Doctor Visit for Yearly
Today I had my yearly exam.
Since I'm only 39, I didn't need to go for a mammogram. There is no history of any cancers in my family (except for a few skin cancers that were caught very early) so I'm not at very high risk.
Since my paps have been normal and I was HPV negative, it seems that I may not need paps every year either, but since it was so close to my surgery recovery, I took the opportunity.
Mostly I talked to her about my vagina, how I've been dry since about 8 weeks after the surgery. This puzzled her, because the tissues looked plump and healthy and my cycles are perfectly normal (including the continued cyclical light bleeding). Obviously I'm not totally lacking in moisture, just not as much as I used to have (and I still get my ovulation mucous). She wondered what was different, and the only thing I could point to was the metrogel/diflucan treatment last November for that light vaginosis/yeast infection.
She ran some tests, including a very harsh pap (she made me bleed, but she's not sure if it was the cervix itself or if I have endometrial tissue on the cervical opening that bleeds because I'm still on the end of my cycle) and she'll call me next week.
She asked if there was any chance I had clamydia or ghonorrhea - I can't see how, since I've been in the same (faithful) relationship for 14 years. If I do, I've had it for so long, there'd probably have been some other symptoms ... I can't even entertain that thought.
Well, I'll see how the results come out next week. She also gave me a prescription for Vagifem (a vaginal estrogen) that I'll hold onto until we get the results. If I've got some sort of infection, we'll go from there. If not, we'll try a little estrogen boost just to the vaginal tissues to see if that helps.
Posted by Elizabeth M. on August 23, 2005 07:30 PM
