Women with disabilities not provided with access to gynecologist – study

74% of women with musculoskeletal disorders visit a doctor only as the need arises.

The project which studied the access of women with musculoskeletal disorders to family planning and reproductive health services has been recently completed in Ukraine (with the support of the Healthy Women of Ukraine Program (USAID, JSI).

As noted by Svitlana Dubina, head of the NGO “Axis”, expert of the Coalition for Combating Discrimination, the results were disappointing.

The survey was conducted by several non-governmental organizations among 178 women in Vinnytsia, Zhytomyr, Lviv and Luhansk (before start of military operations) regions.

According to the monitoring, the frequency of visits of women with musculoskeletal disorders to the doctor is the following: 74% of women visit a doctor only as the need arises, 26% – once a year (prophylactically).

Less than half of women have been examined on a couch (45%), almost as many (42% women) have been examined directly on a wheelchair. Only 13% of respondents said that examination have been carried out on a chair or under other circumstances.

Another interesting fact is that 202 health workers, or 99% of those surveyed have not been trained on the specifics of examining the women with spine bone or spinal cord injuries. Only 67% of health workers have examined a patient with such an injury.

86% of the surveyed doctors noted they lacked equipment to examine women with spine bone or spinal cord traumas.

The expert also recalls that many women among the respondents over 45 years old have never visited gynecologist in their life. There have been many women, who say they will never visit gynecologist again.