Hi there. I am a 20 year old female and am sexually active. I go to the family planning clinic every 6 months to pick up my pill perscription. I have been told that i have to go for my first smear test soon (the cervical cancer check) and i dont know what to expect and im really scared. What do they do? Does it hurt? How long does it take? and can i ask for a femaly gyn??
2006-12-04 03:29:30 · 6 answers · asked by Anonymous in Health ➔ Women's Health
Hi Scarlet, this has got to be one of the most commonly hated things a woman has to go through but it has to be done. Of course you can ask for a female to carry out this test, from personal experience a male doc has seen it all before and to be honest I find them to be more gentle so to speak.
You will be asked to get undressed (only waist down) and asked to lay on the examining bed. You will be asked to bend your knees and whilst keeping your feet together you'll be asked to let your legs flop open. They will use whats called a speculum which is entered in to your vagina, this is used to open up the walls of the vagina so that they can see the neck of your womb. They will then either use a spatula or a comb type spatula to take a sample.
Last time I had my smear done they used the comb which was just uncomfortable. If you do experience any pain it will be like a mild period pain.
Check out the site below see if that helps, try not worry about it my love, its one of those things we have to do and gets easy over the years.
Take care now and good luck
2006-12-04 03:45:16 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
You DEFINITELY need to get a pap smear done, especially with your age. PAP's should start at 18 and continue once a year. I'll be honest, pap smears suck. They do, but they really are not that bad. They take MAYBE 5 minutes to do. It doesn't take long at all, but it is uncomfortable. I'm 22 now and I've been going every year since I was 16. I had ovary issues, so I started getting paps pretty early. Cervical cancer is a tricky bastard, so going through an uncomfortable PAP for 5 minutes once a year isn't really all that bad.
All of my gynos have been females. I feel much much more comfortable with a female gyno, basically because they have a vagina. Not to say that male gynos are bad, but I'm just more comfortable with a female doctor. When you call you doctors office, you can definitely say that you'd prefer a female.
Oh also during your pap exam, they'll do a breast exam as well. This, obviously, is a good thing as well. Just think of a PAP as a preventative exam....it sucks and its uncomfortable, but it maintains your health.
2006-12-04 03:36:38 · answer #2 · answered by elise 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
They didn't do a pap smear before prescribing BC pills? They should have never done that. Regardless, they should do the pelvic and breast exams. It doesn't hurt, just really uncomfortable. When they say relax, they mean your muscles down there...deep breathes help. The actual exam only takes a few minutes. If they have a female on staff they should allow it...but from my experience, I prefer male gynos they don't undermine or question any pain or discomfort you may feel. And tend to take you more seriously. Female gynos tend to have the mindset that if they haven't experienced it then its not real. My gyno put me on those monitors that measure contractions one time, he said that my cramps were like early stages of labor...all this time the other females had been telling me it was in my head! Oh, and I had a female gyno grap ahold of one of my ovaries one time, it hurt so bad I came off the table and kicked the sh*t out of her, also had another female gyno tell me that I had a deformed cervix. Thats when I found my male gyno and I've been with him ever since.
2006-12-04 03:45:13 · answer #3 · answered by gypsy g 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would say your first time the actual exam will take only about 20-30 mins. They will look inside, feel around to make sure everything is good. Then do the swabs which is super important to do. It is uncomfortable and you may have spotting afterwards. It is over before you know it though and it's something that will always be akward. They will probably talk to you for a while about things too. Expect to have a breast exam also. YES, you can ask for a female and if one is not available you can ask to have a nurse be in the room also. Hope this helps. Reading it all over now I'm not sure I really helped you out. Good luck though!
2006-12-04 03:39:45 · answer #4 · answered by vav1993 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
A pap smear is not painful... You shouldn't even know that it is being taken. Have you had an internal exam? Same thing. Don't sweat it. Really. It is a pelvic exam and a pap is taken with a q-tip. So don't sweat it.
2006-12-04 05:03:54 · answer #5 · answered by Tish S 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
don't you just love this kind of questions?
2006-12-04 03:37:18 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋