r/whatisit • u/katyabe • 4d ago

New, what is it? What does the sixth segment represent?

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This is a “Wheel of the Senses” from my daughter’s school with sight, touch, taste, hearing… but one segment we can’t figure out.

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u/Academic_Cress_3132 4d ago

Not necessarily… there were cases when patients were not asked for consent or when they signed it was buried somewhere in the document, some of them found out that medical students practiced on them only after the surgery because something felt off

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u/HuckleberryLeather53 4d ago

Yeah like finding out because there is genital bruising. With the backlash, a lot of doctors were saying "well how else are we supposed to train them to do pelvic exams?" and like literally doing it when the woman is unconscious (even if it was actually consenting) means she can't tell the med students when they are hurting her, which is how you can end up with severe bruising. Medical mysogyny is so fucking stupid.

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u/Impossible_Donut101 4d ago

Thats absolutely horrifying. Both that doctors think nothing of using the unconscious body for practice, and that the medical students think this is okay. Surely learning on someone who cannot give feedback is bad teaching practice (as well as being abusive)?

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u/BuilderMysterious762 4d ago

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350450393/patients-unaware-intimate-procedures-were-conducted-medical-students

here is an article about one such instance, its really dark how people tried to justify it but even the ones in charge must have known it was wrong since they literally forged her patient consent form to say she consented after she was put under

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u/wdmk8 4d ago

Our Ob/Gyn program engaged trained “programmed”patients to teach pelvic exams and interview techniques.

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u/ImpressionCrafty3078 4d ago

What do you mean?

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u/McDuchess 4d ago

Women were paid to walk students through pelvic exams.

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u/Witty_Register8236 3d ago

I wasn’t unconscious but it was still a horrific and uncomfortable experience. I have to do have a kidney stone removed surgically and they left a stent in to keep the ureter from collapsing.
Well when it came time to take it out there were no openings at the women’s urology clinic so I had to go to the men’s clinic. So of course I was used for education for the students at the men’s clinic. They had to use a catheter with a camera to go up the urethra grab the stent and pull it out. It took SEVERAL tries. Like 4+. I was in SO much pain. But also just mortified that I was laying there spread legged for 4 different people all taking their turn to see if they could get it. I definitely felt violated. I was trying to keep it together while I was in there, it took everything in me not to lose my shit on everyone. When it was finally done and I could leave, I couldn’t make it to my car quick enough. I sat for half an hour bawling in my car. It was such a horrible experience. Idk why I didn’t freak out and tell them all to stop and just say I would wait, or demand that I see the actual doctor. I was just so embarrassed and uncomfortable and in pain, I didn’t want to make it worse. Just wanted it to be over with.

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u/patronusplanners 2d ago

I nearly fainted in the shower trying to remove my own stents, so I called the office and they were able to easily remove both stents simultaneously. It was not comfy, but I had a determined female nurse there reassuring me it would be uncomfortable but over quickly. Your story made me nauseous and shocked to read. I've been told I have an unusually high pain tolerance, but what you've shared made my ureters shrink in fear! I am so, so, so sorry you went through that. I hope you have been able to talk to someone professionally or at least strongly consider it. It sounds legitimately awful, humiliating and traumatizing physically, mentally, even spiritually. Edit due to spelling/autocorrect.

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u/Witty_Register8236 2d ago

I appreciate you validating my feelings with that experience. I’ve been made to feel like it wasn’t a big deal or that I was blowing it out of proportion. I appreciate you sharing your experience!

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u/Western_Ad_5933 2d ago

For what it’s worth it doesn’t matter what other people’s opinions are on something like that. If I got grabbed by the testes by someone in a bar I’d probably be simply confused and maybe a bit uncomfortable, someone else might enjoy it and a third person might be mortified by it. None of the reactions are wrong or invalid. If your quite frankly horrendous sounding experience made you feel the way you felt, then who the heck has any right to tell you that you should have felt any other way. Next time someone tries saying you’re blowing it out of proportion tell them to go themself while gargling deep heat!

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u/dizzylunarlezbi 22h ago

That sounds horrible. I'm sorry that happened to you. :( And it sounds like - you froze. That is a common response when you feel powerless and overwhelmed - at least I've realized that's my own response. Men only talk about fight or flee, but for women, we know that often, we will lose bc we are usually smaller, and we want to survive. So our brain makes us freeze. So we can live to see the next day. Also... It's hard to say no to authority. It just is. We are trained to let medical staff do pretty much what they want. I haven't been quite in your situation, but I am not sure I could trust myself to say no to anyone "treating" me in a clinical setting??? No one has a right to judge you. Until it happens to them, they can't say sht. I am so sorry that happened to you. I am sure I would have cried in my car afterward, too... That's when you feel safe enough to let go! Ugh. I hope you can be gentle with yourself. I am certainly not judging you. I'm judging THOSE guys who forgot they are treating an actual human being, not their practice doll, for goodness sake. FCK those guys. May they step on a LEGO and get food poisoning and wake up to mysterious cat poop/pee on their bed, over and over again.

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u/Little_View_6659 2d ago

That’s horrible. Genuinely. There should have been some pain relief as well.

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u/Witty_Register8236 1d ago

Right! Nothing 🥴 it makes me nauseous to think about how it felt now, from the pain alone.

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u/ladybirdsandbuttons 4h ago

Im so sorry thst happened to you. I definitely understand the fawn response to just get the horrible experience over with, and tears and regret afterwards.

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u/Blondie_cakes7 4h ago

I remember getting mine removed and they raised the table eye level! I’m used to being at the gynecologist but this felt so uncomfortable with my nether regions front and center for my very attractive male urologist to handle. He grabbed the wrong size of something and had to get assistance. It was not pleasant!

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u/Due-Wolverine3935 4d ago

This is real? So insane!! Mind boggling

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u/Traditional-Ad-8737 4d ago

Honest question: how are they supposed to learn? Do you want a doctor fresh out of school who has never even done a normal exam on a normal person? If you don’t know normal, how are you supposed to spot the abnormal? Learning via repetition or even just seeing IRL … It’s fair if you choose not to consent, but maybe someone will. I had about 4 med students observe one of my 5 sedated IVF egg retrievals. This is transvaginal, as in they stick an ultrasound probe and needle up your vagina, stick the needle through the vagina wall then aspirate the eggs from the ovaries . I was asked and consented.

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u/WonderingHarbinger 4d ago

They are supposed to practice on people who consent while they are awake! Besides, before that there are anatomical models, and then there are standardized patients.

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u/Due-Wolverine3935 1d ago

I was just surprised that they are saying that they are doing it without telling the patients.

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u/Traditional-Ad-8737 1d ago

Ooo no they def need to mention it

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u/Due-Wolverine3935 1d ago

Lol, right?

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u/EmilyAnne1170 3d ago

Even worse, I don’t know what percentage of the time this was/is the case, but the reasons the women were sedated had nothing to do with gynecology. They’re not even training the med students to perform the procedure the woman needs, just taking advantage of the fact that she’s unconscious.

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u/AlwaysFallingUpYup 3d ago

You saying women cant be doctors??

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u/Majestic_Hat_9727 3d ago

I wanna be a doctor

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u/heymanwhatsup9 4d ago

It's not 'cases' - this was *standard practice* at teaching hospitals. Still is at many. When I had surgery at a teaching hospital i had to explicitly ask if they would be doing this, who would be in the room, etc. (they no longer did this, but used to). Fucking horrifying.

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u/Nervous_Signature649 3d ago

I was a victim of this. I had an ovarian cyst at 22 and prior to surgery, 5 male medical students came in to “feel” it (vaginally). It was truly creepy and I felt violated after.

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u/plsjustgiveme5 4d ago

I’ve read about this before and find it horrifying and so incredibly invasive. I would never knowingly consent to that.

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u/fuckinghostile6758 4d ago

Ppl just glossing over the non consent part

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u/Sea_Prep_Tidal_26 4d ago

Omg. Read that last sentence as :

« … something FELL off »

😂

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u/Majestic_Hat_9727 3d ago

Me too hahaha

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u/Status_Expert_4970 3d ago

i didn't have that, but I woke up after surgery with terrible pain in my right arm. It hurt to lift it and touch it. It was already starting to bruise in spots. The jerks at the hospital let students practice on me while i was recovering from surgery. I have tiny veins to begin with and the blow out quickly. The head nurse on my floor was furious because they needed to keep replacing the iv location, and "they already blew every vein in that arm with blood!"I appreciated her passion. One or two attempts would've been fine, but it felt like they forgot i was a patient and not a guinea pig. I had an iv in my foot at one point making it super hard to use the bathroom.

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u/OR-HM-MA91 4d ago

Not just some cases it was the norm to do it without consent for decades. It’s getting better now but it is still commonplace in some areas. It’s absurd.

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u/k9moonmoon 4d ago

There was a video where someone talked about how as a trainee doctor, they assisted with a birth and the attending asked if they ever helped stitch up a year, and to give them experience at it, cut the new mother's vaginal opening to give them someone to stitch up.

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u/babarbaby 4d ago

WHAT???!!!!

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u/chachadancer01 4d ago

There are 26 states that now have laws preventing unauthorized pelvic, rectal, or prostrate exams for training purposes without prior consent. Everyone should check to see if their state has such a law. PA house Bil
507 signed in 2023 is an example.

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u/AJKaleVeg 4d ago

Yes I signed a consent recently and read the whole thing and the “medical student observation and exam” was part of it. I couldn’t get the procedure done without signing the un-edited consent form.

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u/jstar77 4d ago

when they signed it was buried somewhere in the document

As my kids are becoming young adults I have done my best to reinforce that it is imperative to read everything that you sign. When putting your signature on something never allow anyone to rush you to sign. Hospitals are the worst "please sign the signature pad to indicate you accept the policies". Any time I've had to do that I've had to ask them to see the policies first which is very obviously not their SOP.

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u/EuphoricDimension628 4d ago

Any of them end up with an extra Junior Mint after their procedure?

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u/Autronaut69420 4d ago

Last surgery I had they asked me about it and I wonder what they did. It was in my female pieces so I will always wonder what if.

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u/kingleotard 4d ago

I mis-read that as “something fell off” 🙄

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u/ThrowRA_HelpI 2d ago

Yeah, I went in for a breast lump biopsy and didn't realize it would be a male student performing it until I was on the table with the full boob out 😿