Being covered up before/during intimate exams

[Stiltonfiend]

I've noticed in my area (West Sussex) that in recent years I've no longer been offered a cover before an intimate exam, either at my gp practice or at a hospital - this has been for both breast and gynae checks and it's really bothering me!

I've had a curtain pulled across while undressing, but not offered the usual paper sheet to cover up before whoever it is comes in to do the exam and I hate it - too embarrassed/much of a people pleaser to say anything in the moment, which is not helping. Making me realise I'm not as healed from CSA as I thought I was.

Has anyone else noticed this? Is it some kind of policy change or money saving exercise? It's making me more and more anxious about going for another.

Sorry, probably wrong place to post this as not really a sex/gender related question - I expect many males would prefer a cover before an intimate exam too.

I don't think it's a new thing, more of a person-doing-the-exam thing.

20y ago I had the same humiliating experiences with some HCPs, but not with others. It can be degrading and dehumanising. Make you feel like a piece of meat. Yet others treat you entirely differently.

It is so difficult to advocate for yourself in such a situation. Your natural feelings of vulnerability are amplified by your life experiences, plus you may feel lower status to the HCP.

Last year I went to the GP with a breast issue and he asked me to cover myself with a paper blanket and exposed only the part he needed to examine. TBH I was not expecting such delicate courtesy. I wonder whether it was because he is a young Muslim man and I am a woman old enough to be his mother. Or perhaps he is just a considerate person.

Please don't blame yourself. Perhaps you could rehearse some phrases which you could recite when you need something to help you cope with the procedure. Or even a written note to hand to the HCP.

However you deal with it, you are not to blame. You are entitled to be treated with dignity.

I've had a lot of gynae exams and I think I've always been offered something to cover up. I have had to repeatedly ask for female staff though, also as a result of sexual assault. Though I generally go in a long skirt that I keep on that covers me. It's a perfectly reasonable request to be covered, though can be difficult to ask for these things.

I think this has once happened to me and it stuck with me through all the examinations I’ve had as a bad experience. That sheet gives me the ability to distance myself from what is happening and I now would ask if I wasn’t given it

I've had to ask for a cover during a womb biopsy, I'm not shy or oversensitive about these things, but it made me uncomfortable. The (male) doctor was arsey and abrupt in general, I was left to clean myself up afterwards, no tissue or wipes, I was bleeding and didn't have a sanitary towel (I hadn't expected the procedure).
I had the same procedure again since then and the procedure couldn't have been more different. A cover and everything I needed to clean up (although I'd come prepared that time).

Some women may not be bothered, but it should always be offered for those that do need it.

The bad procedure has really stuck with me. Even more so after having a completely different experience recently.

Ask for one or rip off a bit of paper yourself.

I’ve always been offered a cover.

When I had a breast exam I wasn't offered a cover. Just told to lie topless on a bed. That said "call me Alistair", the consultant with freezing cold hands checked my other breast without asking giving me somewhat of a fright.

First time I had a breast exam it was hilariously awful. At Bart’s in London in the 90s. Cubicles with stable type doors in a row. The male consultant with a gaggle of junior doctors or students walked down and examined however many topless women were herded in. At least we couldn’t see one another. I was too young/naive to worry helped by fact that the lump was subsequently found to be a cyst. I’ve generally found women doctors/hcps to be sensitive and helpful. The system was at least efficient if utterly insensitive

Thanks all. Maybe I just struck lucky for several years - was always given the courtesy, thought it was standard practice. I might take my own towel or something with me next time - saves saying anything!

I've always been given one but found them annoying, I have often said 'to be honest a cover isn't going to do much as you're going to be examining/sticking bits up the area Id want to cover up.' Hiding just my pubic hair doesn't afford me any modesty anyway.

But if I wanted one and wasn't offered it Id say 'have you got a cover for me?' And I assume they'd find one.

Take your own towel or similar?

I expect to be topless or bottomless, depending on which end they're looking at. The only time I was bothered about wanting a cover was a cold day. I don't feel any more dignified with a sheet of paper towel over me (and that wouldn'thave kept me warm, anyway.) But I am not that shy about nudity anyway, so I haven't really noticed either way, whereas it is important to others, and surely it's easier to ask if you'd like a cover and be rejected than vice versa?

I was a lot more upset about the consultant who said, "well, if we have to remove a lump, your breasts are so small, we'd have to remove the whole thing." At a time when you're already feeling vulnerable, I felt her bedside manner could have been improved.

During gynaecological exams I'm in a room with the nurse - no you're right can't recall a modesty sheet but don't recall ever having one. Nurse discreetly turns her back while stripping, though of course she's going to be at the business end in a minute.
During breast there's a cubicle to take your top off and out on a given then walk to the exam room - but you are in an anteroom, not walking out to the general area, and it's a dedicated mammography pod (standalone small building type thing).
I'm sure you could ask for something if you wish.

The only time I wear a skirt (long and floaty) is when I have a smear test. I don't remove it but don't lie on the back and just move the front out of the way at the appropriate time.
Similar for a breast examination. I leave on my camisole type vest and slip my arms out at the last minute. The vest remains tucked in my trousers!