You should go. If you're sexually active, you owe it to yourself to go.
I'm 33 and I only went for the first time this year...never had any real problems down there so it never was on my mind to do so until now...and what do you know, my first pap smear came back "abnormal". Needless to say I was pretty shaken up because I was so convinced I had no health issues that I needed to monitor or worry about.
The speculum didn't hurt at all, quite honestly. The key is to simply relax and not get all tense and worked up about it. The only thing I felt was the tiniest tinge when they took the pap swab, and that was it! (Now, when I had to go back for follow-up testing because of my abnormal pap, that's another story.)
I'm just saying, do it. Even if you've only been with one person, you may have picked up something like HPV and not show any symptoms...and like me, that can lead to abnormal paps and conditions that need to be monitored in the future, even cancer.
It won't take long, it's not that uncomfortable, it shouldn't even be that expensive if (like me) you don't have insurance, and it could possibly save your life. There's really very little reason NOT to go.
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Date: 2005-05-20 11:13 am (UTC)I'm 33 and I only went for the first time this year...never had any real problems down there so it never was on my mind to do so until now...and what do you know, my first pap smear came back "abnormal". Needless to say I was pretty shaken up because I was so convinced I had no health issues that I needed to monitor or worry about.
The speculum didn't hurt at all, quite honestly. The key is to simply relax and not get all tense and worked up about it. The only thing I felt was the tiniest tinge when they took the pap swab, and that was it! (Now, when I had to go back for follow-up testing because of my abnormal pap, that's another story.)
I'm just saying, do it. Even if you've only been with one person, you may have picked up something like HPV and not show any symptoms...and like me, that can lead to abnormal paps and conditions that need to be monitored in the future, even cancer.
It won't take long, it's not that uncomfortable, it shouldn't even be that expensive if (like me) you don't have insurance, and it could possibly save your life. There's really very little reason NOT to go.