Aa
Fear of Gynecological Exam
Over 20 years ago, when I was a teenager, my mother forced me to have an abortion. It was my first visit to the gynecologist. I haven't been to the gyn in over 10 years because just being there produces severe panic attacks, and sometimes self-injurious behavior. Has anyone ever had this happen to them? I know that nobody LIKES going, but now I am having abnormal bleeding between periods and pelvic pain and I just can't bring myself to go. Tried therapy...didn't work. So what now?
You should challenge any doctor suggesting a pap test if you're a virgin - the test can only harm you. Also, Pap tests do NOT change the tiny death rate in women under 30, but it produces lots of false positives - the most of any age group. I'd assume any doctor suggesting a pap test to a virgin is either incompetent, suspect or after the money and prepared to risk your health or he/she is assuming all women are liars at a certain age and must be sexually active. The last one is outrageously paternalistic and unethical - pap tests are elective and require your informed consent. It is not the doctor's place to assume anything, to make decisions for you or accept risk on your behalf. Any doctor who "requires" pap tests, pelvic or breast exams for the Pill is incompetent or unethical/chasing money - none of those things are clinically relevant or required for birth control. Also, the routine pelvic and breast exam are not evidence based, are unhelpful in the absence of symptoms and expose you to risk - unnecessary procedures and even surgery.
There is a lot of information available now - take some articles with you to your next appointment and change your doctor if he/she doesn't listen - your health and rights are more important than profits or anything else.
Dr Robert Hatcher has made some strong comments about doctors who "hold" scripts for BC
http://www.managingcontraception.com/newsevents/dr-bob/pelvic-exam-necessary-for-contraception-rx/
Dr Carolyn Westhoff (and others) has confirmed the routine pelvic exam is unhelpful and potentially harmful and may partly explain your high hysterectomy rates and the fact so many American women lose healthy ovaries.
http://www.mailman.columbia.edu/academic-departments/epidemiology/research-service/routine-pelvic-examination-obsolete
"Hands off my chest doctor" contains some comments by UK doctors and the Nordic Cochrane Institute has some information on their website and there are other articles if you research the area - routine breast exams don't help, but cause biopsies.
If you want pap tests, consider a program that gives you some protection from false positives - cervical cancer is rare, so don't overdo it....5 yearly from age 30 is the Finnish program and they have the lowest rates of cc in the world and send the fewest women for biopsies. The HPV test can also be used to reduce the number of pap tests or stop them altogether. As a low risk Aussie woman, I don't have pap tests, the risks are too high for me, I'm content to accept my near zero risk of cc. Our doctors do not recommend routine rectal, pelvic or breast exams, I'd refuse them anyway. I've also declined mammograms due to concerns about over-diagnosis and I'm doubtful of the benefits. Prof Baum has warned women of the risks there..."Breast cancer screening: the inconvenient truths" Utube & the
Nordic Cochrane Institute have an unbiased summary, "The risks and benefits of mammograms" - at their website. Prof Baum also wrote, "Scrap breast screening" that appeared in a UK paper recently after more damning evidence emerged about breast screening - the fall in the death rate from breast cancer is about better treatments, and not screening. (The research is linked from comment 3 or 4 of the article)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/02/breast-cancer-screening?INTCMP=SRCH
http://www.cochrane.dk/
There is a lot of information available now - take some articles with you to your next appointment and change your doctor if he/she doesn't listen - your health and rights are more important than profits or anything else.
Dr Robert Hatcher has made some strong comments about doctors who "hold" scripts for BC
http://www.managingcontraception.com/newsevents/dr-bob/pelvic-exam-necessary-for-contraception-rx/
Dr Carolyn Westhoff (and others) has confirmed the routine pelvic exam is unhelpful and potentially harmful and may partly explain your high hysterectomy rates and the fact so many American women lose healthy ovaries.
http://www.mailman.columbia.edu/academic-departments/epidemiology/research-service/routine-pelvic-examination-obsolete
"Hands off my chest doctor" contains some comments by UK doctors and the Nordic Cochrane Institute has some information on their website and there are other articles if you research the area - routine breast exams don't help, but cause biopsies.
If you want pap tests, consider a program that gives you some protection from false positives - cervical cancer is rare, so don't overdo it....5 yearly from age 30 is the Finnish program and they have the lowest rates of cc in the world and send the fewest women for biopsies. The HPV test can also be used to reduce the number of pap tests or stop them altogether. As a low risk Aussie woman, I don't have pap tests, the risks are too high for me, I'm content to accept my near zero risk of cc. Our doctors do not recommend routine rectal, pelvic or breast exams, I'd refuse them anyway. I've also declined mammograms due to concerns about over-diagnosis and I'm doubtful of the benefits. Prof Baum has warned women of the risks there..."Breast cancer screening: the inconvenient truths" Utube & the
Nordic Cochrane Institute have an unbiased summary, "The risks and benefits of mammograms" - at their website. Prof Baum also wrote, "Scrap breast screening" that appeared in a UK paper recently after more damning evidence emerged about breast screening - the fall in the death rate from breast cancer is about better treatments, and not screening. (The research is linked from comment 3 or 4 of the article)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/02/breast-cancer-screening?INTCMP=SRCH
http://www.cochrane.dk/
It is so nice hearing from all the women who have the same fear as I do. I may have a bladder infection, so I have to go in. My husband is driving me so I can take some anexity medication, hope it helps and I can get through it.
The same exact thing happened to me the first time I had a pap smear. The doctor, who was a woman, didn't care at all. I was still a virgin and I was so traumatized and felt so violated. I just cried for hours afterwards. I only went to get the exam because I wanted birth control pills to help regulate my period. Ever since then I've been terrified of going to the gyn. I finally found a nice doctor, but it still scares the crap outta me. :/ I'm glad to know I'm not the only one out there with this.
I have a terrible fear of the OB/GYN mainly because my very first pelvic exam was so traumatic. I was a virgin and it hurt so much that I cried. And even after I told the doctor to stop, she kept trying to collect the sample after telling me she would stop any time. I felt violated...scared...and I hurt so bad I had to take pain relievers. I was bleeding when I got home and discovered my "cherry" had been popped because the doctor was too rough and rushed with the exam. That made me terrified of ever getting one again. But since then, I've had no choice but to go since I frequently get infections. I've tried everything and nothing works. The only time I was relaxed was when I had been given morphine and valium in the ER. I had had a urinary tract infection and needed to get a pap test done just in case I had an infection. My psychiatrist prescribed me some medication that will sedate me enough so I can handle the exam better. My only fear is that it won't work and I will faint during the exam or start crying and not be able to get it over with. It's this Friday...what do I do?
I too have had excruciatingly painful pap tests. I've only had three in my life and I'm 53, I just can't handle the pain. To
make it worse I suffered years of sexual abuse in my childhood. Having to go through the whole pap/pelvic exam is my worst nightmare. It's physically, emotionally and psychologically painful for me. Medication and therapy can only do so much. I am angered at the doctor's indifference to my and women like me pain. For some of us it hurts and it hurts a lot. I don't have them routinely but a problem has come up that necessitates getting one of those godawful exams. The urologist I saw wanted to do a couple tests because I had blood in my urine. When she mentioned pelvic ultrasound, I blanched. I immediately said I would refuse to have the transvaginal, I would only agree to doing it on the outside.
That's just brutal that none of the sadistic gynecologists will sedate a patient if the internal exam is INTOLERABLE for them to go through. No wonder I and women like me run the other way when they see a gynecologist coming at them with their torture instruments. I really seethe when doctors make comments such as, "Everyone has to do it, and it's not that bad." "No I don't have to do it and Yes it IS that bad for me."
I wonder how many women die from cervical, uterine and ovarian cancer because their fear of the barbaric tests prevents them from getting help until it's too late? Many times these women ignore the symptoms because a trip to the doctor would mean getting the horrid pap/pelvic exam and likely even more invasive procedures for which they won't be given sedation/pain control.
Yes sedation carries risks but women would be more likely to seek help if they knew they wouldn't be brutalized. My brother died from colon cancer because he wouldn't get a colonoscopy back when people weren't sedated for this test. Colon cancer has one of the highest cure rates when detected early. Every women wouldn't need to be sedated but those with SEVERE pain/anxiety/panic attacks should be able to receive it. It is cruel and unjust to deny this to them.
If there are any doctors reading this, why aren't you helping women like us? Would you rather let us die than come up with an acceptable solution to our problem? Must be because women are still being tortured by the misogynist medical profeesion.
make it worse I suffered years of sexual abuse in my childhood. Having to go through the whole pap/pelvic exam is my worst nightmare. It's physically, emotionally and psychologically painful for me. Medication and therapy can only do so much. I am angered at the doctor's indifference to my and women like me pain. For some of us it hurts and it hurts a lot. I don't have them routinely but a problem has come up that necessitates getting one of those godawful exams. The urologist I saw wanted to do a couple tests because I had blood in my urine. When she mentioned pelvic ultrasound, I blanched. I immediately said I would refuse to have the transvaginal, I would only agree to doing it on the outside.
That's just brutal that none of the sadistic gynecologists will sedate a patient if the internal exam is INTOLERABLE for them to go through. No wonder I and women like me run the other way when they see a gynecologist coming at them with their torture instruments. I really seethe when doctors make comments such as, "Everyone has to do it, and it's not that bad." "No I don't have to do it and Yes it IS that bad for me."
I wonder how many women die from cervical, uterine and ovarian cancer because their fear of the barbaric tests prevents them from getting help until it's too late? Many times these women ignore the symptoms because a trip to the doctor would mean getting the horrid pap/pelvic exam and likely even more invasive procedures for which they won't be given sedation/pain control.
Yes sedation carries risks but women would be more likely to seek help if they knew they wouldn't be brutalized. My brother died from colon cancer because he wouldn't get a colonoscopy back when people weren't sedated for this test. Colon cancer has one of the highest cure rates when detected early. Every women wouldn't need to be sedated but those with SEVERE pain/anxiety/panic attacks should be able to receive it. It is cruel and unjust to deny this to them.
If there are any doctors reading this, why aren't you helping women like us? Would you rather let us die than come up with an acceptable solution to our problem? Must be because women are still being tortured by the misogynist medical profeesion.
Why are you even bothering? At 21 you wouldn't even be tested in most countries - the test risks your health for NO benefit. The UK - 25, Finland and the Netherlands, 30...
Don't take my word for it, look at "Cervical cancer screening" in Australian Doctor, 2006 written by Associate Professor Margaret Davy, Director, Gyn-oncology, Royal Adelaide Hospital and Dr Shorne, GP...
Quote:
"No country has reported any decline in the incidence of or the mortality from cervical cancer in women under 30, irrespective of cervical screening. Many countries do not perform screening in women under 30".
BUT, evidence and research from the UK and elsewhere shows us young women have a 1 in 3 chance of an "abnormal pap" or false positive - cervical cancer is incredibly rare in the under 30 age group and screening usually misses the tiny number of cases (false negatives). These poor women false positive women are either left worried sick and re-tested in a year or are referred for unnecessary and harmful treatments/biopsies.
Look at the evidence - it is ridiculous to consider sedation or a GA for a pap test - those things carry FAR more risk to your health.
Don't take my word for it, look at "Cervical cancer screening" in Australian Doctor, 2006 written by Associate Professor Margaret Davy, Director, Gyn-oncology, Royal Adelaide Hospital and Dr Shorne, GP...
Quote:
"No country has reported any decline in the incidence of or the mortality from cervical cancer in women under 30, irrespective of cervical screening. Many countries do not perform screening in women under 30".
BUT, evidence and research from the UK and elsewhere shows us young women have a 1 in 3 chance of an "abnormal pap" or false positive - cervical cancer is incredibly rare in the under 30 age group and screening usually misses the tiny number of cases (false negatives). These poor women false positive women are either left worried sick and re-tested in a year or are referred for unnecessary and harmful treatments/biopsies.
Look at the evidence - it is ridiculous to consider sedation or a GA for a pap test - those things carry FAR more risk to your health.
Have an Answer?
You are reading content posted in the Women's Health Community
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
Normal vaginal discharge varies in color, smell, texture and amount.
Bumps in the genital area might be STDs, but are usually not serious.
Chlamydia, an STI, often has no symptoms, but must be treated.
From skin changes to weight loss to unusual bleeding, here are 15 cancer warning signs that women tend to ignore.
