The Gisele Pelicot case shows why medical staff should test for sexually transmitted diseases

The shocking case of French woman Gisele Pelicot, who was raped while unconscious by dozens of strange men recruited by her husband over nearly a decade, sparked an outcry on social media calling on women to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases, regardless of their relationship status.

The 72-year-old told the court in Avignon, France, how her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, 71, secretly drugged her and organized the rape of more than 80 strangers over nine years, from 2011 to 2020. Dominique admitted the gang rape and asked for forgiveness. 50 of the alleged rapists are also on trial.

Gisele revealed that she sought medical help after experiencing a number of worrying symptoms, including gynecological problems, hair loss and – what worried her most – memory lapses.

She feared she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and even consulted a specialist at her husband's suggestion. In fact, her memory loss was caused by her husband slipping medication into her drink.

As for the gynecological symptoms, many of the men who raped her did not use condoms. An HIV-positive man is said to have raped her six times. Although she did not contract HIV, she was later diagnosed with no fewer than four sexually transmitted diseases.

“They looked at me like a rag doll, like a garbage bag,” Gisele testified.

Social media influencer Jennifer Lee was outraged by the horrific stories from Pelicot's trial and posted a now-viral TikTok video warning women to get regularly tested for sexually transmitted diseases, regardless of their relationship status, using her own experience as a cautionary tale.

“The Gisele Pelicot case should be a reminder to every woman to get tested regularly. It doesn't matter if you are in a committed relationship. The same thing happened to me,” she says in the video, which has been liked over 43,000 times.

The 30-year-old Seattle native told The Independent that she had “fallen madly in love” with an Australian man she met in a hostel while on holiday in Banff in December 2019. They got back in touch in early 2023 and after a brief period of long-distance dating, they decided to enter into an exclusive relationship and took a romantic trip to Vancouver in April 2023.

Months later, Lee was still in great shape and flew to Australia to visit him in June of that year. When they tried to have sex, Lee knew something was wrong. It was “so painful that I actually felt like I was being ripped open from the inside… like shards of glass in my vaginal canal,” she recalls.

Lee recalled asking him before they had sex in Vancouver if he had been tested for sexually transmitted diseases; according to a police report, he replied that he was “clean.” But on the first night after arriving in Australia, she couldn't sleep, was doubled over in pain, bled profusely – and regretted not asking for further evidence.

Lee said she was “paranoid” about avoiding STDs and usually asked her partners for a “printout of negative test results from their doctor's office” – but that one time she couldn't do it “because I was so in love with him.”

The next day, her boyfriend took her to a doctor who, Lee recalled, insisted that she did not need to get an STD test because she was in a monogamous relationship. The doctor concluded that she was either having period pain or an infection from sex and advised her to come back after some time since the pain had only started the night before.

Her boyfriend then dropped her off at his house before running an “errand,” according to the police report. He came back with bad news, Lee says, telling her “it turns out I wasn't clean,” the report continues. Lee then tested positive for two sexually transmitted diseases: chlamydia and mycoplasma genitalium. The latter is caused by bacteria and can manifest as bleeding between periods, pain or bleeding after sex, a burning sensation when urinating and discharge, according to the CDC.

“So I was sick for two months without knowing it,” she said.

Lee was prescribed antibiotics, but she had been infected for so long that she had to be hospitalized. When she finally left the hospital, her body had finally overcome the infection, but other devastating symptoms remained, forcing her to use a wheelchair.

In her police report, Lee wrote that the prolonged infections caused her to develop supraventricular tachycardia, a type of heart rhythm disorder. It took until March – nine months after she contracted the STDs – before she was able to walk unaided again, even if only for 10 minutes, Lee said.

Lee is not alone. Her TikTok prompted many others to comment that they too had suffered terrible health problems after belatedly discovering they had an STD despite not getting tested due to being in a monogamous relationship.

“I didn't find out until I was heavily pregnant,” wrote one TikToker about her delayed diagnosis. “It almost killed me and my daughter and disabled her for the rest of her life.”

Another wrote: “My ex-fiancé gave me two of these too and now I'm infertile because it started to fester and then I was misdiagnosed and treated seven times for a urinary tract infection.”

Another commented that she found out during her pregnancy and had a “rough pregnancy. We almost died. He was born [premature.]”

Others commented on their doctors' views on testing. The CDC recommends that women get tested annually for gonorrhea and chlamydia, but according to some TikTokers, some doctors shy away from testing if the patient is in a monogamous relationship.

“My [doctor] told me I didn't need an STI test because I was in a committed relationship, but I told her I wanted to be safe than sorry,” one user commented.

One user said doctors “always looked at her weird” when she asked about STD screening in a long-term monogamous relationship.

However, one of them said her gynecologist insists that her patients get checked, spreading the mantra: “You may trust your husband, but I don't.”

Lee agreed, saying, “It should be the responsibility of your doctors to make sure this happens on a regular basis.”

Lee split from her boyfriend in November.

But almost a year later, she is not quite over him. She reported the incident to police in Australia, saying she only agreed to have sex with him because she “was under the impression that he had been tested for sexually transmitted diseases and was harmless,” the report said.

Pelicot's case, which is still pending, “has taken away my ability to continue to be silent,” Lee said, and allowed her to speak publicly about her experiences (including being a victim of sexual abuse) and file the report with authorities.

“The scale of the violence that happened to her is so much greater than what happened to me. But I can't look at this without making connections,” she continued. “This case has horrified me deeply.”

And she urged people to get tested for sexually transmitted diseases – and called on health professionals to insist on it. “Every woman, regardless of her relationship status, should be tested,” Lee said.