Soon gathered in congress, gynecologists and obstetricians also believe that this examination “must not be systematic”.
The National College of French Gynecologists and Obstetricians (CNGOF) gave a press conference on Wednesday January 25 to respond to criticism and accusations of violence once morest several practitioners.
The body wished, on the occasion of the Pari(s) Santé congress Women organized in Lille in a few days, grant “a special place was reserved this year for patient-caregiver relations and benevolence”.
Pelvic examination: new recommendations
Thus, the CNGOF must present all professionals with new recommendations regarding thepelvic exambut also a birth room care charter.
The latter aims to specify on the one hand when the medical examination is really desirable, and on the other when it is possible not to use it.
An examination not to be systematized
If these exams are currently recommended in a certain number of cases for detection and prevention purposes, they are however often useless and the CNGOF their unsystematic nature.
In a woman pregnant and who does not present symptoms or factor of risk of premature deliverythe use of vaginal examination during follow-up visits is also not recommended, due to the fact that it does not reduce the complications of pregnancy.
Interview patients
The college also recommends asking patients regarding possible gynecological violence. Indeed, the pelvic examination being “lived less well (anxiety, discomfort, pain, embarrassment, shame) in women with a history of violence than in women without it”.
Xavier Deffieux, gynecologist, who participated in the development of the recommendations, specifies: “Even if a pelvic exam is recommended, it is only offered to the woman, who accepts it or not”. Many voices are raised once morest practices or behavior deemed degrading.
But the college warns: “a gynecological examination may be badly felt, may lack benevolence, but it cannot be equated with rape, otherwise gynecologists, already too few in birth rooms, will become even more rare, as long as the profession resents this assimilation”.
