Surely doctors who do this should have short fingernails?

I've had multiple coils fitted, first 15+ years ago, never had fingers inserted.

Dd1 is a gynaecologist and she says she is not allowed to wear nail varnish. The first day of her holidays she always gets them painted!

The pain you felt would not have been from the doctor’s nails. Having a speculum inserted or coil fitted can be incredibly painful .
Length of nails is important for cleanliness but polish doesn’t make a difference to cleanliness as long as they are cleaned properly and gel polish in studies actually has a lower infection risk.
Agree chipped polish is scruffy in any profession though . As someone else said , it’s important in this area not to intimidate the service users and to be approachable.

But really a negative feedback about it ??

As others have said it was likely the speculum as her fingers shouldn't be inside you. And it can be extremely uncomfortable which may make us tense up more than we realise. She would almost certainly be wearing gloves. If she wasn't that would be very concerning.
The chipped nail varnish worries me and personally (I'm a nurse), I always keep my fingernails short. I feel dirty if they get past a certain length (probably because when I trained we were told strictly no polish and keep them short my and clean.
Im noticing more and more that nurses are working with long/ painted/ gel nails and it does make me uncomfortable. It's not hygienic and I wouldn't be comfortable if a healthcare professional caring for me was wearing nail polish. Especially chipped nail polish.
The dress, tattoos etc shouldn't really be an issue.
If you feel uncomfortable about the procedure then I would contact the health centre. If you felt this way it's possible others have too and perhaps it needs to be addressed. Patients need to feel safe and at ease , especially when they're having a procedure like this performed and it seems that you didn't.

I had the coil fitted recently, I got a prescription for numbing gel they use for lip injections, it cost €20 for the prescription gel, I would highly recommend it to anyone having the procedure.
The doctor used the entire tub.
Painless.

I've had 2 coil insertions, and the pain both times was breathtaking, with a really intense pinch sensation. Both doctors talked me through it and it was clear they were using instruments and definitely not their fingers. Is it not more reasonable to assume it was the procedure and what she had to use, rather than her nails?

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195670124004080
I wear gel polish on short square regularly kept nails as a doctor (no invasive procedures performed) The above article shows why!

The long hair won't be an infection risk, although may have made it harder for her to see. She may well have temporarily tied it up. Apart from a gloved bimanual exam at the beginning, her hands would not have touched you. I wonder whether you felt more tense due to your feelings surrounding this person, and therefore the procedure was more painful. Or are you approaching menopause?

Blimey, I’ve had three coils and all of them have been agony, I didn’t know it was possible to have one inserted without loads of pain. The last one I had gas and air at a sexual health clinic and that was much better

Fair enough. I mean normally they tend to sort of explain things so you know what’s happening at what point but i think as others have said, it’s unlikely to be nails during insertion or removal. That said, they shouldn’t have long or painted nails and should know better.

So - not hidden bias - just very open bias

it can be a really painful procedure - but will never have anything to do with the clinicians nails - as you have said - many others have commented on that.

but - to be fair to your clinician - having a mirena inserted is not a sexual infection related procedure - but even in a GP surgery - those questions about potential risk should also be asked regardless of what clinic space you are in. So really - stop going on about the fact you had to go to a sexual health clinic - they are a vital nhs service and are not just for infections - and ideally all contraception services should be focused therw rather than in less busy (for this) GP surgeries

The speculum would be in place and then the coil is in a case and inserted.
The Doctor's fingers would only be inside you if you had had a bimanual exam at the beginning, not during a coil fit.
Sexual health clinics have to ask very specific questions due to the nature of the clinic.
I agree that the practitioner certainly shouldn't have had long painted nails but how she dressed quite frankly has nothing to do with how she does the job.

What do you mean, before you recovered? Was this not just a standard, in the room coil removal? If so, I don’t see how or why you wouldn’t have been able to see everything that was happening the whole way through. Also, with any manual examination with the fingers, it should have been explained but also obvious and you’d see and feel them doing this. Then you’d see and feel the speculum being inserted before removal, which isn’t done with their fingers but with the tool that’s been mentioned previously.

It’s not really adding up unless there’s something we’re missing?

Health care staff aren’t allowed long nails or nail polish! Infection control would have a field day with this!
ETA
Long hair should be tied back too!

doctors are not allowed long nails or nail polish. Are you sure she was a doctor? Sounds inappropriate and gross.

The Mirena is enclosed in a device with a long handle which is held by the medical practitioner outside the body, it has a release mechanism that is activated when the coil is in the correct position.

I don't think fingernails could have caused that much pain. More likely it was the tenaculum jaws (look up a picture, quite horrifying). Was local anaesthetic spray or gel used? It's becoming commonplace now but wasn't, so if she was trained a very long time ago she may still use none.
However, long polished nails are definitely an infection risk. When I was a medical student at a handwashing teaching session, we all had to cover our hands in a liquid which glowed under a UV light. The idea was to see what bits you hadn't actually washed from doing a basic rinse job, and then to be taught how to do it properly. The girl in my group with nail polish on, her nails glowed so intensely it was shocking. Something to do with the textured finish IIRC, meaning the liquid and thus organisms were much harder to wash away.

No - that’s still a hidden bias in your reaction. Edgy? Generally people wear scrubs these days - makes it easier with all the secretions and body fluids. But “dressing for the role” is really a poor view of the whole situation

the nails being dirty and long is not good, but - they are not the source of the pain - that’s not how the procedure works

It’s not bias. As I said in a pp, I used to work with different medical specialities and the GUM doctors as a group had a much edgier style than any of the others. Hardly any wore suits, there was a lot of coloured hair (pink at the time), punky cuts, piercings and tattoos. Undoubtedly an element of the casual look is not putting up barriers to any service users, some of whom may feel excluded by or antagonistic towards suits and overtly conservative fashion.

By contrast our medical jurisprudence cohort tended towards the very formal in their clothing and the very gallows humour in their conversation!

It wouldn’t be the fingernails making it painful as fingers are only at the start then everything else doesn’t involve them - speculum, tenaculum, coil
i had one fitted that was very painful and a couple that were fine
depends where you are in your cycle, how you feel that day, what pain relief you’ve taken etc etc
the last one barely hurt and then I had a vasovagal reaction and ended up being tilted on the bed as my BP dropped

I’m on my third Mirena. I have never seen an insertion video before and even had a trainee on one occasion do the removal / insertion. This video terrified me! I’m still 3 years away from needing it replacing, but I think I’ll have nightmares about this video!