Screening Pelvic Examinations in Asymptomatic Average Risk Adult Women

The findings and conclusions in this document are those of the author(s) who are responsible for its contents; the findings and conclusions do not necessarily represent the views of the Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States government. [...] The exam consists of inspection of the external genitalia, speculum examination of the vagina and cervix, bimanual examination, and sometimes rectal or rectovaginal examination. [...] However, we are unaware of any systematic reviews that have investigated the utility of the pelvic examination for the other indications. [...] What are the benefits (reduced mortality and morbidity) and harms (overdiagnosis, over-treatment, diagnostic procedure-related) of the routine screening pelvic examination performed for the detection of malignancy, PID, or other benign gynecologic conditions? [...] We assessed the quality of the studies of diagnostic accuracy based on patient representativeness, quality and administration of the reference (gold standard) test, quality and administration of the index test, and data analysis.