Well Women Exam

Video Link: Well Woman Exam

Trauma-Informed Well-Woman Appointment and Pelvic Exam Comprehensive gynecologic care is an essential and often overlooked aspect of one’s health. In recent years, women’s pain, past experiences, and worries have become talking points of medical training at progressive institutions, though historically these were overlooked by physicians as part of routine gynecologic exams. The goal of today’s presentation is to discuss the importance of communication, capacity, and informed consent as part of the well woman appointment and any pelvic exam. This is done within the context of caring for a patient with a history of sexual assault, physical assault, and/or poor past medical experiences, while understanding the implicit power dynamic between physician and patient during a sensitive exam.

Katherine Hobbs Zeigler (USNA '07) is a board-certified Family Medicine physician practicing in Southern California. Dr. Zeigler completed her residency in Oceanside, CA, and completed her medical school in New Orleans, LA at Tulane Univ School of Medicine. She is currently a LCDR in the Navy and graduated from USNA in 2007. After switching from a career as a surface warfare officer where she served abroad for six years, she transitioned to the reserves while completing her M.S.i n Chemistry from George Mason Univ in Fairfax, VA. Within the family medicine specialty, Dr. Zeigler’s passion is women’s health and sexual/reproductive health. She is certified to provide all forms of clinic-based contraception, perform colposcopies, loop electrosurgical excision procedures, and vasectomies, as well as comprehensive prenatal care, deliver babies and care for newborns and mothers in the postpartum period, considered a woman’s fourth trimester. She is an advocate for LGBTQ+ patients as well as a leader in trauma-informed patient care and exams, which started when she trained at the Hope Clinic in New Orleans, learning medical forensic exams for survivors of assault and has continued as she provided care for patients at Planned Parenthood in both Louisiana and California.

This was recorded on 10/16/23 as part of the Survivor Advocacy Network's 2023 virtual healing retreat.