Check with me - Preparing women for a gynecological examination

Tamar Adler Plaut | Ma'in Tzur Ungar | Dr. Dikla Bar-Avin

Clalit Health Services

Project goal:

Developing an innovative service for women who experience anxiety or distress around pelvic exams. The service will include a personalized psychological preparation process in order to enable a safe, sensitive experience and help women get the medical care they need.

Project description:

For many women, a pelvic examination is not just a medical procedure, but an experience that evokes anxiety, shame, or deep distress. In some cases, this causes women to avoid medical care, sometimes leading to health problems and late detection of medical issues. The source of the difficulty can be sexual trauma, traumatic childbirth, chronic pain, vaginismus, or a difficult examination experience from the past.

The "Check with Me" project is designed to offer a solution for these women, and to offer a gradual and sensitive emotional process accompanied by medical psychologists and an experienced gynecologist that will allow them to approach the procedure with a sense of control, security, and reduced anxiety. The process includes personal meetings to build trust, an explanation of the exam, emotional regulation practice, the use of guided imagination and virtual reality (VR) technology, as well as gradual exposure to the test room.

The team includes three experienced specialists - two of whom are medical psychologists who have specialized in working with women around medical procedures, and the third is a senior gynecologist experienced in working with girls and women who have experienced trauma. Together they offer a unique combination of therapeutic sensitivity, medical professionalism, and a deep understanding of the physical and mental difficulties that accompany gynecological care.

The service will be offered to members of Clalit Health Services, Dan District, through referrals by gynecologists, family doctors, and nursing teams.

Our vision is to make the service part a standard of care across the country, so that every woman will be able to get the care she needs.