The gender of the examiner, the state of the pregnancy and women's perception of transvaginal sonography in the first trimester

Abstract

Objectives: The objectives are to study the correlation between the women's perception of transvaginal sonography (TVS) and the gender of the examiner and the state of the pregnancy. Methods: The population studied was unselected women attending the early assessment unit at Sharoe Green Hospital with various complications of early pregnancy. All the women were in the first trimester. Only women who had TVS and who gave informed consent were included. Results: Four hundred and twenty five (425) women were recruited. A male doctor examined 215 (50.6%), while a female doctor examined the remaining 210 (49.4%). Two hundred and ninety eight (70.1%) of the pregnancies were viable and 127 (29.9%) were non-viable. About 98.1% of the women found TVS acceptable. There was no statistically significant difference in the women's perception of the procedure with regard to the gender of the examiner or the state of the pregnancy. Conclusions: The majority of women (98.1%) perceived TVS favourably. The gender of the examiner and the state of the pregnancy have no influence on the women's perception of the procedure.