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reliableLake8314
48,456 M Crossing Mileposts 9
PathStep 75 Compassion hearts567 Forum posts31 Forum upvotes12 Current upvotes12 Age GroupAdult Last activeMarch, 2019 Member sinceApril 18, 2015
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Vaginal exam, was this appropriate?
Trauma Support / by reliableLake8314
Last post
 October 15th, 2018
...See more Sorry that this is long. So about 2 years ago I went to a walkin clinic because my doctor was away. I got a male doctor and he prescribed me yeast infection pills after I told him my symtoms. When I took the pill I didn't feel any better, instead I felt worse. I went back to see that same doctor. He said that we should take a few swab samples to make sure it's not another type of infection. I just want to point out that he is not a gynecologist, he's just a family doctor who primarily just does walkins. During the vaginal exam there was a nurse assistant in the room with us. Here's what I thought was strange. The swabs seemed to take quite a bit longer to do than expected. He didn't use a speculum because I was extremely red raw and sore so he said he was just going to use his fingers (with gloves). I apologise if this is tmi, he had a finger inside my vagina and was kind of twisting it back and forth and he said he wanted to make sure there were no lumps or anything abnormal and he needed to get enough discharge on the 3 swabs. Is that normal? (Side note: sorry TMI, I've been fingered before by my boyfriend and what the doctor did, it didn't feel the same way thankfully. It still was just weird. I'm not sure if it was the fact that I was clearly in an uncomfortable position having a man down there and also having someone else in the room). I'm so used to my female doctor who usually only takes a few seconds to do an exam. I also want to point out that I haven't had many vaginal exams done before and I don't believe my family doctor has ever felt around for abnormalities in the vagina, however I have read that this is normal. After the exam was over he left the room so I could get dressed. When he came in he asked if I had recently had sex and I said no. He had asked why and I responded that I was having some ongoing vaginal issues and that I was having some issues with my boyfriend. He asked what type of relationship issues I was having. I didn't really get into it. A part of me found it weird but another part of me wonders if he was just trying to be nice and offer a listening ear if I needed to talk. He also said I seemed quite tight. I'm not sure if he actually meant it in a sexual way. I'm sure he was just referring to my inflamed vaginal issue. He then made a comment that the next time I have sex it might be difficult because of my issue. Do you think his actions were innapropriately sexual? I feel kind of weird about it and I'm not sure if maybe he meant it in an innocent way. I'm also so used to having my same female doctor. She's very fast at what she does and this guy seemed to take a longer time down there. I'm not sure if maybe he just wasn't used to taking swabs, I'm sure female doctors do this more than males. I had to go back to him the following week to get my swab results. After I got my results he made a comment that I'm a beautiful girl. I was a bit taken aback but at the same time I think he may have just meant it as a nice compliment. He didn't say anything flirtatious. He then made some small talk asking about what I was doing for new years and he told me what he was doing. He didn't ask me out or anything. He just said if I have any other issues I'm welcome to come back. I think I felt uncomfortable over the nature of the exam since it's never fun having someone you dont know go in your "area". I think some of his comments borders on innapropriate but at the same time I think it may have just been his type of personality. I don't mean this to sound racist but I know he used to practice medicine in a different country so I thought maybe there was a bit of a culture clash. Since it was a while ago I feel like my memory is a bit fuzzy on every small detail. My questions here are, do you think the actual physical exam was innapropriate? It's hard for me to tell because I did feel uncomfortable but I also think that maybe his technique could have just been different than what I'm used to. I do believe his "beautiful" comment was innapropriate. I think because he said this it made me question if the rest of the exam was innapropriate. I looked into making an anonymous complaint about the doctor. From what I read online, you cannot make a formal anonymous complaint. In order to make a complaint to the doctors board you have to do a formal written complaint with all of your personal information. The doctor is then informed that you made a complaint and an investigator gets involved. The whole process seems to be lengthy and it gets lawyers involved etc. Since I don't feel 100% confident that what he did was innapropriate I don't think it's a good idea to take legal action, would you agree? Another option would be to call the actual doctors office and speak to a manager there and tell them about what happened. This could all be done anonymously and then no legal investigation would be involved.
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