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Pap Smears Save Lives

February 7, 2011 By 31 Comments

Kathy Griffin was so passionate about pap smears that she got hers done on live TV

Today’s guest post is by Sarah Cosgrove. Sarah is currently a graduate student in Boston, Massachusetts. When she gets a moment to pull herself away from work, she’s a avid baker and explorer of the greater Boston area. You can follow Sarah on Twitter.

About a week ago I retweeted a link for Feminists for Choice’s blog post regarding pap smears and birth control. Before I retweeted, with my comment encouraging women to ignore the post and to get yearly exams, I read the post entirely and intently. Upon retweeting the link I engaged Feminists for Choice’s Serena in a hearty debate on Twitter about the post and the standard U.S. practice of yearly gynecological exams and pap smears. While I have on numerous occasions been denied renewal of my birth control because I hadn’t had my yearly exam, I was appalled that a blog for women, by women, would discourage yearly exams.

If, as women, we think about our yearly exams as a means to an end, motions we have to go through to get a birth control prescription, then we’re doing ourselves a grave disservice. I agree with the last points of the post – that birth control needs to be more readily and cheaply available – but divorcing the acquisition of birth control from open, frank, yearly conversations with our doctors about our bodies, about our sexual and medical history, and about the need for screening, is dangerous. Blanket suggestions to skip mammograms or pap smears put women in danger. A study reported in the media often leads women to follow guidelines that may not be appropriate for them. How do you know you don’t need yearly mammograms if you do not have a discussion with your doctor about your medical needs? The same goes for pap smears or STD blood tests, etc. If, after that informed conversation, you two mutually decide on a different course of action then is common, fine. But the conversation is key. It is, and I cannot stress this enough, essential and lifesaving. [Read more...]

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Birth Control and Pap Smears: Why Do They Go Together?

January 26, 2011 By 67 Comments

It is not medically necessary to have a pap and pelvic exam to get a prescription for birth control. The only medically necessary procedure is a blood pressure test. Yet in the US, women are routinely forced to endure a yearly pap and pelvic exam in order to renew the prescription. A recent study shows that 33% of doctors always require the exam and 44% regularly require the exam (from Time article).

In my personal experience, I was literally shouted at over the phone by a nurse practitioner when I requested a month extension on my prescription because I had to change my exam appointment. The woman told me that I had already waited too long to see the doctor and absolutely refused to provide the one month extension (it has been about fourteen months since my previous exam, completely within medical guidelines for the pill). When I shared my experience with the doctor, she sounded surprised and said I should have been given the prescription, but she was not overly concerned about the incident and had no interest in further investigation or remedy.

The proponents of requiring pap and pelvic exams for birth control prescriptions argue that while it may not be medically necessary, these exams are important and women should have them done.  In essence, requiring women to have a pap and pelvic exam in order to get a birth control requires testing that should be optional– it is a way to force women to have exams that they otherwise might elect to forgo. [Read more...]

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Friday News Roundup

July 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Looking for low-cost ways to spice up your love life?  Here are some tips for DIY sex toys, and cheap summer dates.

MAC Changes the Names of “Juarez-Inspired” Cosmetics – ColorLines
Are Your Cosmetics Making You Sick? – Democracy Now

Pap Smear Guidelines Revised to Raise Age of First Pap – Broadsheet
Kathy Griffin Gets Her Pap Smear on TV – Poponthepop

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Why Must a Pap Smear Be So Awkward?

June 24, 2010 By 81 Comments

Pap smear. The very phrase can make a vagina break out in a cold sweat. It’s not that a pap smear is the worst thing that could happen to a vagina, but it’s certainly not the most pleasant, either.

First of all, there’s the paper gown with the gap in front. It’s hard to call that couture. But then insult is added to injury when the paper sheet comes out so that you can cover yourself from the waste down. Hey – if someone is going to be all up in my vagina, I want to see what they’re doing.

Second, I hate scooting to the end of the table. “Just a little closer. You’re not quite there yet.” It always feels like I’m ready to fall off of the table, but the doctor is always telling me, “just a bit more.” There has to be a less awkward way of doing the pap smear, one that doesn’t require me to confront my fear of falling.

Then there’s the stirrups. My doctor politely covers the stirrups with oven mitts so that patients don’t have to touch cold metal. But there’s still something a little off-putting where oven mitts and my vagina are concerned. I’m not a cake coming out of an oven. Do we have to use the stirrups?

Last, but not least, is the dreaded speculum – those metal pliers that look like duck lips. They spread your labia apart so that the doctor can get a real good luck up inside your vagina. But is a speculum really necessary? [Read more...]

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