If you’re the average woman getting a routine pelvic exam, dim lighting, a sudden touch or an unexpected movement may not be that big of a deal.

But, if you are a victim of sexual assault or abuse, every sensation could become a traumatic trigger.

That’s the point 25-year-old Melinda Schneider, a second-year student at the UC Irvine School of Medicine, is trying to drive home, not just to her peers in medical school, but also to academicians who decide how future physicians get their training.

In partnership with her peers and UCI’s Campus Assault Resources and Education (CARE) office, Schneider last month held her first trauma-sensitive training workshop. Nearly 75 percent of the second-year class, men and women, showed up.

It was training, Schneider believes, future physicians need if they are to blossom into compassionate healers.

Surprisingly, says Schneider, neither the American Board of Internal Medicine nor the American Board of Family Medicine require physicians to have formal training in assessing and treating patients who have been subjected to sexual violence.

“One in five women experience sexual violence in America,” she said. “However, our doctors are not trained to treat patients in a way they can feel safe.”

Such training and sensitivity is lacking and has been for decades in the medical profession, said Dr. William M. Thompson IV, president of the Orange County Medical Association.

“I didn’t have any training as a student or as a resident,” he recalled, adding that during his residency in 2001 in the Bronx, he was told to “hurry up” with a pelvic exam because there were “20 more to be done.”

“Making such sensitivity training a part of the curriculum is a fantastic idea,” said Thompson, a Newport Beach-based infectious diseases physician who specializes in HIV treatment and primary care for gay men. “When we don’t do that, it’s just up to the individual physician to learn from their experience in the field.”

Along with the training Schneider provided, something else occurred during her Jan. 12 workshop.

For the first time, Schneider publicly shared her traumatic experience of being sexually assaulted and abused.

She says it’s not a coincidence that her public testimony came at a time when stories of sexual harassment and abuse are part of the national conversation, spurred by social media movements such as #MeToo.

When she was in college (not at UCI), Schneider said, she was repeatedly sexually assaulted and abused while working in the lab. Schneider said the abuse occurred over a year on a weekly basis.

“It would happen when it was just us working in the lab,” she said. “He would turn out the lights and do horrible things to me.”

But Schneider said she didn’t tell anyone, let alone report the incidents to the police, because she was focused on graduating and getting her degree.

“I also felt like it was his word against mine and I didn’t think people would believe me because he was well-liked,” she said.

After graduating, Schneider was admitted into the UCI program, but she couldn’t focus, she said, because the memories of the assault kept coming back.

“Once I got to medical school, I had to do dissections of the human body, and to see those bodies in such a vulnerable state brought back those horrible feelings,” she said. “I had to take a few months off just to regroup and think things through.”

She made it back to school with much-needed support from her family and close friends, Schneider said.

The idea for trauma-sensitive training came to Schneider when she and her classmates were learning to do physical exams in their second year of medical school.

She talked it over with a classmate, Allison Slater, and together they approached Eli Pascal, assistant director at the CARE office, which provides free and confidential services for those affected by sexual abuse and violence.

The January workshop was a powerful beginning to what the three women hope will soon become a part of the curriculum for second-year medical students at UCI.

Schneider says physicians do not get training that is specific to dealing with victims of sexual assault or abuse — male or female. Lack of sensitivity, she said, can seriously affect sexual assault survivors who are experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

“It’s all about control because being sexually assaulted is a huge loss of control,” she said.

Changes in medical school curriculum often take time, said John Murray, spokesman for UCI Medical Center. But, he said, these types of issues may be covered during “grand rounds,” a teaching tool where doctors address issues ranging from medical ethics to patient care and new treatments, for an audience comprising other physicians, residents and medical students.

Murray said an upcoming session will feature a UCI obstetrician/gynecologist, who will speak about the epidemiology of sexual violence in the United States and caring for survivors of such trauma.

“Even though it’s not part of medical school curriculum there are avenues and teaching environments where residents can receive such training and education,” he said.

What can doctors do to be more sensitive?

Schneider says they need to create an environment that is more predictable. Patients should feel like they have a sense of choice and control, she said.

“Ask for the patient’s permission before you touch,” Schneider said. “Think about the lighting in the room. Ask the patient what you can do to make them feel more comfortable. Tell them what you’re going to do before you do it.”

Physicians could also help patients come up with a plan such as getting lunch or dinner with a family member or friend after the exam so they have that emotional support. Schneider says she has heard of forward-thinking physicians who allow patients to take the medical instruments home with them so they become familiar with them.

Some even allow women to insert a speculum, an instrument that is used to dilate the vagina before an exam, into their own bodies, she said.

“It’s about training physicians who are patient-centric, empathetic and more compassionate,” she said.