What Your Pediatrician Isn’t Telling You About Your Child's VCUG

In the digital era, the internet can provide a lot of information to muck through. Many professional healthcare websites—including those of pediatric offices and clinics—can conceal the truth from caregivers by promoting profitable services as "safe," "painless," and "low-risk."

Misinformation about VCUG and the lack of information on perfectly safe, effective, and available alternatives has consequences, not just for vulnerable pediatric patients, but their loved ones. Before agreeing to any invasive medical procedure for your child, it’s absolutely crucial for parents to exercise their right to give legally effective informed consent for their child's care and long-term well-being.

Holding Pediatric Providers Accountable

Checking the facts can help ensure that your child's treatment is ethical, appropriate, and as pain-free as possible. We have an obligation to protect ourselves and this vulnerable patient demographic by ensuring offending providers are held accountable for informed consent violations, which constitute medical malpractice, under the law.

According to the AMA Code of Medical Ethics, healthcare providers have certain moral and ethical duties to the children and families in their care, including:

• Provide compassionate, humane care to all pediatric patients.

• If unclear whether a specific intervention promotes the patient’s interests, respect the decision of the patient and their guardians.

• Negotiate with guardians to establish a mutual understanding of the child’s needs and interests in the context of family relationships and resources.

• Develop an individualized plan of care that will best serve the patient based on the best available evidence and opting for alternative measures to avoid foreclosing important future choices by the child and the adult they will become.

• Educate and work with guardians to simplify complex treatment regimens when possible and avoid behaviors that will put the child or others at risk.

• Provide a supportive environment and encourage guardians to discuss the child’s health status with the patient.

VCUG: Fact vs. Fiction

Even in 2023, the internet is shockingly silent about the real lifelong repercussions of VCUGs performed on children—a young and vulnerable demographic who are bound to suffer the consequences of this incredibly invasive sexual procedure.

In this post, we'll review crucial information about VCUG that many providers fail to disclose prior to ordering this test.

Is the VCUG Test "Minimally Invasive"?

Credible and well-documented evidence from numerous studies, some dating all the way back to 1990s, paint a very different picture than the one told to families by profit-driven pediatricians in the medical industry. While the Boston Children’s Hospital deceivingly describes VCUGs as “minimally invasive,” well-documented research says otherwise.

“The voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) can be considered one of the more distressing invasive procedures that children may experience in the outpatient setting,” says one 2016 study. Another 1999 study describes their purpose as “examin[ing] children’s long-term memory for a stressful event [involving] invasive genital contact.”

Of course, this doesn’t change the fact that misleading information from the Boston Children’s Hospital still ranks at the top of Google in 2023, making it the most likely to be accessed by well-meaning parents and families.

“In a survey of our patients, parents compared the discomfort of a VCUG as similar to or better than an immunization,” says the Boston Children’s Hospital—an absurd claim, given that the so-called patients are not parents at all, but the children physically restrained on an exam table while their parents wait behind a closed door or glass screen. “Your child may have some discomfort, pink urine, or feel a bit of stinging while going to the bathroom. This is normal and will go away. Drinking extra fluids will help.”

A 2018 study published in the International Journal of Urology begs to differ, painting a more realistic picture of the long-term anguish experienced by victimized families and their children.

“VCUG is painful and unpleasant, with urethral catheterization and voluntary voiding in public,” the article reads. “After catheterization and filling the bladder with contrast medium, the patient must void in front of the X-ray camera, which causes anxiety for patients and families. More than half the children undergoing VCUG remember it as worse than VUR surgery. This is an extremely humiliating experience for toilet-trained children, because they are educated to void in the restroom.”

What Are the True Risks of of VCUG?

Many healthcare providers—including the Boston Children’s Hospital, which proudly boasts of its consistent performance of over 2,000 VCUGs on children every year—are quick to reassure families that there are, in fact, no known risks of VCUGs, with the exception of “minimal” exposure to ionizing radiation during the X-ray.

“Your child will be exposed to ionizing radiation (x-rays) during this procedure,” says the Boston Children’s Hospital on their official website. “While we always attempt to minimize exposure to x-rays, we believe that the benefit of an accurate diagnosis outweighs the exposure that occurs during the exam.”

This completes the hospital’s near-nonexistent response to an FAQ about VCUG risks in children.

Other pediatric organizations provide similar information online. However, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) beg to differ, explaining that a VCUG “is an invasive method with considerable risk for radiation exposure. The most common indications of VCUG include recurrent UTI and voiding dysfunction."

To date, hundreds of former VCUG patients have reported struggling with:

• Urinary bladder rupture.

• Urosepsis due to post-VCUG UTI.

• Increased cancer risk due to ionizing radiation, which children's bodies are 10x as sensitive to.

• Long-term avoidance of medical care.

• Speech/language impairment.

• Insomnia, sleep disturbances, and nightmares.

• Dissociative amnesia.

• Developmental regression, such as bedwetting and potty-training difficulties.

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex PTSD.

• Traumatic reenactment or "post-traumatic play."

Join the Unsilenced Movement

At Unsilenced, we know how difficult it can be to heal from childhood trauma. While we can't take away your pain, we're here to walk with you. Visit our website to get involved or learn more about the long-term effects of VCUG trauma.

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