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

[chiasmata]

Nope, no stirrups that I've ever seen.

[huskyteer.livejournal.com]

Good God no. If I walked into an examining room and saw stirrups I'd flee.

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

I've never had stirrups for anything routine in a GP's office. I think I've encountered them twice, both in private gynaecologists' offices, once in the UK and once in Australia.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Ah - and in America the vast majority of gyn examinations would of course be private offices, so perhaps that's the difference?

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I would be intruiged, I think. But not a little surprised.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

My very selective sample size confirms my ideas!

[alltheleaves.livejournal.com]

I've never had stirrups for anything gynaecological and I go to a good hospital with very up-to-date medical care. I think it's a progressive thing not to have them as they seem very backward to me. I know in the US, some places still use stirrups for a woman to put her feet in to during the labouring process which is very different to the "get in the position that feels most comfortable and we'll adapt to what suits" attitude that has mostly been adopted over here (based on various friends' experiences). And even if they don't have that attitude here, there are still no stirrups.

[snowballjane.livejournal.com]

Three different GP surgeries, all NHS, one of which was an ultra-up-to-date teaching centre linked to UCLH for doctors to learn to be GPs. No stirrups anywhere.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think I would much prefer not to have stirrups, even if Rachel in Friends did say that they were very comfortable. I've only heard a very few British women mention stirrups at all, so maybe this was not very recently that they used them. I was very surprised that Jo Brand talked about them.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I've never encountered stirrups. Every time I've had a smear test, it's just been 'lie back on this examining table' which is, as you say, awkward if the damn thing is up against a wall which it almost always is.

The last time I went the nurse helpfully said 'Oh, you don't have any trouble opening your legs' when I frog-posed, and then went scarlet.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I am curious now to see if I've got the wrong impression about American gyn care, and if it's all a huge media construct.

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

Perhaps! I imagine stirrups are mostly useful in a diagnostic setting, too, if you want to get a good look inside. If you're just doing a smear or sticking an IUD up there you're unlikely to need that good a view.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's great! I got complimented on my relaxed vagina once.

I suppose it'd be even more awkward to be up against a wall if there were stirrups.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Yes, where would you put your knees?

[carmine-rose.livejournal.com]

I've never had stirrups, and I've been examined both here in the UK, and in Australia. Several time in both (smears here, and a case of cystitis that just wouldn't go - I ended up being referred to Sydney Hospital's genito-urinary clinic, and still no stirrups.)

[alltheleaves.livejournal.com]

I think Rachel lied.

I can't imagine anything worse, you're in a horrendous amount of pain and you're going through an incredibly hard (but hopefully rewarding) experience that will take it out of you physically, mentally and emotionally and you're essentially being told that you have to stay in one position during it.

I've read things about how the traditional labour position, lying on your back, is wholly invented as a doctor's easiest position to work with and doesn't work for labour at all. If a woman wants to work with gravity, which if you're trying to bring a heavy thing out of your body, makes sense, how does being flat help? Added to that, I see it as a very submissive position that creates an enormous sense of vulnerability for a woman going through something, which has I described above, involves so much. While I recognise it was originally created as the birthing position because that's what was understood to work and the doctor's view was the most important, I find the continued enforcement of it very misogynistic.

Sorry you were just asking about whether stirrups are used for smears and I've gone very far from that, but I find the practise of medicine related to women can still be extremely outdated and it makes me Angry. As you can see.

[lsugaralmond.livejournal.com]

I've never had stirrups either - just the frog pose. I wouldn't mind stirrups though, since I find holding the frog pose for any length of time to be quite hard work.

[whatho.livejournal.com]

Nein. Never come across it. Don't know if it's different in a well-woman clinic or hospital to how it is in a GP's surgery though.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I've only had smears, though there were no stirrups when I got pierced either!

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

From my expecience with stirrups, they tend to be down at the bottom of the table, so you sit on the edge of the table and put your feet in the stirrups = so it's not affected by wall proximity, if you see what I mean.

[yiskah.livejournal.com]

I've been complimented on my relaxed vagina too! Any my very straight cervix. I was oddly proud.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

I think she was just having an examination rather than when she was giving birth. The only thing I remember about Rachel giving birth is that Janice appeared.

I've read a few things about the lying on your back being easiest for doctors as well - it's something I should try and find out a bit more about, I think.

Yes, medicine and women often makes me very cross too. I read a book about women entering the medical profession quite recently, and that was really interesting, about how a lot of them wanted to treat specifically women because they weren't being treated right by male doctors.

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

My cervix has never had a compliment. I am rather miffed now - I'm sure it's lovely! Although once a nurse had a hard time finding it, so perhaps it's shy.

[coughingbear]

No stirrups for me either, and I've had smear tests in several different surgeries. But I have never been complimented on my cervix or anything :( - in fact, last time it really hurt, which I had not known before, and I let out a little squeak, and the nurse said it was just my fault for getting older. (OK, she didn't actually say it was my fault, but it was there in the tone of her voice.)

[slemslempike.livejournal.com]

Now I need people who have used the stirrups to come and tell us if it is more comfortable. It seems like it might be uncomfortable in a different way, but less strain on the inner thighs.