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What Is Doctor Sexual Assault?
The first time we read about doctor sexual assault, we couldn’t believe it. Now, after years of hearing women’s stories of creepy doctor visits, we are listening. And believing.
Most survivors are women treated by male doctors, but knowing if your doctor violated you under the pretense of medical treatment can be confusing because doctor sexual assault has so many faces. Whatever happened to you on the examining table, if it felt creepy or made you queasy, it was probably assault.
If you believe you were sexually assaulted by your doctor, please reach out to us to pursue civil legal action.
“With medical professionals, there’s often a legitimate reason for why their hands are on your body. There’s a gray area and the minute you step into their office they have power over you.”
– survivor Marissa Hoechstetter1
Dr. Barry J. Brock
Former OB-GYN Dr. Barry J. Brock (Cedars-Sinai Beverly Hills-Rodeo Drive Medical Center), charged with subjecting more than 160 women to vulgar comments and inappropriate post-partum examinations.7 >>
Trust your instincts—if your doctor’s touch or words felt “off,” it likely was inappropriate. Many women doubt their feelings about such scenarios, but shouldn’t. The NIH (National Institutes of Health) identifies professional sexual misconduct as a severe problem in the healthcare system, defining it as “any action of a sexual nature that oversteps or disregards ethical or legal limits of professional behavior, including erotic physical contact and sexual behavior involving language, gesture, the use of sexual humor, or informal inappropriate speech.”2
What Are Specific Examples of Doctor Assault?
According to a post by RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network), here are some clear distinctions for physicians’ behavior in the examining room:
It’s okay for your doctor to:
- Explain each part of the exam to you before and while it is happening.
- Use gloves.
- Encourage you to tell them if something feels wrong or uncomfortable.
- Be the same sex as you, if you have asked.
- Only ask you to undress the part of your body being examined.
It’s NOT okay for your doctor to:
- Refuse to answer your questions or tell you to be quiet.
- Examine intimate body parts without gloves.
- Refuse to tell you what they are doing or why they are doing it.
- Decline to have another person in the room with you.
- Insist that you undress parts of your body they are not examining.
- Ask you questions about your sexual activity that make you uncomfortable.
So, Who’s Talking About Doctor Sexual Assault?
Esquire published a groundbreaking exposé back in 2016 about doctor sexual assault, defining it in no uncertain terms (trigger warning) as “fondling, exposure, masturbation, and [ultimately] rape, among other offenses.”3
The Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence said in 2021: “The vast majority of physicians in the United States do not commit or condone sexual violence; however, perpetrators exist in every profession and the true prevalence of sexual assault committed by physicians against their patients is difficult to discern due to a lack of current, readily accessible research on the issue.”4
MDLinx published a seminal article in 2023, observing that “victims of physician sexual abuse may choose not to report their doctor due to feelings of confusion, intimidation, or embarrassment. Meanwhile, healthcare organizations often address allegations without notifying police or licensing agencies.”5
How Common Is
Doctor Sexual Assault?
Oxford Academic reported in March 2022: “Several attempts have been made in recent years to clarify the incidence of physician sexual misconduct in the U.S… The true extent of such conduct remains uncertain… An investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution identified over 2,400 U.S. physicians who were sanctioned for sexual misconduct between 1999 and 2016.”6
More than 2,400 disciplinary measures have been taken against physicians in the US for sexual misconduct since 1999, according to Esquire nearly a decade ago + other medical sources quoting the same stat as recently as 2023, but only about half of those have permanently lost their medical license or served a prison sentence.
Doctors are too often protected by the institutions that employ them, simply because they are top moneymakers. In many cases, higherups knew about the pattern of abuse from multiple patient complaints but were loath to address them or warn patients because precious profits were at stake.
How Do I Know if I Was Assaulted by My Doctor?
More than anything, we believe your gut instinct is the best indicator for determining if those grabby hands or weird remarks were actually doctor sexual assault. Many women, though, wonder whether to doubt or suppress their feelings about such surely-not scenarios. Repeat: If the way your doctor touched you or spoke to you felt “off” (slightly or very), it likely was.
The NIH (National Institutes of Health) has warned that professional sexual misconduct (synonymous with sexual boundary violation), is a severe problem in the healthcare system.
Physician sexual assault, as defined by the NIH, is “any action of a sexual nature that oversteps or disregards ethical or legal limits of professional behavior, including erotic physical contact and sexual behavior involving language, gesture, the use of sexual humor, or informal inappropriate speech.”2
Why Do Doctor Sexual Assault Lawsuits Matter?
These cases are the tip of the iceberg. According to the medical, legal, and government sectors, the data is far from comprehensive.
Many women think that what happened to them wasn’t a big deal unless they experienced egregious assault. “So why file a lawsuit? It’s not like I was raped, so it seems like nobody will care.”
We want to emphasize how lawsuits inform hospitals, etc., in no uncertain terms, that it’s not okay to turn a blind eye to assault and that survivors (like you) are also helping to protect other women from future assault.
Too many serial abusers continue to hurt patients for many years, sometimes decades. How/why? Those hurt and those responsible often stay silent or once did. Times are changing since #MeToo.
And, in more instances, we’re seeing what happens when just one woman speaks up. It’s not unusual for more (maybe many) women to follow the first voice. As we say – there is strength in numbers, and one is a number!
Is This About Suing My Doctor?
Well, yes and no. While civil lawsuits do take aim at the individual physician who hurt you, their real power is in suing the medical facility that employed the doctor and allowed the misconduct to occur. The point is to change the protocols in healthcare institutions so that they better protect women.
Often in these scenarios there is a criminal case against the predator as well.
We Can Help You Take Your Power Back.
If you’ve experienced sexual assault by your doctor or any medical professional, please contact ACFW, even if you’ve already reported your experience to local authorities or the offending medical facility.
“When I speak authentically and truthfully about my experience, I have power. I am not going away,” survivor Marissa Hoechstetter reported in “Marissa’s Story”/RAINN.
You have way more power than you realize and we’re here 24/7/365 to help you find it and reclaim it.
We’ve worked with numerous women to help hold large hospital systems accountable for allowing assault to continue under their watch. Assault is never something that should just be swept under the rug. It needs to stop, now, and we are here to listen to your story and help you reclaim your power through legal action.
Join A Lawsuit
Sources
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- Unnamed, “Marissa’s Story,” RAINN, September 2023.
- Azu AbuDagga, Michael Carome, Sydney M. Wolfe, “Time to End Physician Sexual Abuse of Patients: Calling the U.S. Medical Community to Action, NIH/PubMed, May 1, 2019.
- Sarah Rense, “A New Report Says Over 2,400 U.S. Doctors Have Molested Patients,” Esquire, July 6, 2016.
- Unnamed, “Sexual Victimization of Patients by Physicians A Factsheet for Survivors & Advocates,” Ohio Alliance to End Sexual Violence, March 2022.
- Jules Murtha, “From protector to predator: Physicians who sexually assault their patients,” MDLinx, June 29, 2023.
- Kunal K. Sindhu, et al., “Honoring the public trust: curbing the bane of physician sexual misconduct,” Oxford Academic Journal of Law and the Biosciences, March 29, 2022.
