Consider the number of women who’ve delayed or cancelled appointments specifically to avoid pelvic examinations. The avoidance isn’t irrational—it stems from legitimate discomfort and anxiety surrounding that antiquated metal device gynecologists have relied upon since Victorian times.
Today brings genuinely encouraging developments. Medical innovation finally addresses this century-old discomfort with an instrument that actually resembles botanical inspiration rather than surgical intimidation. Picture examining your patient with equipment shaped organically like flower petals—not the threatening “duck-bill” apparatus women have rightfully feared throughout generations of healthcare encounters.
Meet the Lilium speculum, engineered by two Dutch innovators who questioned why medical instruments designed for female anatomy remained fundamentally unchanged since the 1840s. Created by TU Delft graduate Ariadna Izcara Gual alongside researcher Tamara Hoveling, this flower-inspired device challenges everything about conventional pelvic examination approaches. Constructed from flexible medical-grade materials, offering patient-controlled insertion options, and unanimously preferred by test participants over traditional equipment, the Lilium represents what happens when women engineers design for women’s bodies. For healthcare providers: this innovation promises to reduce patient anxiety and improve examination compliance. For patients: this signals that your discomfort has finally been acknowledged as a design problem requiring solutions, not simply “part of being a woman.” Read more