Are Vaginal Exams Really Necessary? What the Evidence Says
Pregnancy Podcast
Vanessa Merten
4.5 • 970 Ratings
🗓️ 19 October 2025
⏱️ 40 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A vaginal exam is a procedure that may be offered to you in the weeks leading up to your due date or during labor. These exams have become routine, but questions have been raised about whether they are truly necessary, how useful the results really are, and whether the evidence supports their widespread use. This episode explores what happens during a vaginal exam, what the results can and cannot tell you, and the research on the potential benefits and risks to consider. The goal is not to promote or discourage the procedure, but to empower you with knowledge and choice to make an informed decision you are confident in.
Full article and resources for this episode: https://pregnancypodcast.com/vaginalexam/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You are listening to the pregnancy podcast with Vanessa Martin. |
| 0:10.7 | Hello, thank you for tuning into the pregnancy podcast. |
| 0:15.8 | In today's episode, we're asking the question, are vaginal exams really necessary? And diving into what the evidence says, |
| 0:25.0 | a vaginal exam is a procedure that can be offered to you in the weeks leading up to your due date |
| 0:31.1 | or during labor. These exams have become routine, but there are questions about whether they are truly necessary, |
| 0:40.6 | how useful the results really are, and whether the evidence supports their widespread use. |
| 0:47.8 | In today's episode, we will explore what happens during a vaginal exam, what the results can and cannot tell you, and the |
| 0:57.0 | research on the potential benefits and risks. The goal here is not to promote or discourage |
| 1:04.1 | any procedure, but to empower you with the knowledge and choice so that you can make an informed |
| 1:10.4 | decision that you are confident in. |
| 1:13.2 | You can find the full article and see all of the resources for this episode at |
| 1:19.3 | Pregnancy Podcast.com slash vaginal exam. You are on the public feed of the podcast, which gives you access to a limited |
| 1:31.1 | number of episodes and you will hear advertisements. Become a pregnancy podcast premium member for |
| 1:38.8 | an ad-free experience. Plus, you get access to hundreds of episodes exclusively available to premium members. |
| 1:48.3 | One of my favorite things about doing this podcast is that I spend so much time researching, |
| 1:55.4 | digging through evidence, going down all the rabbit holes so that you don't have to. |
| 2:01.0 | Whatever you're looking for more information on, whether it's a pregnancy symptom, |
| 2:05.6 | or if you're debating about including something in your birth plan, |
| 2:09.3 | there is an episode of the pregnancy podcast that has all the information you need. |
| 2:15.7 | Check out Pregnancy Podcast Premium at Pregnancypodcast.com slash premium. |
| 2:25.1 | VTEC is the number one baby monitor brand in North America and is trusted by millions of families. |
| 2:33.5 | The VTEC VM901 baby monitor makes monitoring effortless whether you're at home or away. |
... |
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