When to get a pap smear

[cattylina.livejournal.com]

I'm 18 years old, and I've recently become sexually active (in the past 4 or so months). Thus far, I've had sex with two women and one man. I didn't use protection with the women (I know, I know...), and I was very, very careful while with the guy; he wore a condom and pulled out. I also take Yaz. My question is: do I need a pap smear? I've heard that you should start at 21, but my mom stressed that as soon as I became sexually active, I needed one. It'll be relatively easy; my campus health center has a great gynecology department...but I'd rather not have one unless it's absolutely necessary. 

Planned Parenthood Question

[lovesouvenir.livejournal.com]

I'm unsure if anyone will be able to answer this or help me out but I figure it's worth a try...

I'm leaving for Army Basic Training on Monday. I'm currently on the pill. They encourage women who are on the pill to continue taking it since your body is used to it. I would really like to keep taking it because it makes my period last 4 days and it's the easiest period ever compared to my 6 days and very painful periods before I started BC. The problem is you are not allowed to take your pill packs with you. You have to bring a perscription and a doctor there will perscribe them to you. I don't have a doctor and I don't have health insurance so I get my birthcontrol through planned parenthood. Does anyone know if I'll be able to get a perscription from them? If not does anyone have any ideas on what I could/should do?

Thank you so much.

Super ovulating EWCM?!

[may-third.livejournal.com]

Hello VP! I just gushed a bunch of cervical mucous and I would like some thoughts on the matter.

( Cervical mucous and ovulating and fertility/heredity ramble! )

Books about Women's Health

[jktoml.livejournal.com]

 Lately I've been on a self-awareness kick-- I've been taking care of my body more, and thinking about it more.    A big part of this is thinking about my body as a women's body.  To me (for this means something different to everyone), this means awareness and appreciation of all the incredible things our bodies are capable of.  I've been reading two books lately that I'm enjoying.

Taking Charge of Your Fertility by Toni Weschler, MPH.  This one was recommended to me on here.  Although this does have focus on using fertility awareness to achieve/avoid pregnancy, it also explains what exactly a fertile women's body goes through every month really thoroughly.  It made me realize that ovulation is a pretty cool thing.  Also it has inspired me to change to a hormone-free birth control (hopefully getting and copper IUD soon!) so I can track my ovulation, just to appreciate it.

Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom by Christiane Northrup, MD.  This discusses overall women's health, from reproductive organs and pregnancy, to healthy diet and mood.  This does discuss alternative healing techniques as well (like chakras and healing a woman's energy system).  I don't necessarily agree with everything in here, but it's fascinating to read, and extremely informative.  Lots of patient stories as well.

So a few questions:
What are some great books you have read about women's health?
How do these books discuss women's health?  Is it technical vs. personal accounts, traditional western medicine vs. alternative approaches, etc.

Change in periods after a year on HBC?

[nintendosongs.livejournal.com]

I have been on Ortho Tri-Cyclen Lo for over a year now (since October 2009), and in the past few months, I have noticed my periods have been changing. I used to always get my period on Thursdays, and in October or November, it came on a Wednesday, and now my periods always come on Wednesdays. More recently my periods have been VERY light compared to how heavy they used to be, even while on birth control. Starting birth control also took away a lot of my cramps, but lately the cramps have been worse, despite having a much lighter flow.
I am just wondering if anyone else has experienced a change in periods on HBC after already being on it for over a year?

Also, if I put any pressure on my stomach, or even if my boyfriend has his arm resting on my stomach, it hurts a fair bit when it never used to. Is this something I should be worried about? This paired with the change in periods has me a little paranoid.

HBC and Baby fever?

[elephantus45.livejournal.com]

I've seen posts about baby fever/baby rabies here before but not quite like this...

I have never, ever, wanted kids.  Just as recently as a year and a half ago I could not stand children.  My neighbors have very loud noisy kids, and theres lots of crying babies in my complex.  I remember being so bothered by the crying all the time, I had no sympathy for it at all.  At this time I had a paragard, and I loved it for the lack of hormones.  Since then things have changed.  I was diagnosed with endometriosis (via lap- almost lost my ovary during the sugery), got a Mirena,  was on Lupron injections, and spent some time in a medical anthropology class where the professor was pregnant.  In this class we had to read about women being pregnant, their experiences, feelings, things like that and I started to actually think about being pregnant when I never had given it a second thought.  The next semester we got to see a lot of the baby- and I must say he's a real cutie.

Since being on the Lupron I've been having baby fever so horribily.  I've been off the lupron for about two months and I still have the urges to reproduce and I'm trying to figure out if its because of these hormones?  Or because I'm getting older? (I'm only 23!)  Or maybe its because I'm getting married sometime this summer/fall?  I mean, my partner and I have discussed baby names!  (I had one bout of baby fever with a previous partner, but I think it was his fault, all his friends were having babies at that time.  It lasted maybe a month, and I'm sooo glad now nothing came of it)  This is so out of nature for me.  I don't want to have this baby fever, then have a kid or two, and realize these feelings were not *mine* but caused by artificial hormones?

Has anyone noticed an increase in baby fever while on HBC?  Or related to any of the other things I mentioned? (being around pregnant lady and then her baby?  Or because of an upcomming wedding or something maybe I'm reaching here...)


(Oh and just thought I'd mention- I've been having baby dreams!  Frequently.  Its kind of getting annoying- sometimes they are toddlers, but generally newborns and there's generally two of them.  They are such vivid dreams to argh)

a couple HBC questions

[fouralarm.livejournal.com]

First a silly, quick question about HBC timing - I've been taking my pill at about 11 pm every night for about a year, but now I have a job where I get up early and go to bed early, so I want to start taking my pill sometime in the afternoon instead. How do I make the switch? Should I just do it one day or should I gradually work my way earlier every day for a week or something like that?

Secondly, I was wondering if there was any kind of consensus in this community (I'm new, so I apologize if this has been discussed before - tried looking through the tags but couldn't find anything) on whether Yaz is as dangerous as it's being portrayed in the media, with all these lawsuits in regards to Yaz apparently causing strokes in young women, etc? I'm on Yaz and I do get a little worried when I hear about these cases, I haven't heard anything so serious for any other kind of HBC. But for me personally, Yaz has had only positive effects. Is anyone else worried about it?

Attitudes towards femininity/vulvas and vaginas

[may-third.livejournal.com]

Hi VP. Sorry to post twice in one day, but I just had a really dis-empowering conversation with a dear friend of mine that has left me in need of feedback.

To make a long story short, my friend thinks all vaginas/vulvas are "ugly," "fugly," "gross," "smelly," "terrifying" CREATURES.

( Cut for details. )

How do I at least try to help her see that vaginas aren't gross or shameful or ugly?

Is there anyone here who is cis-gendered female and hates their vagina/vulva? If so, would you mind telling me why?

Are there any cis-gendered females here who think vaginas/vulvas are ugly/gross?

I want complete honesty! I feel like this is the place for empowered and enlightened people, and would love to hear your thoughts on this matter. Is there any way I could talk to my friend about this without offending her? I dropped it after a while because she insisted that everything to do with vaginas and vulvas was OMGGROSSDISGUSTING, and she is not an easily squicked person...she just seems to have an agenda against female genetalia!

I am honestly at a loss, it just seems so weird to me that she hates vulvas so much. She told me that I must be a miracle child because my vagina doesn't "stink" and that I'm crazy and probably "the only woman out there" who thinks vaginas aren't ugly.

Sorry if this was jumbled, but I am really just baffled by her hatred of the vag! Please tell me what you think!!!

Ugh..

[meganmila.livejournal.com]

I don't know what's going on down there. Like I said in my other post I have been having some itching. Around the entrance. It comes and goes with the itching and it's kinda sensitive to touch. I was peeing earlier and it doesn't burn when I pee but when some of the peeing comes in contact with that area it kinda burns. I patted some toilet paper on it and I see little bitty smear of blood. Is that normal? It's kinda freaks me out. When I look down there everything is normal, nothing is there. Which is good. But it comes and goes and it's not really bad bad just annoying.

Plus, I've been having some peeing problems. I tend to go a lot more then normal. I don't know what it is. I don't see how it could be a UTI, I haven't had sex in month and it just recently started. It's like sometimes I'm not getting all the pee out like right now. I have antibiotics but I don't know if I should take them cause what if it's not a UTI. I don't really want to go to the doctor unless it gets worse cause it's not that bad now. What do I do?

I've been having all sorts of problems, ugh. I hate it.

Menstrual Tracking Website

[sageautumn.livejournal.com]

As the subject suggests... I'm looking for a website that tracks such things. I don't really care about the pregnancy planning of it... more looking for one that'll tell me when I'm due to start. (I'm not ANTI-pregnancy aspect either... just don't care.)

I know they are out there... but which one/ones do y'all like?

easy ways to soothe itchiness?

[plasticpepper.livejournal.com]

Hello lovelies, I could use some input because I am SUPER ITCHY OMG.

For about a month and a half now I've been shaving with varying regularity. I used to just shave a bit off the top of the "triangle" and then shave the sides where the hair grows down onto my legs and trim the rest, but lately I've been shaving everything, sometimes letting it grow in a bit between shaves.

Well, this past week I've been on my period so I went quite a while without shaving because it would have been slightly less convenient and I just didn't feel like bothering. Until yesterday - my period is winding down so yesterday I decided to shave. Being fairly new to the whole shaving game I guess this was the first time I've shaved while on my period...

...and OMG ITCHY. I guess the combination of pads + freshly shaved skin was just not a good combination. And since my period is almost over, it's really not heavy enough for tampons to be an option (I almost always use pads anyway). The itching got so bad that I switched to a thinner pantiliner-style pad last night even though I wasn't positive my period was THAT light yet, but it's still pretty itchy.

It seems to be getting a bit better so I think I'll survive even if I don't come up with anything that'll help, but I thought I'd ask anyway - is there anything that will help with the itching at all? I don't want to bother going out and buying something I don't already have, so things that I might already have on hand would be great.

HPV Question

[princessoops.livejournal.com]

Hi VP Superstars,
        Today, I received a letter from Planned Parenthood informing me that I have tested positive for high risk HPV and that squamous cells have been detected.  Aside from dealing with my own emotions surrounding the diagnosis, I have been looking for as much information as possible.  One of the questions which I can not find an answer to is the following; My current partner has been exposed to the virus while having P in V sex with me.  I know there are no tests or treatments for men, but what happens to him now?  If I am fortunate enough to be one of the people who's body seems to rid itself of the virus, wil it be possible for him to reinfect me?  I apologize if this has already been covered, but I checked the vulvapedia and tags and did not see anything.

Thank you in advance.

(no subject)

[your-number1.livejournal.com]

I had my baby 3 days ago and now I pee myself when I laugh! My pelvic floor muscles are weak and I can't stop the urine. If I keep doing my kegel exercises how long will it take for that to go back to normal?

feeling very slut shamed after my gyno appointment.

[kathy182.livejournal.com]

 I would like to start by saying that I absolutely cannot find a gyno that I like in this lovely city of Montreal.
I would secondly like to say that I don't care if someone has slept with 900 different partners, it is their body, their choice END OF STORY...

Last night I went to a gyno at the free clinic near where I live because my regular gyno could not take me for the next few months.  When I called I was under the impression that there would be no problem.  When I got there, the doctor looked annoyed that I went there instead of going to my regular doctor.  She used a very condescending tone with me throughout the whole process and flat out refused to speak to me in English.  Now I understand french, but I'm much more comfortable in English and when she asked me a question and I didn't understand because of the language barrier she would roll her eyes.

Most important parts:  She asked me my number of sexual partners, I told her.  I also told her that I have been in a monogamous relationship for the past 3 years.  When it came time to do my pap, it was very painful, worse than ever. I could HEAR the scraping of my cervix. She walked away, came back and scraped again.  When I sat up she said "your std test will be back in 2 weeks and your pap in a month" I DID NOT ask her to give me an STD test and she did not tell me that she was swabbing me for one! I felt really uncomfortable and I feel really icky now, I keep like reliving this and it's making me really upset.  I've been tested before, so it's not that, it's that she felt the need to do this without telling me based on what I told her about my sexual history.  She never even asked me if I'd been tested!

I also told her about the cyst I've had on my perineum for MONTHS now and she said "well it looks like you just pinched something, I'm sure it's fine" I said "really, it's been there for at least 4 months, it hasn't gotten bigger but it is very irritating" and she didn't say anything.

I just feel really gross right now like I have all these problems and no doctor to turn to.