been a PSA.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 08:24 am (UTC)/tattoos that shit on
no subject
Date: 2010-09-08 08:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-12 03:17 am (UTC)Ugh. I don't even know what to say.