Women who feel positive about their vaginas are more likely to go in for regular check-ups at the gynaecologist, the study found.
Embarrassed
But what exactly is vaginal self-confidence, and how do you measure it? To find out how positive women felt about their vaginas, the researchers scored them on the ‘Female Genital Self-Image Scale’, or FGSIS.
The higher you score on questions like, ‘I think my genitals smell fine,’ and ‘I think my genitals work the way they are supposed to work’, the more confident you’re likely to feel about your vagina.
In the end, it comes down to not being embarrassed about having someone you’re sexually involved with look at your genitals, or about letting a gynaecologist examine you.
So it seems fretting over what a gynaecologist will think about their vagina may be the reason some women avoid going in for a check-up. Pubic hair worries are one excuse for postponing the visit. Some women say they feel they have to ‘prepare’ first by removing their hair.
Life-saving
Regular visits to the gynaecologist should start at puberty, between the ages of 13 and 15, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. The tests a gynaecologist carries out as part of a check-up depend on different factors such as your age and sexual history.
Going in for a check-up can help keep you healthy or even save your life. A Pap test, or cervical smear, can help detect cervical cancer early on. The gynaecologist wipes a little sample of cells from the cervix, the neck of the womb at the end of the vagina. The cells then go to the lab for analysis.
The gynaecologist may also check your vulva on the outside and your vagina and cervix on the inside to make sure they look and feel healthy. The visit is also a good opportunity to discuss sex, STD prevention, birth control, and other concerns.
*To protect the identity, names have been changed and the person/s in the picture is/are models.
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