As a woman in her ’30s, I thought I knew pretty much all there was to know about my body. If you had asked me, I would have sworn I was well-informed. And then I started going to a new gynecologist and she literally blew my mind when she told I’d been checking my breasts all wrong. What? How had I missed this?
I knew about the circular check but not the up-and-down pattern. Well, maybe because the last time I learned about breast self-examination was from a pamphlet I got in high school. That was a while ago. After the jump, I asked other women about the most surprising things they learned from their gynos.
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Source: The Frisky
Contents
- 1. That untreated digestion issues can affect your fertility
- 2. The proper way to check your breasts
- 3. That you should not be using any scented soap in your vagina because it can cause vaginosis or UTIs
- 4. My gyno showed me my cervix and just seeing it blew my mind
- 5. That you can get HPV without having sex
- 6. My gyno told me that it’s easy to ignore the health problems that you don’t acknowledge
- 7. That my pubic bone and uterus are positioned in a kind of odd way compared with other women
- 8. That sperm can hang out inside you for a couple days just waiting to get you pregnant
- 9. That I had a tiny teratoma living on my ovary. Harmless, but still really weird
- 10. When my gyno took it upon herself to explain that the vagina is what’s called a “potential space,” which means that if there’s nothing keeping it open — like fingers, or a speculum or a penis — it collapses. Like, I’d always pictured my vag as a tunnel, but it’s actually more like a sleeping bag.
1. That untreated digestion issues can affect your fertility
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Source: The Frisky
2. The proper way to check your breasts
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Source: The Frisky
3. That you should not be using any scented soap in your vagina because it can cause vaginosis or UTIs
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Source: The Frisky
4. My gyno showed me my cervix and just seeing it blew my mind
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Source: The Frisky
5. That you can get HPV without having sex
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Source: The Frisky
6. My gyno told me that it’s easy to ignore the health problems that you don’t acknowledge
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Source: The Frisky
7. That my pubic bone and uterus are positioned in a kind of odd way compared with other women
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Source: The Frisky
8. That sperm can hang out inside you for a couple days just waiting to get you pregnant
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Source: The Frisky
9. That I had a tiny teratoma living on my ovary. Harmless, but still really weird

Source: The Frisky
10. When my gyno took it upon herself to explain that the vagina is what’s called a “potential space,” which means that if there’s nothing keeping it open — like fingers, or a speculum or a penis — it collapses. Like, I’d always pictured my vag as a tunnel, but it’s actually more like a sleeping bag.
Original by Ami Angelowicz