Stirrups (not the horse kind)

[slemslempike]

When you go for a smear test (or similar), are there stirrups?

I've usually heard Americans talking about stirrups for such incidents, while I'm under the impression that I've only heard British women refer to them for ante-natal use. When I go, I just have to do that frogs' legs thing (which is awkward if the table is against the wall on one side).

I was watching Jo Brand on Live at the Apollo, and she talked about stirrups as if they would of course be used for a smear. Have I just always had lo-tech medical care? I don't feel like I have had a particularly sheltered outlook, at least four medical professionals have investigated my nethers.

Comments

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Will someone please educate me as to what you mean by frogs legs in this context!

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

Imagine you're lying on your back with your knees bent - now flop each leg outwards so that your legs form a diamond shape, if you see what I mean? That's what I mean by frogs' legs, anyway!

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I assumed you were thinking of that pose, but couldn't quite see the frog element. Unless the frog is upside down?

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think it's an upside-down frog. I got taught something similar as 'frog pose' by a yoga teacher. Then again, her 'crow pose' looked nothing like a crow that I could see, so YMMV. :)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Clearly I spent too much time with my arm in the pond in childhood, with the first mental image thus being frog crouched as to spring rather than frog pinned for dissection.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

My main memory of ponds and frogs is my mother explaining to my brother and several wide-eyed little friends that what those frogs were doing was 'having a cuddle, because it's cold'.

Very soon after that we went to some kind of very mildly amusing park or possibly stately home with climbing frames and so on, and a petting zoo mostly featuring rabbits. It all made me wonder how on earth anyone in Victorian memoirs ever grew up as innocent as they claimed what with nature being so educational all over the place.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Maybe they were highly urban Victorian children?

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's true - the frog's on its back.

gratuitous icon comment

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

This makes sense. Although I still find it a bit odd.