In case if you feel any kind of fear before your pelvic examination, you should tell your doctor about it as well.
There is no need for any special preparation before conducting a pelvic examination. However, in order to feel yourself comfortable, you may wish to have an empty bladder during the examination, though, even this is not a necessary procedure.
Actually, any risk, the way of preparation to this examination, the way it is conducted, and what the results may indicate is the topic of a discussion with your health professional. In order to understand the important of this test, you should fill out the medical test information form.
How It Is Done
While conducting a pelvic examination, you will have to:
- Take off all your clothes below the waist. There will be a paper of cloth, covered around your waist;
- Lie on your back on an examination table having your feet raised and supported by stirrups in such a way, that the doctor will have a possibility to examine your vulva, urethra, vagina and other reproductive organs. - - You may put on sock in order to keep your feet warm, while they are being in the stirrups;
- Have a drape across your body for privacy while the test is conducted. The doctor may need to use a lamp during the test, and you may also ask for a mirror, in case if you want to watch while the test is being conducted.
If the doctor is a man, then a female nurse or assistant may stay in the room with you while the pelvic examination is being conducted. You also have a right to ask the presence of your husband or your boyfriend.
During the external examination, the doctor will do the following:
- Check up your vulva and the opening the vagina if there are any signs of redness, discharge, cysts, irritation, genital warts and of other abnormal conditions;
- Check the inside of your vagina with the help of his or her finger for any cysts or pus coming from the Bartholin glands;
- Insert the speculum inside your vagina in a gentle way. This speculum is to spead the vaginal walls apart in such a way, that the inside of the vagina along with the cervix will become able to be examined. The speculum may be done either of plastic or of metal, and it is usually warmed up with the help of water or libricated with a vaginal lubricant.
- Check up the walls of your vagina and cervix, if there is any damage, growth, inflammation, unusual discharge or discoloration.
Then if your doctor decides, that you should be conducted a Pap smear, he or she in a gentle way will collect a sample of your cervical cells with the help of a small brush or a wooden spatula. You may experience some light staining or bleeding after the sample has been taken. It is also possible to take a sample of your cervical mucus, which is tested for presence or absence of sexually transmitted infections, like chlamydia, syphilis, etc.
| 
