Chinese women are speaking up about pain and shame on the gynecologist’s table
In December, 23-year-old Wu Jiayi emerged, shaking, from the hospital. Though her gynecological appointment had only lasted 15 minutes, Wu, who agreed to be interviewed under a pseudonym, had spent almost an hour in the hospital bathroom, bleeding into the toilet after an invasive exam.
Her story is far from unique. Recently, women in China have begun to speak out about feeling pain and humiliation during sexual health examinations that they believe to be excessively invasive, shameful, and rough. A related tag has been viewed more than 240 million times on the microblogging platform Weibo, with many patients calling for reforms to the examination procedures.
Though these calls have yet to attract any attention from the government, dozens of gynecologists have taken to social media to respond and to shed light on the importance of regular sexual health checkups. In the process, this doctor-patient dialogue has given transparency to previously taboo topics in female sexual health in China.
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