She gets 16 pelvic exams a day - so yours don’t hurt
The Guardian • • health
Key Points:
- Molly Callahan works full-time as a gynecological teaching assistant (GTA), helping medical students practice pap smears and breast exams, emphasizing patient comfort and reducing discomfort during exams.
- Pap smears have significantly reduced cervical cancer deaths, but many women avoid them due to confusion about guidelines, lack of symptoms, and fear of speculum discomfort and embarrassment.
- GTAs provide real-time feedback to students during pelvic exams, centering the patient’s experience and improving medical education and ethics since the 1970s.
- Despite over 90% of US and Canadian medical schools using GTAs, there is a shortage of GTAs compared to the number of medical students, highlighting a gap in hands-on, patient-centered training.
- Callahan advocates for informed, respectful care during pelvic exams, encouraging patients to communicate their preferences and providers to prioritize comfort, challenging outdated, male-dominated gynecological practices.
