Going to the gyno may be a truly dreadful experience, but the fact is, it's one of the most important things you can do for your sexual health — that is, if you actually go through with the whole appointment.
According to new research, women are skipping their regular pap smear — not because they think they don't need it, but because of embarrassment.
British cancer charity Jo's Cervical Cancer Trust found that one third of women wouldn't go to their appointment if their pubic area wasn't looking like what they personally deemed appropriate.
Basically, women want to skip it if they weren't shaved or waxed down there.
The study, which polled 2,017 women, also found that 35% of women are too shy to get the test because of their "body shape," 34% won't go because of their vulva shape, and 38% because of the way they smell.
Each of these reasons are real and understandable concerns that every woman has when their legs are in the stirrups. But surprise, surprise: Your OBGYN simply doesn't care about any of that. “I'm not paying any attention to those things," Draion M. Burch, D.O., a board-certified ob-gyn and sexual health advisor for Astroglide, told Womens Health Mag. Instead, he or she is likely just focused on making sure everything is A-OK down there.
"So many silly things stopped me from going for my smear test," Lauren Bennie said in response to the study.
"I worried about the nurse being able to take one look at my bits and have some magic skill to be able to determine the number of sexual partners I'd had. I thought a lot about what kind of underwear and clothes to wear," she said. When she did finally go get tested, Bennie needed additional testing on pre-cancerous cells.
The situation finally made her realize the importance of testing, and how unimportant the taboos around your vagina are.
If you think this issue is only prevalent overseas, you're sorely mistaken.
In 2017, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued a definitive recommendation for pap smear screenings to reduce the number of diagnoses. Women aged 21 to 65 are recommended to be screened every three years, regardless of sexual history or symptoms of cancer.
Though the number of cases of cervical cancer in women has significantly dropped over the past few years, more than 13,000 cases are expected to be diagnosed in 2018 — which is all the more reason to get that pap smear.
