When Noa Fleischacker had her first pap smear, she was struck by an unbearable, knife-like pain as soon as the speculum went in. “I literally was going to jump off the table,” Fleischacker recalled. At first, her gynecologist chalked this up to anxiety, allowing her to try again later with sedatives, but even though the drugs softened her nerves, they had no impact on her physical pain. From there, Fleischacker’s doctor sent her to a nearby hospital to get the exam under general anesthesia.
“It was a really ridiculous situation,” Fleischacker told Salon. “I didn't know what to tell people about why I was taking the day off work … The nurses who were putting in my IV were like, ‘It says you're here for a pap smear. You don't usually get an IV for a pap smear.’”
