Anonymous post: Getting through paps

[http://users.livejournal.com/__recidivist/]

Greetings, Superstars. As you probably know, from time to time the VP Team makes posts on behalf of people who wish to remain anonymous or who do not have LJ accounts. This is one such post. Thanks in advance for your helpful comments.

P.S. For more info on anonymous posts, see this link.

Eli
For the VP Team
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I am terrified of getting paps done. I have before, but... I panic. Can't unclench my knees (or anything else), can't breathe, can't tell whether I'm hot or cold, heart racing, etc - full on panic to the point I've had a gyno stop the exam because I couldn't despite wanting to and knowing I had to. I have anxiety disorder but have been off medication for over a year because I don't have financial means of seeing someone about it. I know I need to get another pap, a few months ago to be honest, but I'm so paralyzed with fear that I can't even make the appointment.

Part of me wants to ask if there is any way I can pay more for the appointment and take a Xanax while in the waiting room just so I can get through the appointment, but I also know that even when I took it on an as-needed basis by prescription the doctor was very rationing of it (which is understandable, I rationed it too because, go figure, I was terrified I'd get addicted). Honestly I'm not even sure if I can do it with medication because even just thinking/typing about it I can feel myself starting to panic. I also don't have a regular doctor because I just moved, which kind of adds to it, not that having a regular doctor stopped me from panic in the past - it just adds another element of uncertainty and frankly I feel terrible when other people have to deal with my panic. I don't even want to deal with it, much less inflict it upon someone.

Any advice or suggestions? Am I just screwed?

Period trying to start in the middle of the cycle.

[itsnoelle.livejournal.com]

I started Ortho-Novum 1/35 in the beginning of August. I am in the middle of my 3rd pack. I'm in the middle because I skipped my period both months before. However...I'm having a problem with my period coming in the middle of my cycle. My period tried to come yesterday, even though I still have a week and a half left of pills. My female family members all have their periods right now, and thats when I used to get my period post-birth control. WHY is my period trying to come during the middle of my pack? It happened the past three months, hence the reason why I've been skipping my period so I won't have two periods in a month. I realize it takes about 3 months to get used to the birth control, but seriously this is so annoying! Any help anyone can give me?

Whacky Birth control

[ceinwyn81.livejournal.com]

I was taking the pill in August, I had a normal period that started on the 14th. I lost my pill pack and I had no more, and wasn't gonna get anymore since I was moving back to Washington. I just broke up with my Boyfriend in IL where I was living. I move back to Washington, get together with my ex and now I am pregnant. The lady at the doctor office said I must have conceived in the week of the 29 of August thru - the 4th of September. I left IL the 26th. I am concerned it could be my ex's but I didn't have sex with him for 2 weeks before that. I believe it is my current BF but we used condoms, which I know is only so much effective. I know the following week of the 5- the 11th (most likely that saturday but I dun remember) We had sex with no condom, no BC pill, nothing. I am guessing that is the night I conceived Could my abruptly quitting my BC pill really whack out my cycle to make it that confusing? I know alot of it is estimation on their part and I may just be freakin out.

Frayed cervix??

[loopey-lovegood.livejournal.com]

Today I had my yearly, "HI THAR! I HAZ VAGINA! CAN HAZ PAP SMEERZ?!" appointment.

Background info: 23, non-virgin, only had one sexual partner, no pregnancies. MoonCup(UK) user for I guess a little over a year? Maybe two? Occasionally use reusable pads, had to use regular disposables this past period because my bag with "all that girl blood stuff" apparently got shoved somewhere completely illogical during a recent move and am still looking for it. :(

Now during my exam today the doctor mentioned that my cervix looks frayed, and the duck-bills had some blood on them. He wanted to know if I had had this issue before. I reminded him that last year the same thing had happened and that he had wanted to see if the pap came back irregular (which it didn't) and from there it kinda go brushed to the side. I have had some issues with bleeding after sex but I told the doc it hadn't happened recently and next thing you know we were moving on to some other topic.

Thinking about it, I feel like another doctor has noticed the frayed look in the past but it was just before my period was about to start and she passed if off as that being the reason. This was *before* I started using a cup and I've had the bleeding from sex before cup-usage as well.

I feel silly for not asking about it while at the doc's, but does anyone think the cup usage could be making it worse? I doubt that it was the *cause* given the info above. And how exactly does one "fray" one's cervix? Could it wind up being an issue later in life?


UPDATE (October 15th):
Went to the OBGYN. He took a look and saw what the previous doctor had talked about. He assured me that while it was friable it wasn't that bad and probably brought on by some inflammation likely caused by a bacterial imbalance/very mild infection. He didn't think it was caused by an STI either. He prescribed me a cream to aid in healing/anti-biotic and we scheduled a follow up appointment in 6 months.

All and all though, very good experience, and I got to discuss other issues regarding family history/feminine health and didn't feel rushed or as nervous as I sometimes do with my regular doctor. He reminded me a lot of the pediatrician I had growing up so it was easy to get comfortable with him, and during the exam he was describing what he was seeing and what that meant as he performed the exam. Strangely that seems to relax me more than trying to distract me with small talk. No amount of distraction is going to make me forget that someone's poking around my vagina. :P

I'll be giving my cup a *through* boiling to make sure any bacteria aren't re-introduced. And will be eating a good bit of yogurt this week to hopefully prevent the cream from killing all the good bacteria too. I'm thinking that I should look into different lubes to prevent irritating my cervix in the future too.

So yea, I'm feeling much better (although not looking forward to smearing goo all over myself tonight XP). If it turns out that the cream doesn't help or if the follow-up appointment turns up something weird, I'll update this post. Otherwise, I suppose consider this question answered!

Likeliness of herpes

[reserve12.livejournal.com]

I just have a quick question. What is the likeliness of contracting herpes from one or two unprotected encounters with somebody who had no visible outbreak? I had unprotected sex about 6/7 weeks ago with somebody whose status I do not know, and maybe two weeks ago I noticed some itching and a headache (my period was supposed to be the next week, I usually get headaches before then) and no other symptoms, no fever or muscle aches, no swollen lymph nodes. Then, it went away. Now I don't really itch anymore. My doctor told me that it didn't look like I had herpes either. So...is this normal, or not?

ageee...

[meganmila.livejournal.com]

Don't know where else to post this so if it doesn't belong I can delete it. But, does anyone here look younger then their age? I have been commented on by two people who were about 10 years older then me and more say that I look younger then I do and I dunno it really hurt me. I'm a sensitive person anyways so maybe I'm being overly sensitive on this subject but I dunno I don't like it. People have told me who cares its good to look young...but I can't get past the who cares part. I'm 20 by the way and people have told me I look about 16. But these people were much older then me so maybe I shouldn't care but I dunno I do. Now I'm all worried that people are just gonna keep commenting on it. I know I shouldn't but I'm naturally worried person all the time. I know I'm not the only one but meh it doesn't help that much. Now I'm like obsessed about it.

Bleeding During Sex

[lillireina.livejournal.com]

Hey guys! I have another question for y'all's awesomeness. Let me first say that my lover is somewhat larger than average in the penis department. Larger than I have been used to. I haven't been with anyone else since last January. This last time we had sex, I was on top for the first part and it wasn't rough sex really but it wasn't gentle either and I could feel the tip of his penis hitting my cervix several times. It didn't hurt so I didn't worry about it. I mean, it wasn't really pleasant, but not painful. Well, when we changed positions he had some blood on him and asked me if I was bleeding. So, I went to bathroom and I was bleeding a good bit. Not like period blood, but kind of rusty colored. Like the kind you get at the very beginning or at the very end of your period. We didn't resume sex but after about 10 minutes, I started getting crampy feeling and now when I pee it feels like I have a UTI.
Could his hitting my cervix cause me to bleed and cramp like that? Do I need to get checked out? Has this happened to any of y'all?