I went yesterday to get my first pap smear and the doctor wasn't able to do it because it hurt so bad! She told me to come back in a year and try again. Is there anything I can do to make it hurt less? I'm still a virgin and have always had trouble using tampons as well. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I'm pretty worried about it.

Hi court3115,

I am sure over the next few days, people will tell you that it is very normal and nothing to be worried about at all...

Your obviously young as well and missing a couple of years of pap smears is not going to hurt you either, if that be the case.

Why don't you try to experiement with yourself slowly over a period of time, you may find that the muscles start to expand a bit more and make the tampons easier to manage... The muscles will stay as you know them when you don't do anything.. It's that fact that you haven't that they're not used to moving to accomodate foreign things like tampons and makes it hard for you.

Don't worry about it though...

CW

There's never such a word as small.. because in later life you could give birth and your vagina can extend a great amount.

I think the thing you have to do with tests with doctors is just to relax and it wouldn't hurt so much. Same with tampons; just relax and obviously sex, just relax.

It could be vaginismus or vulvodynia. I believe both are treatable but you'd have to find a very good doctor that you trust. Vaginismus is not as big a problem as vulvodynia (and I think vulvodynia is very rare...if you're not experiencing pain from any and all touching of your vulva then it's probably not that). Do a little research and educate yourself. I also know a girl who's hymen was so thick she had to have it surgically removed. Though, I imagine your doctor would have noticed if that was the problem.

Don't panic. You'll be ok.

everyone is right about it not being a big deal. i'm a petite lady myself and had a very painful first pelvic exam also, but i lived to tell the tale, have sex, and now the exams don't really hurt at all. my ob/gyn kept telling me to "relax" at the time (though not being very gentle eventually got in there anyway), but i really did not know how to relax. you probably would do well to read a little bit about vaginismus, but whether it's officially diagnosed or not, there are some exercises you can do that happen to be the very same exercises people do when their vagina feels too large (like after childbirth). it's all about getting control over your pelvic floor muscles. they are called KEGELS (named after a doctor) and i'm sure you can research them on the web. one key thing to remember is that "relax" in this case is not the same as doing nothing. the natural state of your vagina is for your muscles to be slightly flexed because you don't want to let just anything in there. with kegels, you will learn to flex AND relax, and the relaxing part will actually feel like pushing out. anyway, as everyone has said, if you don't get it right away, don't stress. chill out and try again next year.