WOMENS-HEALTH Messages for August, 2007: GYNSURGERY: hymen perforated during surgery without consent/knowledge

GYNSURGERY: hymen perforated during surgery without consent/knowledge

From: Betsy (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:49:23 -0500 (CDT)

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The really short version of this story...

I was referred to a gyn surgeon for a laparscopic surgery to rule out endometreosis. Apparently, when the surgeon did the bimanual exam to evaluate whether or not my pelvis was mobile, she didn't "look" and see an intact hymen (or chose to ignore it). During my presurgical visit, when I was told she would be placing an instrument on my cervix during the surgery, I asked if it would be inserted vaginally, and was told yes. So (knowing I have not been sexually active)I asked how big the instrument was and I also asked if everyting would be the the same, and was told yes. (On the way into the OR, I even asked to see the tenaculum, which was no bigger than a tampon at any point. To get more to the point.. when I got home from my surgery, I was extremely sore, so I took a look with a mirror only to find my hymen had been torn. The raw edges were unmistakable, and yes, I know what I was looking at.

When I approached this subject with my surgeon at my follow up visit, I was told "oh, that must have happened during the prep" When I talked to the OR director, I was told no incident report was filed, so no one saw any bleeding or tearing. Being a nurse myself I can imagine that enough betadine would have hidden the small amount of bleeding a torn hymen would have done.

I felt I had asked all the right questions to try to prevent this. I am assuming everyone made an assumption based on my age (38) and didn't use their eyes. This has been emotionally devastating for me on many levels. At no point did the surgeon, or anyone else who did pre-surgical interviews ask me if I was or ever was sexually active.

Had I been fully informed, I would have been prepared for the possibility for this to happen, and if there had been no way to avoid it, I should have been informed in PACU.

What I find odd is that no one was looking... at the records from the physician who had referred me, during the pelvic, to do the prep, to insert the speculum to insert the tenaculum.

Having a long history of gyn problems over the years, any number of speculums (small ones), bimanual exams, and tampons have been inserted without tearing my hymen. I can't help but feel that if some care had been taken, it would have been something that could have been avoided... and if it happened, I should have been told, not left to discover it on my own.

I guess what I am wondering is, exactely what is the standard way for gyns to deal with a person with an intact hymen who is undergoing a procedure where it may be torn or cut?

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Previous message: Shirley: "C-SECTIONSCAR: 16 year old c-section scar pain"

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