When treating and evaluating victims of sexual assault, a written informed consent should be obtained from the victim (or parent, legal guardian if the victim is a minor) for allowing health care professionals to treat injuries resulting from the sexual assault, taking forensic physical evidence and photographs and for the release of the medical examination to the appropriate authorities investigating the assault.
A history should only be obtained only if the victim of the sexual assault has not already narrated the sequence of events to a police officer, social worker or crisis intervention worker. Any history should be verbally accounted for in the victim’s own words . Moreover, the victim will normally be asked if he or she has bathe, douched, changed clothes, brush his/her teeth, voided or defecated since the assault since the above mentioned acts could alter the interpretation of subsequent findings.
Proper physical examination of victims of sexual assault
For the physical examination itself, the victim is assisted to undress and must be properly draped in order to curb the anxiety from the traumatic experience. Each item of clothing is placed in a separate paper bag since plastic bags can retain moisture which could affect the results of the tests due to mold and mildew formation. The victim is examined from head to toe for injuries especially to the head, neck, breast, thighs, back and buttocks. The physical assessment focuses on external evidence of trauma (bruises, contusion, lacerations), dried semen stains (appearing as crusted, flaking areas) on the victim’s body or clothes, broken fingernails and foreign material under the nails and finally oral examination, including a sample specimen of the victim’s saliva.
Pelvic examination of victims of sexual assault
Pelvic and rectal examination must also be performed with proper consent. The perineum and other areas are examined with a lighted lamp filtered with ultraviolet light to identify areas with semen stains. The color and consistency of any discharges can be noticeably identified under ultraviolet light. Moreover, a water-moistened rather than a lubricated vaginal speculum is preferably used than a lubricated vaginal speculum since the lubricated material might interfere with the later forensic examination of specimens. The rectum is also examined for any signs of trauma, blood and semen. It is vital that proper relaying of information must be given to the victim wherein all the procedures performed on him/her which happens to be quite invasive are necessary by providing rationale and purpose of the examination.
Specimen Collection of Victims Sexual Assault
During the physical examination, several laboratory specimens may be 
collected, including: Vaginal aspirate, secretions, smears from oral, rectal and vaginal areas, culture of body orifices, blood serum for the identification of sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy test, any foreign material, and pubic hair samples. To preserve the chain of evidence, each specimen should be labeled with the name of the individual and the date and time it was collected, the body area from which the specimen was obtained and the names of the personnel who took the samples from the victim of sexual assault.