To think I might have been sexually assaulted?

[Thants1]

I actually just mentioned this in another thread and already had some responses but I’ve started a new thread here because now I’ve started thinking about it I need to know...

When I was a teenager, I originally said I was 14 in the other thread but I think I was probably actually 15 when this started, I was already sexually active and went to the GP to ask for the pill. He advised that I went on the contraceptive injection so I would go and see him every 3 months and before he gave me the injection he would make me completely remove the top half of my clothing, T-shirt, bra etc, and feel my breasts to ‘check for lumps’. Was this normal? It was in the late 90s early 2000s if that makes a difference.

I was on the depo for years and never had a breast examination and I got it from different surgeries and a family planning clinic. The only breast examination I've ever had was when I found a lump.

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This isn't normal and I think you need to report it, especially considering the area of medicine he seems to be specialising in now

The op doesn't need to report it unless she wants to, and can cope with doing so. Its unfair to pressure people into reporting anything, its not an easy thing to do. Ops mental health and wellbeing is really important here. This is a massive thing to come to terms with.

Thank you all for your comments. This has confirmed that I’m right to feel uncomfortable about this happening. I think I will make an appointment to speak to my own gp about this and go from there. I will probably wait until things are a bit more more normal though as it will be awkward explaining it to half the practice before I even manage to talk to the gp!

@Thants1 just tell the receptionists it's a personal matter and you'd rather not discuss and just need to speak the GP.

I am a doctor. There is absolutely no reason for your go to examine your breasts before every depo injection. Literally NONE, at any age- but especially not as a teen. This is very worrying and if I became aware of a colleague doing this then I would report it immediately.

The depo injection does not cause a significantly increased risk of breast cancer. Even in the event it did, it would highly unusual for a breast examination every 3 months in a very young woman- I mean, what are the statistical chances of a 15 year old having breast cancer?

I’m sorry this happened to you, OP, it’s totally unacceptable. Please report this, if you feel able to.

go= GP

I was on the pill mid 90s and did have a breast exam one time at the family planning clinic. There was a nurse present.

I was having the depo in the early 00s, via practice nurse. No breast exam.
In the 90s, doctors were still writing TUBE (totally unnecessary breast examination) in female patients’ notes. I think there was a culture of routine breast exams being performed where not clinically necessary. Presumably, to ‘check’, but it was really to rationalise the assault of women. Advice changed circa 1998, to stop offering them.

www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/health-hands-off-my-chest-doctor-1177987.html

A routine exam every three months in a young woman/adolescent female is excessive. I really do not think this GP’s actions would have been deemed appropriate by his peers, even considering the culture at the time.

@jacks11 thank you for your reply. Who would I report something like this to? I’m not sure i’m ready to take the step yet but it would be good to have a plan for when I am.

You can report historical incidents to the police or GMC (or both) especially as you were a minor when it happened.
Here’s the GMC website, they have a general enquiries contact number should you wish to discuss further.
www.gmc-uk.org/concerns/raise-a-concern-about-a-doctor/concerns-you-should-raise-with-us

I’m wondering if you could to a patient advocate as well, for support?

Sorry this happened to you op.

Back in the 90s I went for the pill and was subjected to a ve, breast exam and a smear test. I was 15 and this happened several times before I stopped going. All this was done completely naked too and he got openly angry when I obviously found it painful.

Utterly awful and I've never forgotten it.

I also remember being assaulted in this way, similar circumstances. But a one off thankfully.

I had that happen to me! Totally topless breast exam, male doctor, no chaperone. I was 16 and asked to go on the pill. I put myself on the pill a further 2 times over the years....never had a breast exam for those.

@JamieFrasersAuntie
That’s horrific! Did you ever report it?
Sorry for everyone else that has been assaulted like this especially when we were all so young and not informed enough to be able to object to these examinations.

Op I’m so sorry to hear this. Not normal.
Lots of doctors are creeps and assault women.
I’ve reported one (to the police, GMC etc).
It was the toughest thing I’ve done since my first DD died and it’s still an ongoing issue

When I was 16 and asked to go on the pill my GP said that I needed a breast examination. He asked me to take my top and bra off, then standing in the room asked me to put my hands in the air and he stood behind me to check my breasts. This was in the 1970s, I have always felt very uncomfortable about it.

There was a thread on here a couple of years ago about girls having internal vaginal exams for the pill. Similar thing- questioning whether it was normal. Some posters couldn't believe it wasn't. It's stayed with me. Not sure if it's still even up though.

Sorry for what happened to you op.

They got/ get away with loads.
At 16 I had back problems and took medication, had to see the dr every month for a repeat Prescription.
One month it was a different dr. I was dressed in a short skirt ready for a party we were going to straight after.
He had me bending over while standing behind me holding my hips to feel for my back issues...
felt strange at the time but it's only years later I've realised he's a perv.

I had the contraceptive injection from 2006, a little later than you but I was not examined physically. Deffo not my boobs. In fact, many sexual health appointments and two babies later... no doctor has ever felt my boobs.

This is known as a TUBE in the medical profession: totally unnecessary breast examination. I learnt this as a medical secretary in the 80s when it was treated as a joke. You were assaulted, it's disgusting and you are right to be questioning what happened to you. Maybe validation by others here is enough, maybe you will want to take it further, it's down to you to decide the best course of action for you.

I never reported it no.

These threads come up from time to time and some gps who respond here say that at that time ve and breast exams were part of the guidelines.for prescribing contraceptives.

I don't accept that was the reason in my case because he made a blatant sexual comment to me while he was doing it. If you had asked me years ago I would have said that was the only time I was assaulted in a medical setting but I would say differently now.

My sons birth left me traumatised and things were done to me that were unnecessary and without my consent. Frankly if was barbaric and would have been more fitting in a horror film than a delivery room. I was utterly violated.

On occasion I have gone to the gp quite poorly only for the gp to try to coerce me into a smear test there and then. When I've declined he's gone off to get the nurse to pressure me further. I've found myself being bullied into intimite examinations I don't want when I've been quite vulnerable. Too often No doesn't mean no in a doctors office, it means pile on the pressure or get another member of staff to join in.

Recently I went for a follow up after surgery. It was not a gynaecology op. The surgeon told me to pop into the side room and he'd be in in a minute. A student nurse showed me in to the room and casually told me to take everything off because " he might want to do an internal examination".

I didn't undress and he didn't mention any internal examination when he came but I was annoyed I was told this was going to happen and wasn't expected to question it or even consent.There was also no gowns or anything and more to the point it would have been completely unnecessary. I do wonder what that was about.

I hear too much about women suffering from birth trauma or being told they're silly for being upset about declining intimate examinations from male doctors.

It didn't happen to me but it seems that many women were also unnecessarily subjected to ves when going for medicals for jobs years ago.

forwomenseyesonly.com/2019/07/02/has-metoo-reached-the-doctors-office-yet/

I went on the pill in the early 80s and I do remember having breast exams and at the first one a vaginal exam with speculum. I saw different GPs at the surgery including a female one. I’ve just realised that later on that didn’t happen, so I’m presuming it was seen as standard practice but was later dropped and at none of them was there anything dodgy. The GPs were all good at explaining how to examine yourself - none groped me from behind. I had mammograms and breast exams at the Linda McCartney unit in Liverpool in the last 20 years and the nurse who did the exams then did them pretty much the same as the GPs.

I had this happen but with a female GP aged about 14 early 90s. It has flashed in and out of my mind over the years as well.