Latest news with #gynaecologist
BreakingNews.ie
14-07-2025
- Health
- BreakingNews.ie
Italy's abortion taboos challenged by new law in Sicily
Monia, a Sicilian woman in her early 40s, was overjoyed when she discovered in October 2022 she was expecting her first child. Her doctor, however, recommended a genetic test due to her age, and the result was one no parent wants to receive. The foetus had a genetic syndrome. Monia, who declined to give her surname, asked her gynaecologist what she could do. Advertisement "Nothing. You don't want to terminate, do you?" the doctor asked her, she said. He was a conscientious objector, Monia said, one of hundreds on the southern Italian island. More than 80 per cent of gynaecologists in Sicily refuse to perform abortions for moral or religious reasons, according to the latest health ministry data, which dates to 2022, even though the procedure has been a legal right for women in Italy since 1978. To address that situation, in late May Sicily's regional council - run by a centre-right coalition - passed a law in a secret ballot requiring all public hospitals to create dedicated abortion wards and to hire staff willing to provide the service. Under the national rules, abortion is permitted within the first 90 days of a pregnancy, or later if there are risks to the mother's health or foetal abnormalities. The latter circumstance applied to Monia, who went to the Sant'Antonio Abate hospital in the city of Trapani, in western Sicily, to terminate her pregnancy. Advertisement "All the gynaecologists were objectors," she said. "An obstetrician gave me a bed with only a mattress cover and said they would administer a pill every three hours until I went into labour". She was told she would receive no further assistance. Her story is far from unique in southern Italy, where cultural traditions are more conservative than in the Catholic country's richer north and centre. At first, Monia's pills were ineffective, but after five days and a change of treatment she finally miscarried, attended to by a doctor and a midwife. Hospital staff referred to her as "Article 6," she said, after the provision in the law that allows abortions beyond 90 days. Advertisement In response to a request for comment, the Sant'Antonio Abate hospital said it was sorry for Monia's "difficult experience". However, the hospital said it was unable to verify the facts because both the hospital manager and the head of the gynaecology department at that time had left. The hospital said it now has three non-objecting doctors and was able to provide abortion services. Abortions are only available in around half of Sicily's hospitals, health ministry data shows, a figure much lower than in central and northern Italy, where rates are around 70 per cent. Like most of his colleagues, Fabio Guardala, a 60-year-old doctor, refuses to perform abortions. He operates at the Cannizzaro hospital in the Sicilian city of Catania, on the east coast of the island. Advertisement "A doctor's job is to heal," said Guardala, who is also deputy head of a healthcare unit at his local Catholic church. "Abortion is not treatment but killing. Nobody can force a doctor to kill." Silvia Vaccari, president of the Italian federation of midwives, FNOPO, said health outcomes can be grim in areas where legal abortions are hard to access. "The absence of facilities sometimes leads people to turn to non-professionals, putting them at risk of death, or to continue with pregnancies and give birth to babies who are abandoned in places where they may never be found alive," she said. Catholic influence Most other European Union countries allow health workers to refuse to perform abortions on ethical grounds, according to a 2022 study published in the Acta Biomedica journal. But the right is generally exercised far less commonly than in southern Italy. Advertisement One exception is deeply Catholic Poland, where abortion is only legal in cases of rape or incest or when a woman's health or life is at risk. The Acta study said many Polish women have been forced to travel abroad to terminate their pregnancies. Abortion has always been contentious in Italy, a Catholic country that hosts the Vatican. Right-wing prime minister Giorgia Meloni passed legislation last year to try to deter women from terminating pregnancies. Pro-life groups have been allowed into abortion advice clinics, in a move Ms Meloni's party said was aimed at giving women an opportunity for reflection before making a final decision. Nationally, the number of abortions dropped to 65,000 in 2022, according to the latest health ministry data, against 110,000 in 2011. More than 60 per cent of gynaecologists are conscientious objectors. On the island of Sardinia, the region's ruling, left-leaning 5-Star Movement last month presented a law proposal similar to the one adopted in Sicily, suggesting that other southern regions may soon follow its example. Dario Safina, a centre-left Democratic Party lawmaker in Sicily and the promoter of the new law, said many Sicilian women seeking an abortion feel forced to resort to the private sector. Healthcare based on wealth is the end of democracy. "Access to abortion is not a problem for those who can afford it, because they can go to a private clinic. But healthcare based on wealth is the end of democracy," he said. Some doctors argue Sicily's high objection rates are not only due to ethics but also to staff shortages and poor working conditions that make it harder for gynaecologists to provide abortions on top of their regular duties. Data from the GIMBE Foundation, a health sector think-tank, shows Sicily had nine healthcare workers per 1,000 residents in 2022, compared with a national average of 11.6 and far below the northern and central Emilia Romagna and Tuscany regions with 15. "Hospitals always try to exploit doctors' work without paying them properly, so sometimes professionals are reluctant to perform abortions," said Salvatore Incandela, head of the Sicilian arm of AOGOI, Italy's gynaecologists' association. Italian anti-abortion group Pro-Life Together rejects this, saying non-objectors in Sicily were only required to perform 1.5 abortions a week on average in 2022 - still above a national average of 0.9. Legal challenges? Six Sicilian hospital managers and health professionals contacted by Reuters said the new legislation could strengthen the service, but it was still important to ensure doctors could opt out as allowed under 1978 national law that sanctioned the right to abortion. Under the law, health workers are exempted from abortion procedures if they declare an ethical or religious objection, so long as the woman's life is not in immediate danger. Gaetano Sirna, the director general of Catania's Policlinico-San Marco hospital, one of the city's largest, said even with just six non-objecting gynaecologists out of a total of 39, he could still ensure abortions for those who needed them. "We have no problems guaranteeing the availability (of doctors)... gynaecologists are free to declare themselves as objectors; we do not discriminate," he told Reuters. Abortion is not the only case in which conscientious objection is permitted in Italy. It used to be grounds for avoiding compulsory military service, which was abolished in the early 2000s, and an opt-out for scientists from conducting animal experiments was introduced in the early 1990s. Giorgia Landolfo, a pro-abortion activist in Catania, called the new law in Sicily a "landmark," but said she feared it would be hard to enforce. Some anti-abortion groups say it will be challenged in court on the ground that job postings reserved for non-objectors discriminate against the others. "Many measures in the past aimed at hiring non-objectors have been challenged and ultimately came to nothing," said Vito Trojano, the head of SIGO, the Italian Obstetrics and Gynaecology Society. Some Sicilian politicians who strongly oppose the new rules believe the region should instead bolster its healthcare and support facilities for pregnant women, who often feel abandoned and see no alternative to abortion. "Life is life from the moment of conception," said Margherita La Rocca, a Sicilian lawmaker from the centre-right Forza Italia party. "The foetus cannot just be considered a clump of cells when it's convenient."
Yahoo
05-07-2025
- Yahoo
French doctor handed 10-year jail term for abusing patients
A French court sentenced a doctor to a 10-year prison term on Saturday for raping nine of his patients during medical consultations, according to a lawyer representing some of the victims. Thirty women filed complaints against the gynaecologist, in his 60s, accusing him of sexual assault during medical exams. The Haute-Savoie Court in eastern France found him guilty on Saturday of raping nine of the plaintiffs, said lawyer, Aurelie Zakar. Four of the plaintiffs accused the gynaecologist of penetration with his genitals, while others complained of unjustified rectal exams and "vaginal massages" that they said the doctor presented as medically necessary. "The penetration suffered during consultations was not medical in nature and was, in fact, sexualised," said Zakar. "My three clients have been recognised as victims, they have been heard and believed. They can now rebuild their lives," she said. The doctor, from the eastern town of Bonneville, has denied all allegations. The debate was particularly "heated on the notion of intent", said a lawyer for three other plaintiffs, including two women who were minors at the time. The defendant presented the acts "as justified or never having happened," said Patricia Lyonnaz, adding that all the victims came to testify at the trial. "These are not women seeking revenge," said Lyonnaz. The defendant has 10 days to appeal. mla-ahe/ekf/cw
France 24
05-07-2025
- France 24
French doctor handed 10-year jail term for abusing patients
Thirty women filed complaints against the gynaecologist, in his 60s, accusing him of sexual assault during medical exams. The Haute-Savoie Court in eastern France found him guilty on Saturday of raping nine of the plaintiffs, said lawyer, Aurelie Zakar. Four of the plaintiffs accused the gynaecologist of penetration with his genitals, while others complained of unjustified rectal exams and "vaginal massages" that they said the doctor presented as medically necessary. "The penetration suffered during consultations was not medical in nature and was, in fact, sexualised," said Zakar. "My three clients have been recognised as victims, they have been heard and believed. They can now rebuild their lives," she said. The doctor, from the eastern town of Bonneville, has denied all allegations. The debate was particularly "heated on the notion of intent", said a lawyer for three other plaintiffs, including two women who were minors at the time. The defendant presented the acts "as justified or never having happened," said Patricia Lyonnaz, adding that all the victims came to testify at the trial. "These are not women seeking revenge," said Lyonnaz. The defendant has 10 days to appeal.
The Sun
22-06-2025
- Health
- The Sun
It was worst pain of my life, says Kate Lawler after hospital dash on holiday in Greece uncovered health trauma
FOR five years, Kate Lawler battled debilitating stomach pain. But doctors repeatedly told the TV personality, 45, 'everything is fine', so she assumed it was nothing to worry about. 5 5 It wasn't until she was rushed to hospital while on holiday in Greece that she began to suspect something serious might be wrong. But even then, it took numerous scans back home in the UK and several misdiagnoses for her to discover the truth. Kate, who won Big Brother in 2002, tells Sun on Sunday Health: 'My symptoms started in December 2017. 'The abdominal pain was worse than any pain I've ever had. 'It was crippling - sometimes too unbearable to even get out of bed - and it felt even worse during menstruation and sexual intercourse. 'It was a sharp, stabbing pain that would last from 10 seconds to several hours. 'Then we were on holiday in 2018 and I thought I had a serious hernia or something was wrong with me, to the point that I went to hospital. 'But doctors thought I was just going mad. They just said, 'You're fine,' and left it at that. 'I was made to believe it was simply caused by my hormones, or ovulation.' The mum-of-one, from London, visited her GP twice and was told it might be a hernia, and she believed it could also be endometriosis, but she wasn't offered a referral. The 5 causes of pain in the pelvis all women should know Desperate for answers, she visited a private gynaecologist in November 2021. 'She did internal scans and all the tests and said, 'Absolutely everything is fine',' Kate says. 'All she could tell me was that everything was clear, which was a relief. 'But also, when you're told everything looks normal but you're still experiencing intense pain, you then start to think, 'Am I making this up in my head?' 'I didn't want to be a burden and keep going to the doctors, but I was so desperate to get it sorted. 'In the end I literally felt like I was going to have to live with the pain forever.' It was only during a chance conversation at a routine appointment for her varicose veins in August 2022 that she discovered she had pelvic congestion syndrome (PCS) - a little-known condition caused by hidden varicose veins around the ovaries and womb. It's most common in women aged 20 to 45 who have given birth more than once, as well as those with varicose veins, a family history of them, or polycystic ovary syndrome. Most patients experience dull, achy or heavy pain in their pelvis. It may feel worse at the end of the day, before or during your period, during or after sex, and when you stand or sit for long periods. Some people also need to use the toilet more urgently, or have pain when they pee. Most Brits have never heard of PCS, but it affects around 1.5million people in the UK. 'We're a very veiny family' Kate, who has appeared on Hole in the Wall, Celebrity Total Wipeout and Love Island, says: 'It was only when I went to see Professor Mark Whiteley at The Whiteley Clinic that I heard about PCS. 'I was getting the varicose veins on my legs treated and he started talking about PCS and I said, 'Sorry, what are you talking about? Because I can relate to all the symptoms you're saying.' 'I felt like that was exactly what I had. 'I had never linked my varicose veins to my pelvis but he offered to test me. 'My mum's got varicose veins, my grandparents had them, and my dad's got them all over his leg. We're a very veiny family. 'Eventually your varicose veins and your legs can cause pain and discomfort and you can end up having ulcers, which my grandma had. 'Varicose veins and PCS are often interlinked. And once I'd had the test, it transpired that I had both.' 5 The most common treatment for PCS is pelvic vein embolisation - a walk-in-walk-out procedure which involves placing tiny coils, thinner than human hair, inside the damaged veins under X-ray guidance. Kate says the procedure in November 2022 was 'uncomfortable but not painful' - and it has changed her life. 'Suffer in silence' 'I was holding a stress squeezer and cursed a few times, but once it was over it was amazing,' she says. 'I realised, 'God, I was in a lot of pain before'. I would wake up and immediately be in pain, and no amount of painkillers would get rid of it. 'I just learnt to live with it - though I didn't want to be on painkillers my whole life. 'I can't explain how much I've improved and how I no longer feel crippled by this pain that would strike at any time.' Like thousands of others, Kate is frustrated by the lack of awareness around the condition. She says: 'So many women go to the NHS or private doctors and they're just not given enough training when it comes to women's health, and that includes things like menopause, perimenopause and PCS. 'They get trained in a bit of everything, but unfortunately it's not enough. 'What Prof Whiteley is doing is incredible, and we just need to get the word out there. 'I want women to be able to find out exactly what's wrong with them if they're experiencing the same things I did, because most are misdiagnosed. 'I've spoken to many different people who have suffered from it, and most of them will go into hospital, have loads of scans, and then just be sent home. 'One woman was actually told to have a hysterectomy unnecessarily. The gynaecologist didn't know what was causing the pelvic pain so he thought, 'Oh, I'll take out your uterus.'' She adds: 'Women's health is so underfunded and doctors need to be more informed. 'There needs to be more money and awareness so that when a woman goes to the GP in pain, it's not brushed aside.' Despite the challenges, Kate is urging women not to be shy about asking for help or thinking they're making a fuss. 'No woman should suffer in silence,' she says. Dr Sophie Strong, consultant gynaecologist at The Whiteley Clinic, adds: 'A lot of the women we see will have been suffering from pelvic pain for many years but their conditions will remain undiagnosed. 'Our new Pelvic Pain Clinic is a place for women who have been told there's no hope and there's nothing that can be done for them. We can make a real difference.'
