Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
Nov
19
Posted by My OB said WHAT?!?.
“Do You Need Someone To Hold Your Hand?”
“Do you need someone to hold your hand?” – GYN (in a sarcastic voice) to a woman already in stirrups for a colposcopy and near tears due to pain and being upset.
There are 28 comments to this post.
I had a colposcopy done once, and yes, it hurt like a mother! Went through all that pain & humiliation for a “false positive”. After that, I decided I wouldn’t have another pap again. I’m 27yrs old and couldn’t be more happy to be “guinea pig tested” free.
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I’ve had a colposcopy before and it hurt like a mother! One of the reasons why I no longer get pap smears. Way too many false positives for an extremely rare cancer. No thanks!
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Joanna Reply:
November 19th, 2012 at 1:04 pm (Quote)
I’ve had a few, none of them hurt. Mildly irritating at worst. I guess it depends on the doctor you see.
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Jamie Reply:
November 19th, 2012 at 1:23 pm (Quote)
With my colposcopy I had a biopsy with it. With the vinegar burning & the snipping of my cervix being cut out, ugh, it was horrible. All for a false positive. Not worth it to have paps anymore for me.
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Joanna Reply:
November 19th, 2012 at 2:49 pm (Quote)
Yes, I’ve had that done too. 4 times. Biopsy, vinegar and all.
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genniemom Reply:
November 19th, 2012 at 6:37 pm (Quote)
My mom went through that whole awful mess, too. They removed three centimeters of cervix for no reason and injected her with epinephrine without warning or consent. It was completely awful.
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Jamie Reply:
November 19th, 2012 at 7:18 pm (Quote)
That’s horrible! I’m so sorry for your mother! That’s crazy! These “treatments” are barbaric and are wounding us women.
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So, this is my story and there’s a little more background: I’d gotten a call from my GP that a pap smear had come back abnormal and that I should go in for a colposcopy. I was given no other information.
Once I got to the Gyn’s office, a nurse came into the room and asked if I’d had the Guardasil shot done. I told her I had. And her reply was “Well, good, because your pap smear tested positive for one of the most dangerous strains of HPV.” Remember, I hadn’t been told anything previously except that the pap was abnormal, so her abrupt delivery of this information was pretty shocking and I started to get upset and was near tears.
On top of that, anything involving a speculum gives me pretty bad cramps; the bad news, plus cramps meant that I was laying on the examining table sniffling pretty loudly. That’s when the doctor made the comment above. For what it’s worth, I was in my mid-20s and a graduate student at the time, so while I was upset, I also was perfectly capable of dealing with the situation.
The best/worst part is that when the doctor went to do the colposcopy, she found nothing there to biopsy. Either my body had cleared it or the abnormal pap was a false positive.
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road2vba2c Reply:
November 19th, 2012 at 12:01 pm (Quote)
I’ve heard of the Gardasil shot causing false positive paps. Hope you found a better doctor!
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Bonita Reply:
November 19th, 2012 at 1:33 pm (Quote)
I had some significant tearing with my first child’s birth. The surgeon actually wrote a paper about my case. At 9 weeks postpartum I was developing a ton of scar tissue and he wanted to cauterize it. I agreed to it. I asked about pain relief and he told me my options and I opted against it because it would be an extra needle and I just wanted to get it over with. While I was crying from the pain, I never felt undermined or belittled at all, and it made all the difference in how I dealt with the pain. If he had been a smartass about it, it would have been much worse than it already was.
I’m sorry you had such a jerk do that to you. Everyone deserves respect from their care providers.
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Details Reply:
November 20th, 2012 at 5:18 am (Quote)
What the hell was the point of asking you about Gardasil unless it causes false positives. “Have you had the shot for the mumps? Well good because it looks like you have the mumps!” No that is not what she said. She said well good because you have the worst kind of mumps there is. Huh? Unless she was saying good then maybe it is just a false positive then she is a nut job! Having a vacine to prevent an illness and getting the illness anyway??? What are our choices here? The vacine will lesson the effect of the illness, the vacine introduced the illness or you don’t have the illness it just showed up in you tests because the vacine introduced it.
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SculptorAlison Reply:
November 26th, 2012 at 1:06 pm (Quote)
Having the Gardasil vaccine if you already have one of the strains in it will actually make cancer more likely. They don’t tell you that, nor do they test you prior.
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It amazes me that women would agree to have paps (for what is a very rare cancer), if this is the attitude you can expect when having further treatment.
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Ellen Reply:
November 27th, 2012 at 3:51 pm (Quote)
The rates of cervical cancer, and deaths from cervical cancers, have vastly decreased *because* of Pap testing. (See http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/cancer-advances-in-focus/cervical.) Personally I’d prefer not to go back to the high rates of the 1940s.
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I had a positive pap, too, and was accused of STDs and whatnot. Turns out the abnormal cells were from the scarring my midwife caused by pushing so hard on my cervix to get rid of the lip during labor. It was still healing when I got the Pap done, so it came back abnormal. By the time my appointment with the OB/GYN came, based on the story of my birth that I told her, she suggested a repeat Pap before doing the colposcopy, and it came back negative So she agreed with my theory that it was probably the midwife’s fault. So upsetting.
Colposcopies sounds so creepily terrifying, I can’t imagine actually having to go through with one. OP, I’m happy for you that you were ok, and sorry you got this @$#% to deal with during such a terrifying time.
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Thanks all 
Luckily this woman is no longer my doctor. I actually reported back to my GP on the terrible experience and she was pretty horrified. I did stay with the practice for a bit longer, though, but tried the other gyns until I found someone I liked. As it turns out, none of the women in that practice have any bedside manner, but one of the male doctors was great.
And, of course, every pap I’ve gotten since then has been normal.
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This one makes me so incredibly angry! Joy, you had every reason in the world to be upset and crying in the moment! The nurse was in the wrong for dumping the news of your test results on you like that and the doctor… I don’t even know what to say here. Actually, that’s not true. I have a lot of things to say but they are not polite at all. I am just so sorry for the way you were treated!
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Ughh, that is so annoying. I need people to hold my hand when I get blood drawn (or more to the point hold me so my face is smushed in their chest so I don’t see it!). Why do doctors think needing support is worthy of sarcasm?
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Ellen Reply:
November 27th, 2012 at 3:55 pm (Quote)
Navelgazing Midwife had a great Facebook thread on doulas serving not just at births, but for various medical and non-medical events. Clearly this guy’s patients could use doulas when he’s working on their cervixes!
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Ellen Reply:
November 27th, 2012 at 3:56 pm (Quote)
(Meant to include the URL: https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=497666813589137&id=144849428870879)
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Add Your Comment.
I’d rather have a GYN with some empathy and a better bedside manner…
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