How are virgins examined by the gyno?

When I was still a virgin and I had my first pelvic exam, my doctor also examined me rectal so he didn't hurt my hymen. It felt kinda weird but also a bit exciting.

My wife was a virgin her first time at 22. She was in pain (ended up being kidney stones). The ER doc did a vaginal-rectal, no speculum. Her first full exam was at 24 after we started having sex.

I was a virgin at my first pelvic/rectal exam. I was dreading going to the doctor, but I thought the worst thing that could happen was I may have to bend over and slip down my panties a little bit for a shot. I never dreamed I would be put into the stirrups. I was very young and TOTALLY not mentally prepared for that.

The nurse told me to strip completely, put on the gown then slide down to the end of the table. The male doctor was old and impatient with young girls. Once the nurse finally got me into position and into the stirrups, the doctor rolled his chair between my spread open legs....then immediately introduced his ice cold fingers to my virgin opening. I was petrified and so embarrassed that I was crying almost the entire time. When he was done with the pap smear and the internal exam, he asked the nurse to stand next to me and hold my hand.

Upon hearing that I became even more upset thinking it's still not over yet. I suppose he thought it would be less agonizing for me when his finger barged into my rectum if the nurse was holding my hand while he did it. It wasn't. I think if he had a nicer bedside manner it wouldn't have been so upsetting.

As I commented recently in another thread, back when I was in high school a girl friend had to see the lady doctor. She was not real specific as to why. This poor girl had a lot of problems, she had several cardiac surgeries by the time I had met her. Anyway, afterwords she commented to the effect that she was still intact and very tight and it may cause some pain if he were to examine her the normal way, so he examined her rectally. She did not say that, she said more like he stuck his finger in and felt her "back there", but I got the drift. This would have been back in the early 70's. So back than I guess it was not uncommon to examine virgins rectally.

Is a visit necessary when you're a virgin? I've only heard that you require a check up when you want to go on the pill, but there's no need to otherwise right?

When my girlfriend was 16, she was a virgin and had her first gyno exam. The doctor examined her externally and inserted her index finger to check internal parts, but spec was not used. Although she felt bit uncomfortable and embarrassed.

I was a virgin for my first gyno exam. My hymen was broken.

My first exam was when I was a virgin. The doctor just did an internal. The following year, a speculum was used.

First time I had a gyno exam was when I was 14 and I was virgin. It was part of a complete set of investigations they were doing to determine the cause of a severe anemia.

I had no idea why in the world would anyone do that to me for an anemia that had me landed in the ER, but years later I understood they can't just take your word for the facts when you tell them you're virgin, not pregnant, or even worse...

I remember I was asked to bend over and a male doctor/nurse whatever he was, stuck a finger in my back part...Embarassement wasn't enough to describe the feeling I had while a bunch of other medical professionals were staring at me in that vulnerable posture.

Next thing I remember was being taken into a room where they had a special table with weird places to put my legs, or so I thought. I was 14, I've never seen in my entire life a gyno room and wasn't really planing to see one any time soon either.

They asked me if I wanted to have my mother in the room with me and I said NO. I was embarrassed enough on my own. Surely did not want to add up to that by having my mother watching all that unfold.

I was asked to lay on that table with my legs in the stirrups and I still remember the cold feeling of something metallic touching my private area, the freezing room and how much I wanted not to be there at that time.

As far as I remember the doctor touched my lower abdomen, looked at my private parts and took sample of that vaginal discharge all women have.

I don't remember having anything inserted in, except for some cotton swabs around there.

NADYASB, your exam experience sounds similar to the scenarios us Playdocs create and continuously improve for our patients. To a hammer, everything looks like a nail to drive. To my specula, everything looks like a vagina to slide into and dilate--even my virginal speculum. I think it works that way in the real world too--real docs playing doctor.

How does one examine a virgin?

Very carefully.

As with any patient virgins can be examined with a speculum. Most speculums types ( Collins, Graves, Pedersons) come in a variety of sizes ranging from virgin, medium, large, extra large, long extra long etc.

A virgin is defined as a girl/woman who has not had sexual intercourse. But some people still think a virgin is a girl/woman whose hymen is still intact—which is wrong. You can be a virgin—and your hymen could have already been affected by strenuous sports or even riding a bike. And, believe it or not, some women can have sexual intercourse without the hymen being affected.

So the real issue at a pelvic exam is comfort, if a woman hasn't had sexual intercourse, the muscles around the vagina may be tighter. So if you are a virgin, tell the doctor before your exam. She or he could use a smaller speculum, which is more comfortable and tolerated better.

Great point, RN1993. Many people think that virginity means that a hymen seals off the entire vaginal opening. But that is obviously false because that would block any blood from exiting her body during the time of the month. A virgin may require a smaller speculum, as you say, because her hymen tissue has not yet become as flexible as someone's who is more active with vaginal insertions. The hymen is not typically busted through during insertions, it is merely stretched aside as the inserted object slides past.

Very well stated HC, thanks for adding that in your post . I should have added a bit more anatomical details to make it clearer as you did E& L to you for a great post.

Doc Rob, yes it was a very unpleasant experience at that time. Even now remembering about all that makes me have "yucky" feeling. I don't even know how to describe it in other words.

It surely must have been the age factor involved, I was very shy and not thinking about anything sexual for sure back then.

I was really sick at that time, embarrassed and angry because I couldn't comprehend what does an exam like that has to do with the reason I was in the hospital in the first place.

Years later, after beginning my sexual life, going through more exams as part of woman's health, pregnancy, all that...I don't feel bad anymore about getting vaginal exams. I'm comfortable now and moreover it is part of my imagination in a positive way.

The blades of the "virgin" speculum are narrow, they are inserted and then opened. The opening of the blades is wider at the end of the blades near the cervix and the blades are close together near the hinge end of the speculum, so the hymen never needs to be stretched by the speculum. Besides girls do OK inserting tampons. It's generally apprehensive or sexually repressed girls by religion that have any problem getting a tampon in unless they have an almost occlusive hymen.

Back in the days of Shakespeare, by definition a virgin had an intact hymen. Ask Juliet when her mother had her examined. Things change though.

Back in the days of Shakespeare, women didn't ride bikes or do aerobics...

Even in the days of Shakespeare, or even when a woman never rides a bike or exercises or rides a horse, an intact hymen still did not seal off the vagina except in very rare cases when it is "occlusive," as Susie said. If hymens sealed off the vagina, then virgins would all have an obstruction preventing any blood from escaping during their periods. Perhaps in the days of Shakespeare this deductive reasoning was not so common, and that lack of common sense was enough to establish the myth about hymen anatomy that persists even today. But man, that guy could write!

What if the virgin was pre-pubescent?

I had a friend who was tricked into going or basically forced by her mother at a young age. Her mother was afraid she would get pregnant. She wasn't even having sex at the time. Her mother went in with her. When she was told to get undressed and she saw the stirrups out she knew. It was a family doctor who did it. Her mother told her that it would not hurt a bit. She told me that it was painful and she felt her hymen tear. But after I guess you could say her mothers plan backfired. She started having sex and forgot her pills and got pregnant. I have to state that I hear kids and women who are still virgins being told it won't hurt, it may feel a little uncomfortable is all. Each woman is different. It is true that for some it won't hurt but some it does. I did not have sex until I was 17. I didn't even use tampons until after I had sex. I tried tampons once when I was still a virgin and it hurt bad. For some a pelvic may or may not break the hymen. Not all hymens are really tight. It all depends on the woman.

Examining the genitals of a young girl is always traumatic for both her and me. I have only examined the external genitals and perineum. This is done in evaluating trauma--either straddle injuries or possible sexual abuse or to evaluate symptoms of infection when the parents request it. As you can imagine examination of a sexually assaulted girl is horrendous. Frequently photos need to be taken and cultures as well. Fortunately in the case of vulvar trauma the area heals extraordinarily well. For vaginal trauma a gynecologist must be called and frequently general anesthesia employed. It is one of my least favorite things to do.

"This won't hurt a bit." is a euphemism for "This is gonna hurt like hell."

I was 18 for my first and my mother (without telling me) scheduled the appt for me. I was mortified. I'm sure she thought I was sexually active (or considering it) but I wasn't. Looking back on it, I should have cancelled it myself, HA! I was on the last couple days of my period and I was sure they weren't going to do the exam because of that -- nope! The dr came in, asked me all the routine questions, but didn't seem to believe me when I told her that I was a virgin and completely not sexually active. She did the entire exam anyway. Checked my breasts, bimanual exam (the first time I'd EVER had someone else's fingers inside me!), and the speculum was torture. Used the regular, "adult"(?) sized plastic speculum, crammed it up inside of me and opened it -- omg, I'll never forget the feeling. If that wasn't bad enough, she had placed the little pap wand or whatever on the counter behind her so she left me there, naked and barely covered on the table with this device screwed open in me... All in all, it probably didn't take more than a minute or two but it felt like an eternity. By my next exam, I was prepared and starting to become sexually active so none of it was as jarring as the first time. But oh my. If I ever have a daughter, there is no way I'm doing the same to her!!

My wife had her first pelvic exam at 16 and she was still a virgin. She told me her doctor used a "virginal" speculum, which is a small Pedersen if I'm not mistaken. She said that the doctor went slow, was gentle, and took his time explaining everything, which helped her to relax, and the exam wasn't too bad. Just some mild discomfort and pressure. She told me that only our current doctor's physician's assistant Katie is as gentle as he was.

I had my first exam at 16, nearly 17, and was a Virgin who had really never had anything in the vagina in years (there was one incident at 12 or 13 with a young lad who touched me, but I think my hymen remained intact after). Anyway, the exam was highly unexpected- I didn't know that a pelvic exam was going to happen (thanks mom), I don't even think I knew at the time that pelvic exams existed! I had a full breast and vaginal exam, including a speculum exam. I can't comment on the size of the speculum used as I didn't see it, but I did have residual bleeding for several days, likely from both the hymen and thr cervix.

I thought it would be interesting to raise this fascinating older thread in hopes that more women who've had pelvic exams before they were sexually active might share their experiences.

It's especially interesting to hear about what type of speculum was used (if any). And I'm personally always curious to know more about the issue of replacing the bimanual exam with a rectal exam—an idea which one reads about often online, but which doesn't seem to have been a very common experience for women on this thread!

My wife was a virgin at her first examination. She wanted to go on the pill and back then in the UK that meant having a mandatory breast and pelvic examination. She was rather nervous of course and told the doctor she was a virgin but he said it shouldn't be a problem. She found the examination a little uncomfortable and told me that the speculum felt big inside her, but generally it was ok for her. The doctor told her afterwards that intercourse wouldn't be a problem, so I guess her hymen was already broken or stretched because she used tampons.

Hello,

Do virgins have transvaginal ultrasound examination?

@Dove no they don’t.