Originally intended as a means to regulate prostitution and diminsh the occurences of venereal disease among British soldiers and sailors, the The Contagious Diseases Act soon became a legalized form of forced imprisonment and medical examination. Instituted in 1864 before being expanded in 1866 and 1869, the Act allowed British law enforcement to subject suspected prostitutes to forced examinations. If found to have veneral disease, the women would be locked up in health facilites until considered "clean." If they denied examination they would be subject to a prison sentence of three months. Men were excluded from such examinations and, frequently, not just prostitutes but lower class women were subject to searches. After outcries from all levels of society, the Act was repealed in 1889. 

The Contagious Diseases Act is a testament to how little control over their own bodies women had in Victorian England. Although allowed to do sex work (but only as a way to placate the male population), prostitutes' bodies were policed in ways that men were not. Even more terrible, these acts were also used on women who were not prostitutes but just happened to be poor. 

Source: 

“The Contagious Diseases Act.” Policy Navigator, The Health Foundation, navigator.health.org.uk/theme/contagious-diseases-act.