My well woman exams have included the bimanual exam (inserting gloved finger into vagina, and pressing on abdoment to feel for abnormalities in the reproductive tract), the pap smear, and a clinical breast exam. It's already been pointed out that the pap smear simply looks for cervical abnormalities, and while they're commonly caused by HPV, which is sexually transmitted, they can happen for many other reasons, not all involving sex.
A clinical breast exam is important too. And if you're not doing regular self exams, it becomes more important, plus a well woman visit is a good time to learn how to do self exams. There's a high incidence of breast cancer among lesbians as well, for a variety of reasons. At 24, the risk is still pretty low, but learning how to do self exams and setting up a good relationship with a health care provider for clincial exams and who can help with future care is important.
Perhaps a course of action would be setting up an appointment to talk about hymenotomy, rather than setting up a well woman exam that would cause you pain and not likely yield much useful information.
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Date: 2007-06-02 03:17 pm (UTC)A clinical breast exam is important too. And if you're not doing regular self exams, it becomes more important, plus a well woman visit is a good time to learn how to do self exams. There's a high incidence of breast cancer among lesbians as well, for a variety of reasons. At 24, the risk is still pretty low, but learning how to do self exams and setting up a good relationship with a health care provider for clincial exams and who can help with future care is important.
Perhaps a course of action would be setting up an appointment to talk about hymenotomy, rather than setting up a well woman exam that would cause you pain and not likely yield much useful information.