A reply to a study on the differences in teaching female and male intimate examinations.

We read with great interest the article by Gleisner et al, exploring the differences between teaching digital rectal examination (DRE) and pelvic examination (PE) to medical students.(1) As students of one of the biggest medical schools in Europe, our education has a lot of similarities between our counterparts in Sweden which this research was based on. We also get more teaching on PE with a lecture and small group workshop followed by a session with Gynaecological Teaching Associates (GTA). Similarly, DRE is not part of our core curriculum, hence there is no theoretical or practical teaching on it and medical students are expected to learn the examination during their clinical placements.