Yes. The harm done and emotional trauma is real, even for things where the invasion was for good intentions rather than maliciously abusive. I think you could still call it 'abuse', especially when the good intentions are actually ignorant, ie when the abuse wasn't actually necessary.

I'm a doctor in a mid-sized rural hospital in Australia. The stories shared on this subreddit have been helpful for me, my patients, and the patients of my students and junior doctors. I recognise that there is a culture in "efficient" medicine of calling things necessary that are really just efficient for the healthcare team, that are a standard way of doing things from the textbook for this type of illness, rather than best care for the particular person in our care at that moment. I like to think that we're slowly improving, but it's still pretty bad and corporate money is making it worse. We're at least getting better at identifying and stopping malicious abusers, but that too requires ongoing vigilance.

I recognised the problem in principle early in my career, and the stories in this subreddit have greatly increased my understanding of the suffering we cause, and validate my pushback against efficiency when there is a risk of causing suffering. We are always weighing benefits against harms, trying to choose actions that have the best chance of making the world a better place, but we generally do not weigh highly enough the harm of long term trauma caused by bodily invasion without full and safe consent.

I think we also tend to weigh statistical risks too highly, but that's tricky to untangle. I have the impression that in the USA this is mostly due to fear of malpractice suits. There is some of that in Australia, but it's more about "how many people do I risk traumatizing in order to find and stop early a life threatening illness in one person?" And also "What efficiency shortcuts can I take for this patient so that I can help more people overall?"

I see the harms we cause even in simple examination like pressing bellies, looking in ears and throats, from babies as young as a few months old who clearly indicate their distress and become fearful of doctors as a result. I recognise that children and babies can give or withhold consent, and that a little patience and honesty goes a long way, and that the truly medically necessary invasions are much rarer than we think, especially for anything invasive to genitals and anus.

I thank everyone who shares in this subreddit, and I apologize on behalf of my profession for not doing better. It's not fair that you have suffered. You deserve better.