In 2025, only 51% of women say they have been asked by a general practitioner about possible domestic violence during a recent consultation, according to a study published Thursday by the High Authority for Health, which recommends that they be systematically questioned.
In general medicine, "the detection of violence against women is progressing, but still slowly," notes the HAS in a press release based on this survey, carried out online by the Verian Institute with a representative sample of 1,000 women at the end of 2025, of whom 876 had consulted a general practitioner in the last 18 months (in 8 out of 10 cases their usual doctor).
Thus, "one in 20 women (5%) reports having been asked about this during a recent consultation, compared to one in 33 (3%) in 2022," details the HAS.
Approximately 17% of women remember being questioned about their relationship with their partner, compared to 14% three years earlier.
Among the 876 women who consulted, one in five said they were experiencing or had experienced violence (verbal, psychological, sexual, etc.) from their partner, of whom 21% said they had spoken spontaneously to the doctor, without being questioned.
But 39% of the victims say they said nothing, even though they would have if the doctor had asked them, and 35% think they will "never talk to him about it".
For comparison, "261% of women were questioned about their alcohol consumption, 371% about their tobacco consumption and 611% about their physical activity," the press release notes.
Furthermore, 28% of women remember seeing documentation on this subject in the doctor's office, a stable proportion.
Since 2019, the HAS has recommended that primary healthcare professionals (general practitioners, gynecologists, pediatricians, emergency physicians, midwives, etc.) ask all their patients "if they are experiencing or have experienced violence," even in the absence of warning signs, in order to facilitate victims speaking out by normalizing the subject.
The doctor is "a trusted interlocutor," according to the High Authority: "the overwhelming majority of women feel comfortable" with their general practitioner (93%, of which 54% say they are "completely comfortable" and 39% "somewhat comfortable"). "Improving the detection of violence would allow for better support for 2.5 times more" victims, it emphasizes.
This questioning approach is also "widely acclaimed", she observes: 97% of those interviewed see it as a "good thing" and support is "almost unanimous, regardless of the age, situation or profile of the respondents".
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