Pelvic Exam for Vaginal Bleeding or Abdominal Pain in Early Pregnancy

It is common practice and standard dogma to perform a pelvic exam when a pregnant woman presents with vaginal bleeding or abdominal pain. But is this practice really necessary?

To answer this question, investigators randomized 202 pregnant women at <16 weeks gestation to a pelvic exam versus no pelvic exam and assessed the incidence of a composite outcome (unscheduled return visit, subsequent hospital admission, emergency procedure, transfusion, infection, and alternate source of symptoms). The researchers also assessed patient satisfaction, framed as perceived thoroughness of care as well as the proportion of patients who were uncomfortable or very uncomfortable during the visit.

No significant differences were identified in any outcome meas…