Health service failing women again

[Imnobody4]

www.vice.com/en/article/v7v8j8/women-virgins-uk-ultrasounds?s=09
The good old cultural sensitivity excuse again.

Women in the United Kingdom are being told by healthcare professionals they cannot receive an internal examination because they aren’t sexually active, going against the advice of British medical ultrasound guidelines.

VICE World News has spoken to five women from around the UK who have been denied a transvaginal ultrasound over the past two years because they had been asked – by male and female medical staff – whether they were sexually active or “virgins.”

I'm a bit puzzled by the binary choice several interviewees mentioned of being either a virgin or sexually active, as I'm neither right now.

There's so much wrong with the attitudes displayed by these clinicians, it's hard to know where to start. I'm increasingly thinking we all need to go into any such appointments armed with all the relevant guidelines, protocols and laws to make the doctors and whoever justify their decisions right there, on the spot.

That's horrific. Especially the sonographer/doctor (wasn't clear which) who refused to proceed because it was against her own religious beliefs - not the patient's! Surely if you have medical training that includes dealing with the biological reality around hymens?

I'm now trying to remember if I ever had a transvaginal scan before being married - I was investigated by ultrasound quite young because of heavy periods (turned out to have PCOS).*

I do remember showing up for my first cervical smear test in my 20s and being asked if I was married or had had sex before. On answering 'no' to both, I was told I didn't need to have the smear and to come back once I was sexually active. Now I wonder if the nurse made assumptions about my brown skin and the way I was dressed...

*It's possible they stuck to pelvic scans because of my age - putting a wand up a 12 year old won't be comfortable. But that's not a reason to refuse to it to an adult woman. Yes, if you haven't had penetrative sex it may be more uncomfortable than normal - but surely explain that in advance and maybe offer local anaesthetic or pain relief to mitigate, rather than point blank refuse to use a diagnostic tool??!

Tbh if I did thay scan before ever having sex I would have found it painful / uncomfortable experience having something go up you for the first time ever. Some sonographers can be quite aggressive and just stick it up and move around quickly to get their job done, while some are more gentle and reassuring asking if u are OK. So I don't think there's anything wrong with getting background about whether the patient is a virgin to help give them the most comfortable experience, but I agree that it shouldn't be denied if there's a medical need for it

Do you know what I'm sure I remember something similar with me, though I think they were refusing to use a speculum because I was a virgin, not an ultrasound.

It's a very male-centric definition of sexually active isn't it?

'if you are sexually active you must have had a penis up there'