#gynecology

[ineffectualdemon]

Ok real talk I need some advice from my fellows people with vaginas

I often get "cramps" which is actually spasms just within the entrance of the birth canal and sometimes through my whole groin and sharp stabbing pains in my cervix like someone is jabbing it with an icepick

And everyone else has either told me I'm lying because that's not what cramps are like and "you can't feel pain like in your cervix"

Or just ignores me

TBC I do also get regular cramps in my lower abdomen or lower back at the same time but the jabbing cervix pain is the worst part

Also I get ice pick pain at random times in my cycle. It's not tied to period pain exclusively though it happens more then and it's not linked to clotting because it happens even though I had an my uterine lining removed

But people have told me my entire life that my uterine pain and bleeding was normal even when I couldn't walk because of it and was fainting

So I don't really trust the medical professionals in my life

ETA my actual fucking question

Is this normal?

Does anyone else experience this?

What the fuck it?

I've had it happen since I started puberty

#gynecology #gynecological health #vaginal pain #cervical health #cervical pain

[judeesill]

it’s amazing how radblr has invented whole cloth a canon of “radical feminist” thought that has almost nothing to do with any movement history and draws almost exclusively on a bunch of bloggers and like, five books, only half of which are by even self-proclaimed radical feminists

#gynecology #why does he do that #delusions of gender #the transsexual empire #and the dworkin extended universe #obviously there are a couple others but the reading list is soooooo bleak

[heardatmedschool]

“I once had a patient come with a suspected ovarian cancer, ascitis and all. Turns out the tumor was in the uterus, and had legs. It was a babyoma.”

Always take a pregnancy test….

#medicine #med school #medblr #gynecology #obstetrics #babyoma #guaguoma is such a good word i hate that i have to lose it in translation #pinned

[lesbiansgoal]

#gynecology #gynecologist

[snarltoothed]

huh, cool

#r #HPV vaccine #gardasil #female health #gynecology #i am aware of the class action lawsuit but at least it seems like it works for cancer risk reduction #radfems do interact

[cookinguptales]

frank discussion of gynecological issues and frustrations with OBGYNs (especially re: chronic illness) under the cut, but I guess also potentially useful information for people who want to hear about it

so... some of you might remember when I was going to OGBYNs a little while ago. I have endometriosis and PMDD diagnoses, so going to OBGYNs isn't exactly unusual for me, but I ended up going to see more than I usually do.

this was largely because the hormonal therapy that I was taking for those disorders was starting to fail and I was bleeding a lot. like... for weeks at a time over a period of months. I had to deal with some... frustrating OBGYN advice in this time (such as the rage-inducing "well, women have to bleed") but I also discovered that like... I mean, I think I always knew that I had more vaginal pain than other people I know, but a lot of things hurt me so I just kind of... ignored it?

but they tried to put me on the nuva ring for a little while during this period and my body just... straight-up rejected it. it hurt like a bitch to put in, it kept coming out, I could feel it in there and it hurt, etc.

I ended up comparing notes with some other people I know and realized that my problems with insertion were probably more severe than I'd thought. like, it is not unusual for me to cry during pap smears and have cramping for days afterward. I cannot use tampons without massive pain. your body is not really supposed to physically expel something like a nuva ring several times a day. tmi I guess but I have not found penetration of any kind pleasant.

so I talked to... I want to say four or five different OBGYNs in this period, and none of them gave me a real reason for this. the prevailing attitude was mostly "oh yeah, that happens sometimes. lmao."

the best I could get was a diagnosis of "vaginismus" on my chart, and when I pressed for more information, they basically told me it was a psychological thing where your body is afraid of penetration so it clenches up and won't unclench. they literally grilled me on my history of sexual abuse to see if they could find the source of my dick phobia.

now... not to get too into it, but I do have a history of CSA -- but my pain problems predate it. I got my period relatively early and I've never been able to use tampons or anything like them. every time I've tried has ended in literal tears. again, cramping pain for days, even after the period itself has stopped.

so I get the dick phobia diagnosis from two different doctors, but one of them says she can do a transvaginal ultrasound if I'm really worried. we do this and it is uh. excruciating, honestly. thank god it was in California and they let me get high as a kite.

in the end, they can't find anything "physically" wrong with why I'm in pain and they send me on my way, dick phobia dx in hand.

today. today. YEARS later. I am googling tips on how to try a menstrual cup if you have vaginismus (prep for the trip abroad; I don't like Japanese pads) and I see someone saying "oh, I'm glad that treatment worked for you, my problems are because of ehlers-danlos syndrome."

you know, one of the chronic illnesses I have and one that I divulged to every OBGYN I saw.

what.

paging Dr. Google!!!

I come to find out that folks that have EDS, because of their connective tissue issues and extremely brittle skin, sometimes deal with extreme gynecological pain. it's partially pelvic floor issues, partially the fact that the skin in your vagina is breaking.

so all those times that I said "it feels like it's cutting me" or "it feels like knives" were probably because it was fucking cutting me. all those times I said I felt scraped raw for days was probably because abrasions take a long time to heal when you have EDS.

I cannot believe. I cannot believe. that I went into so many different OBGYNs who told me that my pain issues were because I had a psychological fear of dicks and when I told them I was a lesbian were like "oh well then problem solved" when actually my body was physically tearing. I had even seen blood sometimes and it had always been dismissed as spotting.

the anger I feel rn is indescribable, tbh. I never bought that my problems were all in my head (probably because doctors used that line on me so often when I was a kid and getting other chronic illnesses diagnosed) but the fact that gynecological health science is still so fucking awful that we shrug off pain that is the symptom of dangerous chronic illnesses as "well that happens sometimes" or "have you considered that maybe you're afraid of sex?"

I JUST

this reminds me of when I had to find out from a fucking tumblr post that vaginal secretions are made from blood rather than glands, so if you have bad blood pressure/flow it'll often cause itchiness/dryness/pain. bad blood flow like... idk... maybe POTS.

so again, it was actually one of my known chronic illnesses causing gynecological issues, not any of the other bullshit reasons doctors were giving me, like age or stress.

I hate that I'm fucking 33 years old and I still have to learn stuff like this from google searches. I still don't know how my shitty body works, and it's largely because of stuff like this. what the fuck. I'm so mad. why do doctors still treat vaginas like a fucking scary mystery?

I'm well aware that Dr. Google doesn't always know what the fuck it's talking about, but apparently neither do my doctors! which is why, yet again, I'm up all night reading medical journals in the vain attempt to figure out how to actually live my life!

ugh!!!

#also the idea that vaginal pain only matters bc of sex and potentially deadly gynecological issues only matter bc of fertility #like your organs are only useful for sex or babies #and just not wanting to fucking hurt in daily life doesn't actually matter #makes me feel like my body is only useful when it can be used by others #hate that! #cw: #gynecology #ehlers danlos syndrome #postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome #ask to tag ig

[aroaceconfessions]

So I have terrible menstruations and my doctor booked me an appointment to a gynecologist I've been dreading. I'm a repulsed aroace and do not want anything down there. So the day finally came, there's many different people there, some have "whatever, it's a part of life" energy, others "I'm not here, you might see me but I'm not here!", etc. So the doctor calls my name and I go in as fast as I can. So she throws one look at me and "It's a standard question, but do you have a boyfriend? Girlfriend with a strap-on or anything like that?" "Nope" I reply "so you have no interest in sex or the like?", "nope" (she looks at me as if she could see that I was aroace from a mile away). "Given what you've told me, you have no interest in sex toys either?" "no, never used them", "good, then you aren't likely to get virus and bacteria that usually sticks to those". She then prescribed a medication that might help me not get menstruations again and we agreed that I'd take ultrasound to see if there is anything wrong next appointment, and while still scary is it better than halfway lying down with my legs open and someone doing something in there.

I'm so relieved! And she was such a good doctor! It wasn't awkward, I wasn't shamed for being aroace, not told "you'll find someone eventually" or anything like that. Even though I didn't directly say that I'm aroace, I felt accepted. I was a little afraid I'd get a lecture about "you should probably have a child soon as you aren't in your prime anymore" or anything like that, but there wasn't, just acceptance and warmth.

#aromantic #asexual #aroace #aspec #aro #ace #arospec #acespec #arose #menstruation #gynecology #gynecologist #healthcare #medical care

[ancientorigins]

From hero to villain, activists have rewritten the narrative surrounding Dr. James Marion Sims. Discover the shocking reality behind the so-called “father of gynecology” and his inhumane treatment of enslaved African American women.

#monuments #statue #racism #African American #gynecology #medicine #United States #anesthetic #ancient #history #ancient origins

[ford-ftm-150]

Trans men & transmascs of Tumblr, I need advice from anyone who has undergone a gynecological exam, pap smear, IUD insertion, etc.

Any tips on managing discomfort & dysphoria for this kind of procedure?

(Feel free to respond to this post or DM me directly. I understand that this can be a pretty personal topic, but any responses would be appreciated.)

#ftm #trans man #transmasc #trans help #trans advice #gender dysphoria #bottom dysphoria #gynecology #birth control #menstrual health

[heardatmedschool]

“Unlike a drama queen called the testicle, the ovary is very grateful and loves to come back to life after you uncoil it.”

#medicine #med school #medblr #gynecology #ovarian torsion #urology #testicular torsion #pinned

[happywebdesign]

CMedical

#CMedical #scandinavias leading holistic #health #concept #urology #gynecology #fertility #Norway #Sweden #typography #type #typeface #font #Ginto #2024 #Week 15 #website #web design #inspire #inspiration #happywebdesign

[haggishlyhagging]

To a surprising degree, healthcare today still focuses on aspects of the science that were adopted during the witch-hunts: the spirit of aggressive domination and the hatred of women; belief in the omnipotence of science and of those who exercise it, but also in the separation of body and mind, and in a cold rationalism, shorn of all emotion. To begin with, the medical realm tends to perpetuate the impulse to dominate and subjugate, the beginnings of which Carolyn Merchant plots out in her book. And sometimes this is taken to cartoonish lengths: in December 2017, a British surgeon was tried for lasering his initials onto the livers of two patients during organ-transplant operations. And this attitude can be at its worst in practice on female patients. First, as Florence Montreynaud notes, "Women's organs are mapped out with men's names," like flags affixed to various parts of our anatomy. She explains:

“The canals connecting each ovary to the uterus were, until 1997, known as the Fallopian Tubes, after the Italian surgeon who first described them in detail in the sixteenth century—before they became the uterine tubes. The little sacs inside the ovaries where, between puberty and the menopause, an ovocyte matures every month are the Graafian follicles, named after Regnier de Graaf, a Dutch doctor in the seventeenth century. The glands that secrete liquid moistening the vulva and vaginal opening are called Bartholin's glands, after the seventeenth-century Danish anatomist. Worse still, in the twentieth century a pleasure zone within the vagina was given the appellation the ‘G-spot,’ celebrating the initial of the German doctor Ernst Grägenberg.

“Imagine the equivalent for men: Garrett Ander-son's corpus cavernosum or J. C. Wright's canals . . .”

Men's stranglehold on the profession is far from a broadly abstract force, either. The world of healthcare—especially when it comes to gynecology and reproductive rights—seems keen to exercise ongoing control over women's bodies and to ensure its own unlimited access to them. As if in never-ending reiteration of the joint project of taming nature and women, it seems these bodies must always be reduced to passivity, to ensure their obedience. For example, Martin Winckler questions why, in France, the annual gynecological check-up is considered an "immutable ritual," a "sacred obligation," from puberty onward, even if were in perfect health. According to Winkler, there is no justification for this practice.

“The idea that we must undergo ‘from the onset of sexual activity, and then every year’ a gynecological exam, a breast exam and a smear test ‘so as not to miss anything’ (i.e., in order not to miss a cervical, ovarian or breast cancer) is medically unsubstantiated, especially for women younger than thirty, among whom cancers are very rare and, in any case and as a rule, tend not to be discovered in generalist check-ups. And then, a year later, if the patient is doing well, the doctor can renew her contraceptive prescription without examining her! Why? It's quite simple: if the woman is feeling well, the likelihood that the doctor will find ‘something’ is almost nil. Then, frankly, why harass her about the check-up in the first place?”

Why indeed? This ritual turns out to have some grim stories associated with it. Winckler recounts the case of two adolescents whose doctor (also the mayor of their local authority) insisted on a gynecological and breast exam every three months. But the point of the institution, whether annual or more frequent, appears to be ideological more than anything else: it's about maintaining surveillance of women's bodies. Blogger and journalist Marie-Hélène Lahaye notes the eloquent title of a French obstetricians and gynecologists newsletter which, in June 2016, opposed widening the remit of independent midwives: the doctors denounced measures that would damage women's "medical surveillance . . ." For Mary Daly, this ritual perpetuates a state of anxiety in women from all walks of society—a situation comparable to that born of the pressures of beauty conventions— and constitutes a substantial drain on their resources.

Many doctors are so sure of their rights that they can cross the line into illegality without even noticing. In 2015, an internal note sent out by the South Lyon medical faculty inviting its gynecology students to practice vaginal examinations on patients sedated for operations was picked up online. On social media, as Marie-Hélène Lahaye reports, numerous doctors and students were offended by reminders that every medical action requires the patient's consent and that the introduction of fingers into the vagina meets the legal definition of rape. Some of them protested that there was "nothing sexual" in the practice and that they took "no pleasure at all" in it, thereby offering a brand-new and daring revision to the definition of rape. Others jumped from frying pan to fire by arguing that, if they were to respect procedure and request the patients' authorization, the latter might well refuse it. After reading and hearing from these quarters that vaginal and rectal exams were neutral acts without any sexual aspect, Lahaye suggested on Twitter that, in this case, the medical students could train in this work by practicing on each other: "I admit this was not received with wild enthusiasm."

Another problematic ritual: the parade of medical personnel who show up when a woman is in the midst of giving birth and each in turn insert two fingers into her vagina to assess her cervical dilation, without requesting consent nor even informing her beforehand, and sometimes without being overly gentle either. Lahaye invites us to imagine the equivalent for other body parts: you are at the dentist and, at regular intervals, unfamiliar people come into the room and insert their fingers into your mouth; or you are seeing a specialist for a rectal exam and a dozen people take turns putting their finger into your anus . . . "Such a practice," Lahaye concludes, "is inconceivable in any of the medical disciplines except obstetrics, the one that's all about access to women's genitals." We see here, in an extreme form, the assumption that women's bodies belong to everyone but themselves, which is found to differing degrees throughout society and explains why we are not expected to kick up a fuss over the odd pat on the bottom.

-Mona Chollet, In Defense of Witches: The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women are Still on Trial

#mona chollet #gynecology #female oppression #male entitlement #women’s bodies #healthcare

[fionacle]

putting under a cut so people can read the tags first or ignore completely, i want people to have the chance to not have to look 👍

by “physical exam” i’m referring to being touched by your doctor “down there”. asking because i have, no malpractice took place, being touched down there was just kinda awful for me. even if you haven’t cried i’d like to hear if you consider it especially awful and are comfortable sharing, i just feel really alone in this as every adult i go to (meaning my mom and grandma essentially) say suck it up.

i’m terrified about doing this yearly when i’m 18, which it happening this year, and i have another appointment about period problems in the morning and i expect a physical exam to be necessary.

#gynecology #genitals #genitalia #poll #polls #tmi #tmi warning #no genitals are shown it’s just kinda about them so #gross #doctors #menstruation

[the-delta-quadrant]

ok i'm annoyed

probably mentioned it before but i'm from germany. in germany you can pretty much get cervical screening done as soon as you're a teenager. it's even recommended and pretty normalised to have it at that age. i think i started going when i was 18. and every single time i had it done i got some results about weird cells or something and to come back in 6 months. i did, and it happened again. it happened 3 times in total. the last time i couldn't go back because i moved to england soon after. i thought i'd just do it here.

well, fucking wrong.

i moved here in late 2019. my 6 months were over in march 2020. i think we all know what happened there. so i thought fuck it, i'll have to wait. april 2021 is when i called my gp about this. they told me i was "too young" to have cervical screening (i was twenty-fucking-two. lots of germans get it done at like 16). i told them about my previous weird results. they asked for the letters.

so i had to call my old fucking german gyno to get my letters and then i had to get them translated. i gave them to the receptionist in person and booked an appointment. i legit thought that appointment would be a cervical screening but it was a waste of time. they told me again i was too young. they didn't have my letters either because somehow they fucking lost them. i said i'd give them to them again. i was told they'd send the letters to a hospital and let them decide whether it's necessary or not and get back to me.

well, no one ever got back to me.

idk if they lost my stuff again or just never sent it or never told me what the hospital said. but at that point i was done trying to get them to take me seriously (plus i was also on the long odyssey of trying to get mental health care).

guess what i got in the mail today, over 2 years later? a fucking invitation to cervical screening since i'll be turning 25 in december! oh fucking great. they lose my shit, tell me i'm too young and now act all concerned when i've been walking around with fuck knows what.

and this is the worst possible time because normally i'd ring them immediately to get an appointment but i'll be moving soon and idk how long it takes to get the results and the change of address might fuck it up.

(also the secret trans hope that something is wrong with my cervix and uterus so they just take it out)

#cn gynaecology #cn gyno #cn gynecology #gyno #gynaecology #gynecology #cn medical

[kael-writ]

so TW for female reproductive medical trauma if youve also experienced it but if youre a cis man I truly dont want you to pass by without listening to this.

If I was bleeding constantly in any other way - almost every day, for 4 months, sometimes so heavily to where I was in the ER and needed a blood transfusion, I need iron, etc - even with medication that barely reduces it, stops it for four days days maybe... if I was bleeding from my nose, or my gut, or internally, or anally, or in any other way like this, I think I would have gotten surgery right away. I think I wouldnt have even waited as long in the ER waiting room.

Just because menstruation is normal doesn't mean that a uterine fibroid causing bleeding that is NOT menstruation is normal or ok. This is not ok. I am not ok. And women who work in gynecology KNOW it is not ok and have said so and are angry and fighting for me. And all of them have a cis man as head of the department and are understaffed and exhausted and backed up with not even a first clinic visit opening for MONTHS, and are not being taken seriously in the OR.

THIS. IS. NOT. OK.

This is institutionalized sexism that puts our bodies and mental health and finances in danger. It's not ok. It needs to change, like so many things need to change.

And this is also why I am pro-choice, not to derail onto a controversial separate issue but when you stigmitize and illegalize abortion "exceptions for the life of the mother" is going to result in dead pregnant people, period the end. Because doctors will fail them. They won't take it seriously. And this HAS happened, such as to an Irish woman named Savita Hallappanavar.

I am sure there are even more examples besides fibroids and pregnancy, I wouldnt be surprised if uterine cancer patients have these issues and IUDs and god knows what else, and Ive already heard horror stories.

Im so tired, and so depressed, and overwhelmed, and Im angry.

#feminism #uterine fibroid #uterine fibroids #pro choice #menstruation #medical trauma #women in medicine #gynecology #female reproductive health