Do Women Really Need A Yearly Pelvic Exam?

Experts are still debating whether women need a pelvic exam at their yearly visit to a gynecologist, according to a new report. The report comes from a government-appointed expert panel that reviewed hundreds of studies on pelvic exams and concluded that there isn’t enough evidence to make a recommendation either for or against pelvic exams for women who don’t have symptoms of gynecologic conditions and aren’t pregnant. The panel, known as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), said that more studies are needed to better assess the potential benefits and harms of routine pelvic exams. In the meantime, the decision of whether a woman should have a pelvic exam should be shared between the patient and the doctor, the report said. The decision should consider the evidence, the patient’s preferences and her risk factors for certain diseases, according to the report, which is published today (March 7) in the journal JAMA. [7 Facts Women (And Men) Should Know About the Vagina] “Women, as patients, should be involved in the decision regarding whether to perform a pelvic examination, and clinicians should not require that the patient undergo this procedure to obtain screening, counseling and age-appropriate health services,” Dr. Colleen McNicholas, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, and Dr. Jeffrey Peipert, an obstetrician/gynecologist at Indiana University School of Medicine, wrote in a...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news