Objective: to describe the women’s feelings during gynecological examination, to identify if women have a preference for the gender of doctors who perform gynecological examination, and to describe women’s wishes and expectations of doctors and nurses with regards gynecological examination.

Patients and Methods: a descriptive cross sectional study was carried on women attending the gynecological outpatient clinic of Sohag University Hospital in the period from December 2010 to June 2011. Each woman was asked to fill in a questionnaire, which consisted of questions about the woman’s sociodemographic and reproductive characteristics, questions about the reasons for needing a gynecological examination, her feelings about it, and her preferences about the gender of the doctor performing the gynecological examination.

Results: 519 women consented to participate in the study. The mean age of the participants was 33.2±11.5 years. 84 (16.18%) participants were nulliparous were nulliparous. 114 participants (26.97%) had not undergone gynecological examination previously. Only 80 (15.41%) participants reported that they did not feel anything important. The most common feelings experienced during the gynecological examination were fear of feeling pain during speculum examination or sounding in 254 participants (48.94%), feelings of shame in 181 participants (34.87%) and embarrassment about undressing  in 143 participants (27.55%), while only 57 participants (10.98%) reported worries about cleanliness and sterilization of the equipment. 266 (51.25%) participants preferred a female doctor to perform gynecological examination, 38 (7.32%) participants preferred a male doctor, and 215 (41.43%) participants expressed no preference to the gender of the doctor. Women aged less than 30 years were more likely to prefer a female doctor to perform gynecological examination (OR1.75, CI 1.53-2.11). Also nulliparous women, and women who had gynecological examination for the first time were more likely to prefer a female doctor to perform gynecological examination (OR 2.25, CI 1.89-2.65), (OR1.99, CI 1.70-2.42) respectively.

Conclusions: feelings of fear, shame, and embarrassment about undressing are the most common feelings during gynecological examination. Women less than 30 years, nulliparous women and those who had gynecological examination for the first time are likely to prefer a female physician too conduct gynecological examination. Doctors are expected to provide adequate time to listen, to conduct a thorough examination, to behave in a sympathetic and gentle manner, and to provide explanation after the gynecological examination. Nurses are expected to behave in a sympathetic and gentle manner, and to provide explanation about the examination, and prepare the woman for the examination and help her to relax.