In 2025, only 5% of women say they have been questioned by a general practitioner about possible domestic violence during a consultation, according to a study published Thursday March 5 by the High Authority for Health (HAS). The latter, however, recommends that these primary care health professionals‘systematically question their patients.
In a recommendation from November 2023, the HAS called on doctors to “fully grasp the subject of domestic violence”in particular by systematically questioning their patients on this subject. However, according to a recent barometer from the High Authority for Health, the progress in identifying violence against women in general medicine “progressing, but still slowly”. HAS carried out an online survey among a representative sample of 1,000 women at the end of 2025, 876 of whom had consulted a general practitioner in the last 18 months (in 8 cases out of 10 their usual doctor).
According to this barometer, “only one in 20 (5%) women say they were asked about this during a recent consultation, compared to one in 33 (3%) in 2022”figures which therefore mark very slow progression. Around 17% of women remember being asked about their relationship with their partner, compared to 14% three years ago. Among the 876 women seen for consultation, one in five said they suffered or had suffered violence (verbal, psychological, sexual, etc.) from their partner, 21% of whom claimed to have spontaneously spoken to the doctor about it. 39% of victims say they said nothing, even though they would have done so if the doctor had questioned them, and 35% think “never talk to him about it“. Still according to this survey and for comparison, “26% of women were questioned about their alcohol consumption, 37% of them about their tobacco consumption and 61% about their physical activity”specifies the HAS. Furthermore, 28% of women remember having seen documentation on this subject in the medical office.
Normalize the subject to encourage women to speak
Since 2019, the HAS has recommended primary care healthcare professionals (general practitioners, gynecologists, pediatricians, emergency doctors, midwives, etc.) to ask all their patients “if they suffer or have suffered violence”even in the absence of warning signs, in order to make it easier for victims to speak by normalizing the subject.
The doctor is “a trusted interlocutor”considers the High Authority: “the overwhelming majority of women feel comfortable” with their general practitioner (93%, of whom 54% say they are “completely comfortable” et 39% “rather comfortable”). “Improving the detection of violence would make it possible to provide better care 2.5 times more” of victims. This questioning approach is also “widely acclaimed”she observes: 97% of respondents see it as a “good thing” and membership is “almost unanimous, whatever the age, situation or profile of the respondents”.
La HAS a mis en place un baromètre pour suivre l’évolution des pratiques des médecins généralistes, en interrogeant les femmes pour savoir si le sujet est abordé en consultation. Ces baromètres réalisés en 2022, en 2023 et en 2025 ont mis en évidence que le questionnement par le médecin généraliste est très bien perçu par les femmes, bien qu’il soit encore peu mis en œuvre.
Source : la Haute autorité de santé.
