opinions-political-medicine

Pelvic exams on anesthetized women

Did you know that as of 2013, many teaching hospital allow random medical students to stick their hands in random anesthetized women?

https://www.google.com/search?q=teaching+hospital+pelvic+exam

I think that's very very wrong. Somewhat related:

Doctors should not have power over you

The idea that the doctor knows better than you doesn't bother me. The doctor does know better than me.

The idea that the i can't get my insurance company to pay for treatment without my doctor's say-so doesn't bother me. If everyone could get insurance to pay for whatever expensive medical treatment they wanted, that would drive up my premiums.

But the idea that, because the doctor (and the FDA) knows better than me, that they should have the final say over what treatments i can get, even if i am willing to pay for them myself, is wrong.

For example, somewhat related to the previous section, in the U.S. many doctors require periodic pelvic exams on women before prescribing birth control pills. I suppose the idea is that allows them to catch cancer sooner and save lives. However, some patients find this emotionally traumatic, and for these patients, the tradeoff between a low risk of cancer and certain emotional distress should be up to the patient, not the doctor. The doctor should not have the power to deny the patient this medicine. The current system, besides being unethical and emotionally hurtful, drives some patients to simply give up on birth control, because they don't want to get the pelvic exam.

The situation is more difficult for very addictive drugs. For drugs which can be clearly shown by peer-reviewed research that they are more addictive than any legal drug (e.g. tobacco, alcohol), there is an argument for the necessity of a prescription. However, very few prescription drugs (and very few illegal recreational drugs) would meet this criteria.