[Female parts question] Is this normal?

By bladder pain, what do you mean?

Maybe the speculum sort of bruised you, was it a metal or plastic one? I prefer the plastic ones, but it seems rare to encounter them. Also, they have different sized speculums, did she use the smaller one for you? I always ask for it because internal exams are quite painful for me… I figured it was because of my tilted uterus or me just being sensitive.

and yes, get a male gyno, I much prefer male doctors.

@casheroo Meaning my stomach hurts (dull pain) in the area of my bladder, and it feels like I have to pee all the time. It wasn’t the enormous speculum. It was her jabbing her fingers at my organs while she pushed on my stomach. Can you tell I’m pissed?

Sounds like a bladder infection, then. Get back on the phone and insist on being seen tomorrow. In the meantime, drinking lots of cranberry juice is the best home treatment.

I always feel the urge to urinate during the examination but I never had it continue afterwards. They say it is the pressure they are applying that causes the sensation. If she was particularly rough, I guess she could have bruised you.

I think I would give it a day or two and if it doesn’t go away, see another doctor. It is strange the advil didn’t help though if it is bruising.

There’s hearkat, I was thinking the same thing and it just coincidentally started after the exam???

@hearkat I’ll be sure tog et some tomorrow
@rooeytoo I don’t remember exactly when it started, but yes, after. I was just coming off my period which means I was cramping anyway, but not this noticeably. I’m gonna go to the hospital if it’s not gone in a couple days.

Do you have painful periods? It could be you have a condition like endometriosis or possibly PCOS. That makes annual exams more painful and could cause more pain after especially around time of menstruation.

Some cramping and even bleeding are normal after a pap. But days worth I am not sure about.

She may have irritated when pushing and feeling for your ovaries, maybe coming off your period you’re more sensitive. It has always hurt me when I’ve been digitally examined even though it’s not “supposed” to.

My personal experience w/OB/GYNs when I was young was not favorable. I had pain w/intercourse & pain w/exams. This was over the better part of a year. At the dr’s office it was always “that shouldn’t hurt!!!” like I was a complete wuss. Eventually they wanted to do exploratory surgery. I went to a different dr & it turned out I had an abscess. If you feel like they are disregarding your concerns, run, don’t walk, to another doctor.

@RedPowerLady My periods are horrible. Lots of pain. I use the super plus tampons (lots of bleeding).
@ccrow How did they find the abscess?

The second dr…he could feel a mass on examination. He said he was amazed at the amount of inflammation I had, (sorry if TMI) & I had 3 courses of antibiotics before it was cleared up.
If you are having so much pain & bleeding, I wonder if there is some kind of hormone problem?

@ccrow That’s a very good possibility. I intended to get a hormone test done months ago, but it’s expensive (as are the treatments). I’ll just wait a couple more days.

@Facade Have you ever considered endometriosis as a cause? They can’t diagnose completely without cutting you open or unless you have a cyst they find on ultrasound. But there is a certain set of symptoms that indicate it. Severe pain during period and pain during pelvic exams are some of those symptoms. Also heavy periods are another symptom. I’d bring this up specifically with your OB so they can see if you meet the criteria. One step you can take is start taking Fish Oil Supplements as they are known to reduce pain (and even if you don’t end up having it, the supplements are really good for you).

@RedPowerLady I haven’t considered that. And I have a list of supplements I need to buy and start taking. Since I almost killed myself literally trying to swallow pills tonight, I need to find them in liquid form. I’ll be sure to ask whatever doctor I end up going to about PCOS and endometriosis.

@Facade the fish oil supplements are rather large but they are those gel pills so easier to swallow, not sure if they come in liquid form but I suppose you could ask doctor that as well.

Hoping all is well and it is nothing serious :)

I agree with @RedPowerLady possibility… I had painful periods, longs periods lasting more than 14 days, and I always hurt after pelvic exams. I had the laparoscopic surgery when I was 16 to discover I had endometriosis. If anything, you will be fine and I would wait to see if the pain subsides before considering it an emergency. It just sounds like your body was a little irritated, but I would keep a look out at your next exam and keep note on how you feel afterwards along with your period symptoms for several months before assuming you have endometriosis.

@RedPowerLady I just looked. There’s liquids.
@Chikipi I’m not assuming. Just keeping things in mind. I’m certain my body’s irritated. TMI: I’m pretty small “down there.” Coupling that with not having sex in quite a while, it was a major shock for my insides to be handled so roughly.

Endometriosis is what they kept saying to me, even though my symptoms didn’t really support it. My personal feeling is that they use it as a blanket diagnosis when they can’t figure out anything else. And it turned out that wasn’t my problem at all. Honestly I think that the doctors think if we’re young then we have no idea what’s going on in our own bodies.
FWIW I take fish oil; the gelcaps are big but if you lean forward they float to the back of your mouth & you can swallow them easily.

@ccrow Doctors love making blanket diagnoses. No one wants to actually do their job these days. I just hope this goes away soon.

@Chikipi I don’t suggest she assume, i suggest she talks to her doctor. And she doesn’t seem like the ‘assuming’ type. But perhaps that was wording you didn’t mean to use.

@Facade Good to hear about the liquids!! :)

BTW I have not had the same experience as @ccrow with it being a blanket diagnosis. I had to see several doctors before they were serious about the diagnosis. And they won’t make a firm one without a laproscopy so seems pretty serious to me in terms of diagnosis.

@Facade & @RedPowerLady- Understood I used assume because I just didn’t want anyone to go into panic mode. :)

Endometriosis has been an ongoing issue for me for the past 12 years and I’ve had 3 surgeries since I was 16. I was told my worst case scenerio- no kids, but adoption is always an option as well. :)

Well, this was app. 30 years ago.

@Chikipi Makes sense. Nothing said so far is anything to panic over. Abscess, endometriosis, pcos, etc.. are all annoying and have to be dealt with but certainly nothing to panic over. Good point!

@ccrow Well maybe that explains the difference! LOL

What difference? I must be missing something

@ccrow At the diagnosis of the condition between then and now. Perhaps then it was overdiagnosed and now they’ve stopped that and moved to stricter diagnosis.

I am surprised at how angry I still am over this. They treated me like some silly little virgin who didn’t know how sex should be. The fact that I kept saying how painful it was should have told them that I did, in fact, have a clue how it should be!! @RedPowerLady I think they were just at a loss so told me something general enough that maybe I would accept it.

@ccrow I can see how that would be frustrating!

Do you have a tilted uterus? I had one, and every pelvic exam was painful for me. I also had extremely heavy and long periods, which eventually became non-stop periods. I finally had them yank that thing out. :)

@augustlan I don’t know what kind of uterus I have…

@Facade Chances are they would have told you if you did, so that’s probably not the issue. Hope you get it figured out and that you feel better soon!

Thanks :)