Being able to find your own cervix makes you more comfortable with the anatomy of that area just as being familiar with your own mouth increases your comfort with examining the mouth.
I've minimally examined my own mouth, but never had a trouble examining patients for ulcers/necrotic teeth/etc. I don't really do routine SBE (might start in a few years), but I've had zero discomfort doing breast exams on other women. And I don't have a penis (that is a part of my own body) to examine, but I've done scrotal exams without trouble.
I don't know if you're on the wards yet, or if you've done your OB or FP rotations yet, but - for most med students, it is
NOT discomfort with the "area" that causes the difficulty. You're doing these exams under less-than-favorable
circumstances. The patient's nervous (who wouldn't be, with a third year med student putting the speculum in?) and the student is nervous (who wouldn't be, with a resident breathing down your neck and critiquing your technique).
Speculum exams made me nervous because I didn't want to cause the woman any pain or physical damage - a very real possibility, particularly because the speculum comes so close to the urethra. The fear of causing pain to the patient was definitely my #1 fear. Discomfort with the "area" of the body was minimal.
And if you are having sex (most people who want to get pregnant are having sex) being familiar with your own body helps you to relax and enjoy yourself, and to pinpoint any discomfort you might be experiencing. And having this knowledge can reduce fear and increase understanding during labor, especially if something goes wrong.
How does it increase understanding during labor?
The biggest pains and discomfort from labor do not usually come from the cervix - they usually come from areas that the average person cannot see (i.e. inside the uterus). When things go wrong in labor, it's usually because the actual baby is having a problem - i.e. it's moving less, its fetal heart strip is non-reassuring, etc.
why would someone who has enough interest in the human body to go to medical school be so incurious as to not explore her own body?
* I didn't go to med school because I was interested in the human body, anatomy, or even basic science. I liked the idea of helping people, and I like clinical medicine. But I wasn't all that curious about the human body.
* I've dissected a cadaver to pieces, and poked and prodded half-a-dozen standardized patients. Examining these things on myself isn't
that exciting to me after a while.
* I've seen many, many cervices on OB/gyn. I'm not really that curious to see how different mine looks. As long as it doesn't have a huge honking squamous cell carcinoma on it, I'm happy.
I sense something that seems like defensiveness. Other than the previously mentioned imperforate hymen, why would someone who has enough interest in the human body to go to medical school be so incurious as to not explore her own body?
It's not defensiveness - just confusion. I don't think you really seem to understand what examining patients on the wards is like. The biggest problems don't come because I'm "uncomfortable" with the "area of the body" that I'm examining. The biggest problems come because
I don't know what the HELL I'm doing, but I'm trying desparately not to show it! The possibility of screwing up looms so large in your mind that any other considerations tend not to be a problem.
Nice try at analysis, but it's pretty far off the mark. Just don't go into psych.
