My menstrual cycle this year has been completely vicious to me and I recently had the urge to do something about it. Personally, I have a huge problem with my periods because they interfere with my daily tasks and it’s the worst for my workaholic mentality. Additionally, my partner and I are sexually active in our relationship, so with the combination of all these reasons, I decided I needed to get on some kind of birth control contraceptive method. I scheduled a birth control consult and while I was trying to schedule this, the lady offered for me to take a “well woman exam.” I agreed to this although I was unsure of what this exam consisted of.
I have never been raised to openly talk about reproductive health, it just wasn’t a thing that was common in my culture, it’s a relatively taboo topic along with sex and birth control. Upon doing some research and after talking to my friends, I got an idea of what I was getting myself into. One of my friends offered to tag along with me for support, and a couple of weeks later we went to the appointment together at Emory. After filling out the usual first visit forms, we were taken into my room and after taking the urinal test as well as completely undressing, my OB-GYN came into the room and introduced herself. Once we all introduced ourselves, she asked for my friend to leave the room for confidentiality purposes regarding some of the questions such as: “are you sexually active right now?” or “how heavy are your periods?”
After answering those questions, she showed me a chart and broke down the options of birth controls and the degree into how effective they are (here is the chart that she showed me). Once we decided on the most effective method for my current circumstance, she then moved onto describing the process of a pap smear and everything else that was going to be included in the “well woman exam”: a breast examination, a pelvic examination, and the actual pap smear. The way that my doctor explained to me is that she would take a speculum which essentially holds the walls of the vagina so that she could see the cervix and then she was going to use a swab-like brush which would collect cell samples to detect the possibility of cervical cancer/any abnormalities. After that she would take two fingers and just check out the shape of the area and the reproductive organs, which is the other part of the pelvic exam.
I asked for my friend to come back in for moral support and also because I just needed to release my pain through her hands (if you’re reading this, friend, I’m sorry but you’re the best). I was completely covered in the gown and had an additional white long cloth over me to cover when my doctor would raise my gown. I was asked to scooch my body all the way at the end of the bed and place the heel of my feet on stirrups which were sticking out at the end of the table. My doctor gently inserted a speculum into my vagina, however, it was the most painful amount of pressure in my pelvic area. I personally can’t handle pain well at all and unfortunately, one of my impulses is to tighten up down there, therefore, it made the process even more painful and difficult. The doctor, a nurse, and my friend were all reminding me to breathe which helped a little with getting my mind off through the whole process. Afterwards, she checked the shape of my area and that didn’t hurt at all, just a small level of pressure. The overall process lasted at most 5 minutes which was a relief. As I continued on with the rest of my day, I did continue to feel a bit weird because of the foreign object, however, it wasn’t an uncomfortable feeling.
Once all of that was done, the appointment was over. If you are able to, I highly suggest getting a “well woman exam” to make sure that everything is safe and healthy, and if you’re comfortable with bringing a friend, you should consider it because it helped getting through the whole process. Since the appointment, I feel like an accomplished person for doing some adulting. For me this was a huge accomplishment considering how taboo it is in my upbringing and luckily one of the wonderful things about college is that you learn many life lessons which enabled me to make this decision for the sake of my health.