Creating a more positive patient experience of pelvic examination.

Purpose: To explore through descriptive comparative analysis an alternative method of pelvic examination to increase patient comfort.

Data Sources: Sixty-two participants were recruited from a convenience sample of patients at an ambulatory women's healthcare clinic operated by a teaching hospital in the Southwest United States. Twenty-five were examined using the conventional pelvic examination technique; 37 with a new technique that we call the Rad technique, named after a co-author of the study.