A campaign for more empowered pelvic exams

Three years ago, my partner and I went to our fertility clinic for an embryo transfer. It was a special moment, but also very nerve-wracking. I had had some unpleasant experiences at this clinic before, so I had made up my mind to clearly state my boundaries and needs before this procedure. I knew I would be sticking my head above the parapet and my nervous system responded directly.

Fortunately, the doctor and nurses responded positively to my requests, and afterwards I walked away with an enormous sense of empowerment. I had the sudden insight that these examinations are something women have always been subjected to—and that ended with me that day. It was an experience I wish every woman could have.

Back home, I wondered whether I was an exception, or whether more women had negative experiences with gynecological examinations and procedures. I scoured the internet and could find surprisingly little information. The only major study I came across had been published just the year before, about women’s experiences with gynecological examinations in Israel. And those were anything but positive.

The researcher in me woke up and decided to replicate that study in the Netherlands. I translated the questionnaire, distributed it via Facebook and LinkedIn, and within a week received 1,500 completed surveys. The experiences in the Netherlands were no better: 41% of patients felt ashamed during the examination, 43% experienced it as (somewhat) painful, and 23% as (somewhat) traumatic.

The article I wrote about this in De Correspondent brought me an overwhelming number of responses from women. Even today, women still approach me to tell me about their latest smear test or gynecologist visit.

One of the women who contacted me was Zoë Sluisdom—a social designer from Rotterdam who was working on a project to improve communication between doctors and patients during internal examinations. I became involved in her project as a consultant, and together with visual designer Andrea Vendrik from campaign agency Multitude, we wrote successful funding applications to develop a campaign.

In the past few years, we have worked on developing a “advocacy card” to help patients better communicate their boundaries and needs. We also created a checklist for doctors to ensure they don’t lose sight of their patient’s humanity during an internal exam. We found a group of passionate doctors and experts who helped us develop a campaign around the right message: that no doctor wants to give a patient a bad experience, but that in practice this often still happens.

This week our campaign is launching, but even before its start, the main medical federations have already announced that Nomi—our new standard for internal examinations—will be distributed to all gynecologists in the Netherlands. A special moment that takes me back to that powerful feeling I had when I walked out of the treatment room three years ago.

And that embryo transfer? It was successful, and nine months later it resulted in the birth of my daughter, Robin. This is her origin story. The subjection of women to humiliating examinations ends with her.