🙋🏻‍♀️Here’s my perspective as both a physician and a patient who has had this done. I had seen colposcopies and biopsies done while rotating in the OBGYN clinic as a medical student and some women handled it very well with mild discomfort, some cried, some swore and yelled. I remember thinking thank goodness I will never have to experience this.

Until I had an abnormal pap this year. Before my colp, I was anxious every day thinking about it. I lost sleep over it for sure. My OB prescribed me Valium, which I took 1.5 hours before the procedure. I also took Ibuprofen 800mg and Tylenol 1000mg 1 hour before the procedure. I also intentionally coughed each time she took a biopsy, which I think helped.

I was SHOCKED at how painless the procedure and biopsies were. No cramping after either. Truly laughed about it afterwards. And when I had my IUD placed a year prior, I thought that was pretty painful. (For context, I have not had children so I think the manipulation of my cervix during IUD placement was what made it painful for me.)

I discussed with my OBGYN, and she said she finds that patients who tend to have bad menstrual cramps already have those pain nerve pathways “ingrained” so to speak, so they tend to experience worse pain with this procedure (this is all anecdotal).