GYNAECOLOGY - THE GENESIS

Gynaecology is the branch of medicine that deals with female reproductive health. With the advent of urogynaecology, laparoscopic procedures and improvised technology in the treatment and prognosis of gynaecological conditions, it is worthwhile to know about the origin of this specialty.

James Marion Sims(1813-1883) was an American surgeon who operated upon enslaved black women who were diagnosed as cases of vesicovaginal fistula (birth trauma caused necrosis and sloughing off of apposing regions of vagina and urinary bladder - this created an abnormal connection between the bladder and the vagina - which led to leaking of urine from the latter - personal hygiene was compromised and such women were treated as outcasts).

Sims is the prime example of the exploitative American research - he did not use anaesthesia on his patients and consent was not obtained, both of which would amount to serious unethical practice of surgery nowadays. Sims disregarded the use of anaesthesia on black women, since he thought that they did not feel much pain as their white counterparts would. His patients were vulnerable - they were slaves who did not have the choice to refuse what was being done to them. What's worse, he had his patients assist him during surgery, as white doctors would not. To quote Barron. H. Lerner, a medical ethicist, "one would be hard pressed to find a more controversial figure in the history of medicine."

With regards to his contributions to gynaecology, Sims is credited with the development of the vaginal speculum, the Sims speculum, that is used in routine clinical practice, Sims sigmoid catheter and the Sims position for rectal examination. He has also contributed to the basic steps of modern vaginal surgery and is regarded as the Father of Gynaecology.

The three enslaved black women who silently endured Sims' wild experimentation, Anarcha, Betsy and Lucy, are immortalized in a statue named The Mothers of Gynaecology, erected in Montgomery, Alabama, on September 24,2021.