Katie, female, 27, New York
My Experience
- Overall Rating
- 4
- average of all patients
- Pain
- Inconvenience
I had an irregular Pap smear and as a precaution, my ob-gyn wanted me to make sure that the abnormal cells in my cervix were not pre-cancerous.
The procedure was similar to a Pap smear but longer and more invasive. I was brought into a small room where a female doctor (not my ob, but someone she referred me to) and a nurse put me in stirrups. It was pretty uncomfortable — they removed several tiny pieces of my cervix from different areas and also put some kind of acid inside. The procedure took about 20 minutes. There was a little bit of bleeding and some cramping afterwards.
They gave me a prescription for a painkiller — a strong kind of Tylenol but I ended up just taking over-the-counter painkillers (Advil) and the cramping went away a few hours later.
My Advice
It’s definitely less pleasant than a Pap smear — I was expecting it to be pretty similar, but it’s longer and it’s harder to stay relaxed for the duration.
- posted by HealthAngle January 19, 2009
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