Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Education And Debate

The ethics of intimate examinations—teaching tomorrow's doctorsCommentary: Respecting the patient's integrity is the keyCommentary: Teaching pelvic examination—putting the patient first

BMJ 2003; 326 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.326.7380.97 (Published 11 January 2003) Cite this as: BMJ 2003;326:97

Rapid Response:

Preventive measure

The responses to this article, and to your editorial comment, reveal
an alarming gap in medical education.

Some medical medical schools have clearly not implemented the
recommedndation made in 1976 by the gynaecologist Joan Magee in the Annals
of Internal Medicine.

She suggested that at some stage in his training each male medical
student should be placed in stirrups in a bare room and a strange woman
should enter and "squeeze his balls and leave without saying a word."

It would seem that at least one of your male responders has not
undergone this educative experience

Competing interests:  
None declared

Competing interests: No competing interests

14 January 2003
Michael O'Donnell
medical voyeur
Handon Cottage Loxhill GU8 4BD