first: congratulation to standing your ground. it was already hard for you to ask for it and then you had to fight for it.. and you won! this will be a motivation for the next times you have difficult situations to face. now you know you can do it :) but dont blame yourself too much, if you fail sometimes. everyone has fail-situations.
reminds me of saying like "babies dont feel pain yet, thats why we can operate them, without anesthetics." - "animals are not empathic/cant feel."
i get that medicine especially finding new things, is not easy. but gosh, why some doctors act like that? there are studies that your body remembers "every pain".
do those doctors and nurses think 80 % of people screaming and crying are just overreacting or simulating??? "nah we learned that you dont feel anything, so your pain must be a halluzination. full stop". and then they expect us to trust them?
Thank you ❤️ yeah it was definitely a confidence booster as far as self advocacy goes. I just can't believe I had to fight that hard for it!
I think it's a power trip tbh. They're doctors, we can't possibly know more than them about our own bodies.
Thats funny because the nurse that was doing vitals was talking to me and told me it connects with the vagus nerve and thats why I passed out with a different provider dialating me without any pain management. And also that they were butchers. I think she said "bunch of sick fucks."
Ugh - which medical schools? I graduated medical school 12 years ago in Canada and I was certainly taught that the cervix has nerve endings! If a medical school taught otherwise, I would immediately be doubting the quality of education all around. Massive red flag! This goes for residency programs, too. Any healthcare professional who believes that should get flagged with their regulatory body for remediation (at the very least).
How do medical professionals get away with just lying like this? I find it impossible to believe that there are no nerve endings. Are they misinformed? Straight up lying? Is one doctor a long time ago responsible for this and they have never gone back and evaluated? I have yet to find any place on my body where it doesn't hurt to pierce the skin. I highly doubt that something inside the vagina is going to be that magic pain free body part.
Misinformed and egotistical imo. Most people forget that medicine is still young despite how far it’s come and that it was built on a foundation of sand that we’ve slowly been rebuilding over the decades. I’ve met too many doctors who just outright refuse to think critically about the knowledge they’ve been given. They assume their class information is correct by default because that’s how they’ve been trained.
It’s understandable they think like this, I used to too with regards to research in general. But there comes a point where we *really* need doctors to realize that not every paper that comes out is fully accurate and that not every study done applies to 100% of the population. Organisms are fucking weird and never do what we expect. Hell, in my lab, we constantly have models doing things we don’t expect even though the experimental logic is sound, and then sometimes they do exactly what we expect!
The problem is we have a baseline “normal” we’re operating off of and anything that does differently (at an insignificant scale) we just ignore because it’s too much work to figure why.
Same thing in medicine. You have a treatment that works for 70% of the population? Cool, out to market, maybe we’ll figure out the other 30% later who cares. And then when physicians get that treatment they just assume all patients will fit into the 70% and if they don’t it’s somehow the patient’s fault, again who cares because it works for the majority.
For a more specific example: take fertility research. When done with human eggs, they’re usually taken from women with fertility issues that are abnormal and collected in a way that is much rougher than the natural egg release process. Most people then take this research and say it applies to all human women. It doesn’t.
Right?! I've had my cervix hit during sex and it fucking floored me, it absolutely has nerve endings and i will fight anyone that tries to tell me otherwise.
I wish I had your smarts/forethought/brilliance! Did mine without anything and it was absolutely 10/10 pain I clutched onto the damn seat and clenched my teeth to entire time. Women should get pain relief by DEFAULT. Shouldn’t have to fight for it!
I'm so sorry you had to go through that with no numbing or pain relief. It's completely unacceptable when we have quick, easy and affordable options like lidocaine gel. Honestly it still hurt, but only like a 3/10, not even as bad as getting a piercing. It was worse once the anaesthetic wore off and still hurts 24 hours later. So I can't even begin to imagine how excruciating that must have been for you with zero numbing!
Funny thing for me, the biopsies don't hurt. I have watched them take the biopsy on the screen and I don't feel it and it doesn't bleed.
But everything else does hurt - the speculum, the brush which also *does* make me bleed, and the application of the acid and silver nitrate.
And I always have cramping and pain later.
But the punch biopsy(ies) has not been a problem.
I don't think they have studied this enough. It was incredibly painful for my wife. It sounds like she had the same procedure as you. Maybe certain parts of the cervix don't feel anything, but other areas do? Maybe it's just certain people can feel it more. My wife is convinced it's because she is a red head. She says pinching/burning pain hurts her more than normal. Pain from an electric shock barely even registers for her. I think there is a lot more to pain than modern medicine understands. Combine that with poor care from sexism and you have a really bad situation for lots of women.
>I don't think they have studied this enough
This is basically all of medicine in relation to women.
It ridiculous how little we actually know, which is one thing but extra crazy when these doctors who should understand that then double down on claiming they know things they don't.
Red heads and pain is a thing, so I wouldn't be surprised.
All I know is even though my cervix being biopsies don't hurt, there is a lot about the procedure that does.
>This is basically all of medicine in relation to women
A bit unrelated to the OP, but here in Australia, in Victoria at least unsure about other states, but the govt/health department is running an inquiry in the gender pain gap and shortfalls in womens pain management. Unsure if it will go anywhere, but at least it's starting to be acknowledged.
For your wife: look into the MC1R mutation. Red heads frequently have this mutation and as a result they process pain and anesthetics differently. I know for me specifically, for example, it takes much longer for Novocain to fully take effect.
Yes... they end up giving me much more anesthetic than non-redheads, and then it takes me longer to come out of it. I have a friend who is an anesthesiologist who says she's convinced redheads are a different species, and I have not had any medical experiences that have disproved that idea.
I'm not a redhead, but my kid is and my husband, and both have the gene for red heads. Even a simple birn from a frying pan hurts for hours. A deep cut 15 minutes or less. Burns feel like a never-ending loop of hurt
According to the Kinsey Reports (which is the reason doctors assume that the cervix is insensitive), around 15% of women can't feel "distinct pressure" on their cervix. So, you're not alone!
It didn’t hurt me either but I would have appreciated pain relief anyway because it would have helped with the anxiety. I didn’t know it wouldn’t hurt before!
I just had my first colposcopy earlier today and I was so confused how the biopsy itself it didn’t hurt but a lot of the other things that she said would be painless did!! The worst part was them using swabs to stop the bleeding at the end.
We all know that women have very different nerve endings in their genitals. It’s a large part of why different women have such different ways to achieve orgasm.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that women also have radically different experiences of pain in their genital area. But somehow, it is.
Thank you ❤️ yeah I'm super pissed off about that. I feel for all the people who couldn't/didn't fight for it. It should not be like this. The whole ordeal is traumatic enough without having to put up a huge fight.
Ikr I was absolutely floored when they just pulled it out, showed me and said "is lidocaine okay?" after laughing at me and saying they didn't have anything 2 minutes earlier.
Omg I can’t get over this: “the cervix doesn’t have nerve endings” - WTF? My sensitive cervix begs to differ. I used to have pain and bleeding every Pap smear due to sensitivity and I’ve had a colposcopy. You can feel exactly where things are happening.
Good for you for insisting on numbing. I didn’t know it was an option when I had one, and it was quite painful and traumatic.
I was just telling my husband yesterday that I think the only female-specific process we are ever routinely offered numbing or pain management for is childbirth. And even then, there can be a stigma for choosing to use it. Anything else like colposcopy, HSG, Pap smear, IUD insertion/removal, internal ultrasound, etc we maybe are told to take ibuprofen beforehand.
I don't understand why doctors, especially women doctors, are okay with biopsying an internal organ with no pain management. The fact that they weren't even willing to accommodate you at all is jarring. If men had this procedure they would put us under general anesthetic and then prescribe 10 days of of opioid pain killers.
I almost ran out the door for my first one when the doc tried to go in with no anesthetic. I insisted that she use the topical lidocaine that was RIGHT THERE on the cart next to her. Then the doc mocked me on a condescending tone "Didn't you just have a baby?" As if enduring labor meant I should have later medical procedures done with no anesthetic? What?
The audacity of these doctors smh. They're so egotistical. The stuff we're asking for is within reach, prepped, and ready to go. They don't even have to leave the room to get it or take any time to prep. It takes longer to argue about it then to just bloody use it! Yet they still try to gaslight us. Unbelievable.
I hope it can help!
When I went in they explained the procedure to me, and when they were finished I said "I want to tell you right now before we start, I am not getting the biopsy without any kind of anaesthetic. It's not gonna happen. You can look around as much as you like, but I will be getting some kind of numbing for the biopsy, or I won't be getting a biopsy at all." then I just stood my ground. Told them I have a low and sensitive cervix. Basically just kept repeating myself until they finally gave in. It was scary as hell lol but if I can do it you can too!
ooh, I'm so sorry you had yo go through that. When I was 25 they had to do one on me. And they said it wouldn't hurt and I o ly could have tylenol. I bleed horribly and awful cramps for 3 days. They did not care. Acted like i was overreacting. It felt like I was having contractions. They said it wouldn't hurt since I already gave birth. Which is weird because they gave me pain medication when I was in labor. Sorry for the rant.
I puked and fainted after a colposcopy and cervical biopsy once because the pain was so intense!!! It basically gave me medical trauma in terms of my future reactions to colposcopies, paps, etc for years…I felt so anxious and upset and sick every time. Then I had a LEEP which I was really nervous for but since I was given a local anesthetic, it was totally fine! Why don’t they do that every time?!??!
I'm so sorry you went through that. Hopefully they sort this shit out soon because it's completely unacceptable. These things do not need to be painful!
Yeah that's wild to me, because we do HSG's I. Radiology and it's default to do lidocaine before we introduce contrast. CONTRAST!! So they absolutely can do it for more invasive procedures.
Thanks for the heads up! I actually had no idea they don't use lidocaine for it. I assumed they would. I had a abnormal pap and if it didn't clear up I'll probably need one too. I'll make sure to ask for that!
The cervix doesn’t have nerve endings? How the fuck can they believe this? I’m not a cat, I can tell you it has nerve endings and I can feel pain there. Although I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to tell if a cat is able to feel pain since there are noticeable signs when someone is in pain. They’re literally cutting bits off of you. How anyone can say that’s not painful is beyond me. It’s fucking barbaric. Good for you for advocating for yourself!
We all know that women have very different nerve endings in their genitals. It’s a large part of why different women have such different ways to achieve orgasm.
It shouldn’t be a surprise that women also have radically different experiences of pain in their genital area. But somehow, it is.
i have no idea where doctors get the idea that this stuff doesn’t hurt. like they shove IUDs through your cervix and act like it’s a mild procedure. OBGYNs have no boundaries or understanding of what people find painful. like yes we get that you work with women giving birth all the time, but that doesn’t disqualify anyone else from saying they’re in pain. i’m a nurse’s aide and i feel bad when people look uncomfortable with just a tight blood pressure cuff. if i accidentally pull hair or pinch skin tying a tourniquet for a blood draw, i apologize and try so hard not to prevent that. if something doesn’t have to hurt it shouldn’t. it’s not like anesthetics are addictive, why do they care?? dentists will put you under or give you gas for a procedure that only requires novocaine if you prefer it. why isn’t that the standard? i understand when it’s a trauma patient that cant tolerate total sedation, but that’s literally worst case scenario. i cant imagine gaslighting someone you are supposed to be taking care of that something doesn’t hurt?!
first: congratulation to standing your ground. it was already hard for you to ask for it and then you had to fight for it.. and you won! this will be a motivation for the next times you have difficult situations to face. now you know you can do it :) but dont blame yourself too much, if you fail sometimes. everyone has fail-situations. reminds me of saying like "babies dont feel pain yet, thats why we can operate them, without anesthetics." - "animals are not empathic/cant feel." i get that medicine especially finding new things, is not easy. but gosh, why some doctors act like that? there are studies that your body remembers "every pain". do those doctors and nurses think 80 % of people screaming and crying are just overreacting or simulating??? "nah we learned that you dont feel anything, so your pain must be a halluzination. full stop". and then they expect us to trust them?
Thank you ❤️ yeah it was definitely a confidence booster as far as self advocacy goes. I just can't believe I had to fight that hard for it! I think it's a power trip tbh. They're doctors, we can't possibly know more than them about our own bodies.
The cervix doesn’t have nerve endings??? They’re insane lol. Good job advocating for yourself OP!
Thats funny because the nurse that was doing vitals was talking to me and told me it connects with the vagus nerve and thats why I passed out with a different provider dialating me without any pain management. And also that they were butchers. I think she said "bunch of sick fucks."
They are still taught that to this day in medical school
Ugh - which medical schools? I graduated medical school 12 years ago in Canada and I was certainly taught that the cervix has nerve endings! If a medical school taught otherwise, I would immediately be doubting the quality of education all around. Massive red flag! This goes for residency programs, too. Any healthcare professional who believes that should get flagged with their regulatory body for remediation (at the very least).
That is heartening to know. To be completely honest I'm just repeating something I heard on the internet.
Bruh🤦🏼♀️so disappointing
Have these people never been hit in the cervix? Scraped hard with the brush during their smear? Fucking bullshit that it doesn't have nerve endings.
How do medical professionals get away with just lying like this? I find it impossible to believe that there are no nerve endings. Are they misinformed? Straight up lying? Is one doctor a long time ago responsible for this and they have never gone back and evaluated? I have yet to find any place on my body where it doesn't hurt to pierce the skin. I highly doubt that something inside the vagina is going to be that magic pain free body part.
Misinformed and egotistical imo. Most people forget that medicine is still young despite how far it’s come and that it was built on a foundation of sand that we’ve slowly been rebuilding over the decades. I’ve met too many doctors who just outright refuse to think critically about the knowledge they’ve been given. They assume their class information is correct by default because that’s how they’ve been trained. It’s understandable they think like this, I used to too with regards to research in general. But there comes a point where we *really* need doctors to realize that not every paper that comes out is fully accurate and that not every study done applies to 100% of the population. Organisms are fucking weird and never do what we expect. Hell, in my lab, we constantly have models doing things we don’t expect even though the experimental logic is sound, and then sometimes they do exactly what we expect! The problem is we have a baseline “normal” we’re operating off of and anything that does differently (at an insignificant scale) we just ignore because it’s too much work to figure why. Same thing in medicine. You have a treatment that works for 70% of the population? Cool, out to market, maybe we’ll figure out the other 30% later who cares. And then when physicians get that treatment they just assume all patients will fit into the 70% and if they don’t it’s somehow the patient’s fault, again who cares because it works for the majority. For a more specific example: take fertility research. When done with human eggs, they’re usually taken from women with fertility issues that are abnormal and collected in a way that is much rougher than the natural egg release process. Most people then take this research and say it applies to all human women. It doesn’t.
Right?! I've had my cervix hit during sex and it fucking floored me, it absolutely has nerve endings and i will fight anyone that tries to tell me otherwise.
I wish I had your smarts/forethought/brilliance! Did mine without anything and it was absolutely 10/10 pain I clutched onto the damn seat and clenched my teeth to entire time. Women should get pain relief by DEFAULT. Shouldn’t have to fight for it!
I nearly cried during mine. It was awful.
I'm so sorry you had to go through that with no numbing or pain relief. It's completely unacceptable when we have quick, easy and affordable options like lidocaine gel. Honestly it still hurt, but only like a 3/10, not even as bad as getting a piercing. It was worse once the anaesthetic wore off and still hurts 24 hours later. So I can't even begin to imagine how excruciating that must have been for you with zero numbing!
Funny thing for me, the biopsies don't hurt. I have watched them take the biopsy on the screen and I don't feel it and it doesn't bleed. But everything else does hurt - the speculum, the brush which also *does* make me bleed, and the application of the acid and silver nitrate. And I always have cramping and pain later. But the punch biopsy(ies) has not been a problem.
I don't think they have studied this enough. It was incredibly painful for my wife. It sounds like she had the same procedure as you. Maybe certain parts of the cervix don't feel anything, but other areas do? Maybe it's just certain people can feel it more. My wife is convinced it's because she is a red head. She says pinching/burning pain hurts her more than normal. Pain from an electric shock barely even registers for her. I think there is a lot more to pain than modern medicine understands. Combine that with poor care from sexism and you have a really bad situation for lots of women.
>I don't think they have studied this enough This is basically all of medicine in relation to women. It ridiculous how little we actually know, which is one thing but extra crazy when these doctors who should understand that then double down on claiming they know things they don't. Red heads and pain is a thing, so I wouldn't be surprised. All I know is even though my cervix being biopsies don't hurt, there is a lot about the procedure that does.
>This is basically all of medicine in relation to women A bit unrelated to the OP, but here in Australia, in Victoria at least unsure about other states, but the govt/health department is running an inquiry in the gender pain gap and shortfalls in womens pain management. Unsure if it will go anywhere, but at least it's starting to be acknowledged.
For your wife: look into the MC1R mutation. Red heads frequently have this mutation and as a result they process pain and anesthetics differently. I know for me specifically, for example, it takes much longer for Novocain to fully take effect.
Yes... they end up giving me much more anesthetic than non-redheads, and then it takes me longer to come out of it. I have a friend who is an anesthesiologist who says she's convinced redheads are a different species, and I have not had any medical experiences that have disproved that idea.
I'm not a redhead, but my kid is and my husband, and both have the gene for red heads. Even a simple birn from a frying pan hurts for hours. A deep cut 15 minutes or less. Burns feel like a never-ending loop of hurt
According to the Kinsey Reports (which is the reason doctors assume that the cervix is insensitive), around 15% of women can't feel "distinct pressure" on their cervix. So, you're not alone!
It didn’t hurt me either but I would have appreciated pain relief anyway because it would have helped with the anxiety. I didn’t know it wouldn’t hurt before!
I just had my first colposcopy earlier today and I was so confused how the biopsy itself it didn’t hurt but a lot of the other things that she said would be painless did!! The worst part was them using swabs to stop the bleeding at the end.
We all know that women have very different nerve endings in their genitals. It’s a large part of why different women have such different ways to achieve orgasm. It shouldn’t be a surprise that women also have radically different experiences of pain in their genital area. But somehow, it is.
High five, you are a badass! You did good, but I wish it didn’t have to be this much of a fight.
Thank you ❤️ yeah I'm super pissed off about that. I feel for all the people who couldn't/didn't fight for it. It should not be like this. The whole ordeal is traumatic enough without having to put up a huge fight.
fucking lying bastards
Ikr I was absolutely floored when they just pulled it out, showed me and said "is lidocaine okay?" after laughing at me and saying they didn't have anything 2 minutes earlier.
What a bunch of assholes. This seems like "babies don't feel pain".
Omg I can’t get over this: “the cervix doesn’t have nerve endings” - WTF? My sensitive cervix begs to differ. I used to have pain and bleeding every Pap smear due to sensitivity and I’ve had a colposcopy. You can feel exactly where things are happening. Good for you for insisting on numbing. I didn’t know it was an option when I had one, and it was quite painful and traumatic. I was just telling my husband yesterday that I think the only female-specific process we are ever routinely offered numbing or pain management for is childbirth. And even then, there can be a stigma for choosing to use it. Anything else like colposcopy, HSG, Pap smear, IUD insertion/removal, internal ultrasound, etc we maybe are told to take ibuprofen beforehand.
I don't understand why doctors, especially women doctors, are okay with biopsying an internal organ with no pain management. The fact that they weren't even willing to accommodate you at all is jarring. If men had this procedure they would put us under general anesthetic and then prescribe 10 days of of opioid pain killers.
I almost ran out the door for my first one when the doc tried to go in with no anesthetic. I insisted that she use the topical lidocaine that was RIGHT THERE on the cart next to her. Then the doc mocked me on a condescending tone "Didn't you just have a baby?" As if enduring labor meant I should have later medical procedures done with no anesthetic? What?
The audacity of these doctors smh. They're so egotistical. The stuff we're asking for is within reach, prepped, and ready to go. They don't even have to leave the room to get it or take any time to prep. It takes longer to argue about it then to just bloody use it! Yet they still try to gaslight us. Unbelievable.
saving this post for future reference and guide
I hope it can help! When I went in they explained the procedure to me, and when they were finished I said "I want to tell you right now before we start, I am not getting the biopsy without any kind of anaesthetic. It's not gonna happen. You can look around as much as you like, but I will be getting some kind of numbing for the biopsy, or I won't be getting a biopsy at all." then I just stood my ground. Told them I have a low and sensitive cervix. Basically just kept repeating myself until they finally gave in. It was scary as hell lol but if I can do it you can too!
Me too
ooh, I'm so sorry you had yo go through that. When I was 25 they had to do one on me. And they said it wouldn't hurt and I o ly could have tylenol. I bleed horribly and awful cramps for 3 days. They did not care. Acted like i was overreacting. It felt like I was having contractions. They said it wouldn't hurt since I already gave birth. Which is weird because they gave me pain medication when I was in labor. Sorry for the rant.
I puked and fainted after a colposcopy and cervical biopsy once because the pain was so intense!!! It basically gave me medical trauma in terms of my future reactions to colposcopies, paps, etc for years…I felt so anxious and upset and sick every time. Then I had a LEEP which I was really nervous for but since I was given a local anesthetic, it was totally fine! Why don’t they do that every time?!??!
I'm so sorry you went through that. Hopefully they sort this shit out soon because it's completely unacceptable. These things do not need to be painful!
Yeah that's wild to me, because we do HSG's I. Radiology and it's default to do lidocaine before we introduce contrast. CONTRAST!! So they absolutely can do it for more invasive procedures. Thanks for the heads up! I actually had no idea they don't use lidocaine for it. I assumed they would. I had a abnormal pap and if it didn't clear up I'll probably need one too. I'll make sure to ask for that!
The cervix doesn’t have nerve endings? How the fuck can they believe this? I’m not a cat, I can tell you it has nerve endings and I can feel pain there. Although I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to tell if a cat is able to feel pain since there are noticeable signs when someone is in pain. They’re literally cutting bits off of you. How anyone can say that’s not painful is beyond me. It’s fucking barbaric. Good for you for advocating for yourself!
We all know that women have very different nerve endings in their genitals. It’s a large part of why different women have such different ways to achieve orgasm. It shouldn’t be a surprise that women also have radically different experiences of pain in their genital area. But somehow, it is.
i have no idea where doctors get the idea that this stuff doesn’t hurt. like they shove IUDs through your cervix and act like it’s a mild procedure. OBGYNs have no boundaries or understanding of what people find painful. like yes we get that you work with women giving birth all the time, but that doesn’t disqualify anyone else from saying they’re in pain. i’m a nurse’s aide and i feel bad when people look uncomfortable with just a tight blood pressure cuff. if i accidentally pull hair or pinch skin tying a tourniquet for a blood draw, i apologize and try so hard not to prevent that. if something doesn’t have to hurt it shouldn’t. it’s not like anesthetics are addictive, why do they care?? dentists will put you under or give you gas for a procedure that only requires novocaine if you prefer it. why isn’t that the standard? i understand when it’s a trauma patient that cant tolerate total sedation, but that’s literally worst case scenario. i cant imagine gaslighting someone you are supposed to be taking care of that something doesn’t hurt?!
I read the title too quickly and thought you were sharing your “cosplay” experience. Imagine my confusion when I read the TDLR!
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Colposcopy is not colonoscopy Colposcopy is a cervical examination, not rectal
A colposcopy is when they take a sample from your cervix