Caitlin Clifford sat in a room and candidly answered questions about her medical and sexual history – with the door open to a waiting room full of students, she said.

The drama/communications freshman visited the center for treatment for what she assumed was a yeast infection, something she has had before. Miles away from her home of Medina, Minn., she hoped to find medical help on campus while in New Orleans.

According to Clifford, the visit went downhill after mentioning the possible yeast infection to a physician. “He said ‘oh God, oh God,’ turned red and started talking a million miles a minute,” she said. The physician then began to doodle frantically on a piece of computer paper and “write the words ‘gonorrhea’ and ‘syphilis’ and trace them over and over again.”

Clifford then asked the physician if he could perform an exam of the infected area. He asked her to undress and left, once again leaving the door open.

The physician returned. “He came in, left the door open, stared at my crotch, said ‘Yup!’ and walked out,” she said. “It made me so uncomfortable.”

Clifford said what she experienced felt like an odd role reversal.”Telling a doctor stuff like that is already embarrassing,” she said. “It made it worse feeling like I was making him feel uncomfortable by telling him.”

This sentiment has unfortunately become prevalent among female students seeking the Student Health Center’s services. One of these students is communications freshman Tania Zamora, who experienced a similar situation in seeking help with a possible yeast infection. The physician, according to Zamora, seemed unwilling to administer an exam. “I said ‘Can you look at (my vagina), since you’re a physician?'” she said. “He never said no, but he just made it so uncomfortable that I almost didn’t want him to check.”

She said that she was so uncomfortable that she left without getting an exam, and instead opted to return when a female physician was in. But this didn’t help the situation.

“(The physician) gave me an exam and said ‘Looks like herpes,'” she said. “After just looking at me, she was prescribing me Valtrex.” “They did not actually test me, nor did they refer me to anywhere where I could be tested,” she said. Worried and looking for a second opinion, Zamora finally went to the emergency room at Oschner. She learned that she had a bacterial infection.Philosophy freshman Joelle Brown, who went to the health center with a kidney infection, was confused when the center administered a pregnancy test without her knowledge.

“I urinated in a cup and I figured it was for a urine analysis,” said Brown. “It wasn’t until I overheard a nurse say ‘She’s not pregnant’ that I realized.”

Not all students, however, have had problems with the Student Health Center.

Psychology senior Melanie Rabalais, whose experiences with Student Health have been positive, thinks that age might be a factor in how students are treated.

“It’s probably mostly freshman who are treated that way because it’s their first time away from their parents,” she said. “The school might feel responsible for them.”

“[Student Health] may assume that they’re having more sex because they’re not under their parents’ watch,” she said.

WILLING AND ABLE

Dr. Vicki McNeil, associate vice president and admininstrative director of Student Health Services, believes that Loyola’s Student Health services have the capabilities to properly treat a wide range of students.

According to McNeil, the 20-year-old Student Health Center provides “more services than most private physicians do.” The center provides free, in-house testing, immunizations and a prescription delivery service. Student Health will also administer to the student the first dose of his or her medicine, unlike many private physicians.

McNeil also shed light on some of the practices brought up in the experiences of Clifford, Zamora and Brown.

She first said that there are two female physicians available on a regular basis if students do not feel comfortable with a male physician.

Regarding STD testing, McNeil states that the testing requires drawing blood and sending it to a lab for results. These results are sent to Loyola and then are disclosed to the student. Administering pregnancy tests, McNeil said, is a normal procedure in all medical practices.

“It is necessary to know if females are pregnant since certain antibiotics can harm a fetus,” McNeil said. “It’s normal, and it only takes a few minutes.”

McNeil hopes that students who have complaints about the Student Health Center will relay them to her.

“If students have concerns they can e-mail me, make an appointment with me or write me a letter,” she said. “I will respond.”

Mandy O’Dell, nurse at the Student Health Center, said she is unaware of any student dissatisfaction with the center. She said no students have said anything otherwise.

The Heath Center periodically surveys student patients about their experiences. According to O’Dell, 100 percent of the students polled in the most recent survey answered “yes” when asked if they had been treated with respect. Ninety-eight percent of the students said that they felt comfortable asking physicians questions. One-hundred percent of the students who participated in the survey said that they would return to the Student Health Center again.

NOT STANDARD PROTOCOL

“No one gives you any crap,” said LSU freshman Liz Shackelford of her school’s health center. Shackelford has visited the center on numerous occasions and has never encountered any difficulty.

“It’s pretty much in and out,” she said. “Going there is never a problem.”

Shackelford claims that there is just as much ease with women’s health issues.

“There are always women there,” she said. “And they don’t give you pregnancy tests. They just ask when your last period was or if you have any reason to believe that you might be pregnant, but they are never condescending about it.”

Mindy Escubier, a resident nurse at LSU’s Student Health Center, claims that administering pregnancy tests to student patients is not standard protocol.

“We only give a pregnancy test if it is requested by the patient, or if her (medical) history indicates that it’s necessary,” she said.

LSU’s Student Health Center also includes a women’s clinic, which staffs two board-certified gynecologists, two registered nurses and two nursing assistants.

‘HEALTHY LIFESTYLES’

Another local university has taken measures to keep women’s discomfort at on-campus health centers from becoming a universal problem.

Besides not giving patients pregnancy tests unless they ask, the Tulane University Student Health Center has its own women’s clinic, which uses a comprehensive approach to women’s health that is focused on “promoting healthy lifestyles,” according to coordinator Suez Wilson.

“The approach should be toward total wellness,” said Wilson. She claims that this is important because “[students] can’t always ask their parents, and peers may not have the right answers” about women’s health issues.

The Health Center, according to Wilson, exists to educate students about their health, not just when they are sick.

“We’re not judging, we’re trying to teach,” she said. “A lot of what we do is teach, teach, teach. Teaching is what a university should do.”

As for how female students are treated at Loyola, Wilson feels that it might be the difference between Catholic and non-Catholic universities.

“Being a Catholic mom, I know the Catholic situation – it’s the Archdiocese,” she said. “The Archdiocese looks at women’s health, and they automatically think contraception. That’s not the case. We’re here to educate the woman at an early age to take care of herself. “

But what’s most important, according to Wilson, is making students feel comfortable.

“If you don’t treat (students) like young adults, you’re going to scare them away.”

This was the case for Caitlin Clifford, who after her experience with Loyola’s Student Health Center, now goes to the Tulane Medical Center in Uptown Square. “I felt violated,” she said. “I feel like someone should have warned me.”

Lauren LaBorde can be reached at [email protected].