#medstudblr

more gyn things!

volunteered at the free clinic again. we had a patient who needed a general gyn exam and was super cooperative. i practiced taking the gyn history, which i still need practice with. then we exited the room and as the patient changed, my upperclassman partner said i’d be doing half of the breast exam and a bimanual! :o

i was caught off guard; thought i’d have the luxury of just watching this time but i’m really glad she threw me right in. i was a little more comfortable with the breast exam but we had only trained for the bimanual briefly on mannequins so i was really nervous for that.

i watched my partner do one breast and i did the other, which was fine. then i assisted her with the speculum exam/pap smear. i watched her do the bimanual first, then did it as she coached me. unfortunately i couldn’t feel as much as i thought i would. tried my best to reach the cervix & think i could feel it with the tip of my finger but still wasn’t sure, and her uterus was also hard to palpate. my partner agreed with me on these things though so i guess it wasn’t just me!

learned all about IUDs from one of our OB/GYNs. she was this very knowledgable and animated old lady with so much personality, cracking jokes the whole time and had us all laughing. she really made the whole experience a lot of fun :) i told my friend that i wanna be her when i grow up haha

didn’t practice on papayas this time, just little plastic uterus models. the protocol was relatively straightforward, though of course like all things, i anticipate this would be harder to do in a human. 

also learned about extended-cycle pills which i actually never heard about before. i was surprised because i used to teach contraception workshops just a few years ago, and they were never mentioned in our curriculum.