More Than A Test | The Rise of the Unsilenced Movement

My earliest memory is a recurring nightmare where I'm paralyzed on an exam table, unable to move as masked men violate my lower body. Unnerved by the unmistakable sensation of penetration, I wrote it off as a bad dream, unable to think of any logical reason for a toddler to undergo an invasive reproductive procedure while awake. At age 27, I learned about my VCUG test for the first time. It was the only common denominator of the never-ending trauma in my past: chronic illnesses, PTSD, academic hardships, child sexual abuse symptoms, disordered eating, self-harm, suicide attempts, and sexual assault in young adulthood. After months of fruitless web browsing, I succumbed to invalidation and despair. Every medical website cheerfully described my life-ruining procedure as routine, painless, and low risk. Finally, I stumbled upon a subreddit called r/VCUG_Trauma. After that, launching the Unsilenced Movement wasn't just a possibility; it was inevitable. In my first few months hosting virtual support groups, it quickly became apparent that, as VCUG survivors, we were innately connected. Many of us feel as if we lived “the same lives” due to a myriad of health effects that seemed anomalous at the time, but are now prevalent among hundreds of women. From the start, I had no doubt that one day, I would share our story in film. The Unsilenced Movement is the most important story I will ever tell. This story is not just my own, but the story of so many women who are bravely using their voices to demand change—not for their benefit, but for half a million children who are still undergoing this falsely marketed procedure every year. It was very important to me to let unsilenced voices take center stage in this film. I felt as if a more technical presentation involving a more comprehensive overview of the test and the many parties involved in it would not do survivors justice. Instead, my goal was to convey something that, until this film, society had turned a blind eye to: the gut-wrenching reality of the VCUG patient experience. In MORE THAN A TEST, I shine a light on the false marketing and gaslighting surrounding VCUGs, while also highlighting the underlying societal implications: the rights of women and children to bodily autonomy, the longstanding lack of pain management for women and children in medicine, the ineffectiveness of “informed consent” in pediatrics, and the notion that children do not experience pain in the same way as adults. MORE THAN A TEST is a testament to a truth that we can no longer ignore: that pediatric patients are entitled to the same bodily autonomy and protections afforded to adults under the law. I hope this film encourages viewers to reflect on this urgent question: At what age is a person "old enough" to be treated with respect and dignity?