Pap smears *shudder*

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Does anyone else hates these? Well, I suppose no woman actually likes them. But does anyone else actually have problems with them and find them excruciatingly painful? Everybody always says "oh, it will be a little uncomfortable, but it won't hurt". All I can say is, liars!!

I'm 22 years old, and I've only had to have three of them so far. I'm still a virgin. Some people say virgins don't need them, and some people say that regardless of whether you are one or not, you should start getting them when you're 20 or so because there's still some tiny chance you might get cervical cancer and a pap is the only thing that can detect it. Well, I had my first one at 18 because I had to go on birth control due to extremely painful periods. And they had to do the test before prescribing the pills to me. And since then, my doctor has just been doing it every couple of years during my checkups.

Well, the first time was absolutely awful. It wasn't done by my primary care doctor and she may or may not have used a small speculum. But it was some of the worst pain I ever remember feeling - it was like someone was stabbing me in there with a hot knife. I'm normally quiet and shy but I was practically screaming out in pain.

The second time, I was at my primary care doctor, and she made sure to use the small speculum. I tried to relax as much as possible and the nurse stayed with me to try to keep me calm, since I broke down in front of her before the exam and told her about how bad my first experience was. That one actually wasn't so bad. But then, the next one I got, even though again, it was my doctor, and she used a small speculum, and I THOUGHT I was at least somewhat relaxing, it was STILL very painful again. At least my doctor stopped as soon as I said it was hurting really bad. And when I told her that I was not sexually active and never had been, she decided to not worry about it too much and to just not go through with it.

What I'm wondering is, why does it hurt so much?? And why was it okay only that one time? I thought that maybe the first time was just painful because I had never had it done, because then the second one was better because my body was more used to it. But the third one was painful again. I can't figure out if it's because I'm a virgin (even though everybody claims that it shouldn't be painful regardless of whether or not you're a virgin), or because I'm not "relaxing" enough and my muscles are too tensed up (but I truly thought I was doing okay that third time...and now, I don't see how I WILL be able to relax in the future). Or could it possibly be an Aspie trait to just be VERY sensitive to it and feel more pain that most people do? Really though...anytime I have to go to the doctor to have a pap, it just causes so much anxiety. I'm even scared to have sex now because of it. Because if having sex feels anything like a pap, I'm out! I just don't want anything stuck in there now after my horrible pap experiences.

Well, the speculum forcibly dilates the vaginal wall and they scrape tissue from the cervix, so of course its painful. Its a very intimate procedure and its not surprising that it hurts. Everybody has a different pain threshold and I guess, being autistic, we tend to experience physical pain differently.

I think that trying to relax and use some relaxation techniques can help. It will still hurt, but you might be able to deal with it better.

When I had one the nurses were (I thought) not very nice about it... just stuffed the thing in, basically.
It was very painful indeed, and they were mean about it ; saying I shouldn't make such a fuss, and that I was exaggerating how painful it was and stuff.

Some time around then, I was also diagnosed with vaginismus... which is the medical term for when having stuff shoved in your vagina causes pain.
As far as I can tell though, a lot of people find having stuff shoved into their vaginas without proper preparation to be quite painful ... whether they've been diagnosed with vaginismus or not.

As such, I've been ignoring the doctors encouraging me to go in for another pap smear for years.

Having three done by the age of 22 is rather a lot, surely ?
I think here, the doctors only encourage you to have another one if it's been a few years since the last one.

It's well documented that most cases of cervical cancer are caused by a STI called HPV... so you're quite right in thinking that pap smears are rather less likely to be useful to a virgin than somebody who's having intercourse (especially unprotected intercourse).
Stuff like a family tendency to develop cancer or smoking fags increases the risk of developing cervical cancer as well, but the risk does seem to be considerably lower if you're avoiding catching STIs because of being a virgin.

I usually find mine to be painful but my last one wasn't. My doctor that had been doing them all along was pretty good at it too but other places I went to would hurt me and make me bleed.

I had cervical cancer in 2012 so now my pap smears are done at an office that specializes in women's cancer so I suspect they have lots of experience in using a smaller speculum and a gentle touch in sensitive post-op patients. I don't know where I'll get them after I'm done with my followup there. The last time I had one somewhere else they made me bleed and it burned when I peed the rest of the day.

I do not like penetration and have not been sexually active since 1995. I'm supposed to be using dilators now because of my radiation but I haven't been and the doctors haven't noticed or said anything about it so I guess that is ok.

I never had a pap as a virgin, but I can safely say it probably would have hurt more back then. As it was, my vagina had been loosened by sexual activity and I was well versed in relaxation techniques. Mine wasn't as bad because of that.

I would suggest you inqure about the hpv vaccine. Some doctors won't schedule paps as often for women who have had it. You could also tell your doctor that you'd prefer not to have any more paps until you are sexually active.

I can understand how you feel because I have just received a reminder for my next test and I'm contemplating not going in light of my experiences in the past.

I was supposed to have my first one about three years ago and it caused me so much pain that they couldn't complete the test. I later spoke to one of the doctors at the surgery and I explained that several years prior to that, I'd had a colonoscopy (I have Crohn's Disease) that couldn't be completed for the same reason. She was very nice about it and said that some people are just hypersensitive and that some women haven't been able to have these tests done without some kind of sedation.

I wouldn't worry about what other women say, everyone's pain threshold is different. I don't know if your doctor would allow you to have it done under some kind of sedation in light of your problems but perhaps it's something you could ask about.

I'll just leave these here.

http://againstallevidence.wordpress.com ... es-part-1/
http://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2009/11/inf ... ening.html