Pelvic examination of asymptomatic women - attitudes and clinical practice.

Abstract

The majority of the GPs interviewed perform pelvic examinations as part of a well woman check. Despite broad consensus by the GPs that the value of a pelvic examination as a screening test was questionable, they were performed for a range of reasons including patient reassurance, documenting the norm, 'because I was taught to', for legal reasons, and for completeness. The disadvantages of performing pelvic examinations in asymptomatic women noted by the GPs were time constraints, chaperone issues, intimacy concerns, and false reassurance and unnecessary anxiety caused by unexpected findings. However, neither these disadvantages nor the presentation of evidence based guidelines dissuaded the doctors from performing the examinations. This highlights the ongoing discrepancy between the theoretical development of such recommendations and their practical implementation.