Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. In , James Marion Sims, a year-old surgeon in Montgomery, Alabama, was asked by a local slave owner to treat a young woman suffering from vesicovaginal fistula. To provide comfortable care, doctors must use the correct size speculum. The doctor or nurse will put lubricant on two fingers still wearing the gloves and slide them inside your vagina. The doctor will ask you to relax your knees out to the sides as far as they will go.
Women Are Reinventing the Long-Despised Speculum - The AtlanticThe speculum caught on probably for a whole number of reasons. Still, the Yona team thinks it has done something positive, and not just materially. It also turns out that much of the trouble women have with the speculum does go back to the male-dominated history of gynecology. To serve women better, the speculum has to face its history in American slavery and 19th-century gender relations, in order to move beyond it. There are a range of sizes on the market today, suitable for every woman and every procedure.