By Jess McCabe | 18 February 2008, 15:59

Sigmund Freud thought that fear of castration in early childhood was key to the sexual development of men. Because of the male-based way he viewed the world, he assumed the female equivalent was an impossible desire to have a phallus - penis envy, in common terms. But, of course, women have sexual-pleasure giving apparatus all of their own to be terrified of having chopped off, and this is one of those stories that will induce that “squeee!” reaction, so if you’re sensitive about these things read no further. As far as I can tell, it doesn’t appear that this doctor has been thrown in jail for the rest of his natural life.

A woman goes into her local hospital for routine minor surgery to remove a tiny lesion on her labia. But just before the anaesthetic is administered, her doctor leans over her - out of earshot of the operating theatre staff.

“I’m going to take your clitoris too,” he whispers.

When she wakes…

Pain… agonising pain. To her horror, all her external genitalia - labia and clitoris - have been cut out of her body.

For two years Bega Valley woman Carolyn was too traumatised to complain or do anything about the doctor who mutilated her - Graeme Reeves. What she did not know was that she was not the only victim.

Lauredhel of Hoyden About Town turns this story into a very lucid post about medical rape culture and the way that the medical profession protects its own.