Pap smear!! STITCH INCOMING: This is NOT how Pap smear guidelines work...

Do not have to get a pap smear if you're not sexually active because nothing has went up there. No, wrong, false. No. Because if you go there to get a pap smear and you're a virgin, they're going to break the seal and you're basically not going to be a virgin anymore because the speculum. The doctor would have took your virginity with the goddamn speculum. I genuinely cannot believe that I have to say this in 2026, but a doctor cannot take your virginity with a speculum. I'm a biomedical engineer who studies female reproductive health, and there is so much misinformation that we need to go through it. So, first of, virginity is not an anatomical diagnosis. There is no biological seal inside of your vagina that gets broken when something enters it. I'm assuming that the seal she's referring to is the hymen, which is tissue around the vaginal opening that naturally varies tremendously from person to person. The appearance of your hymen cannot reliably tell a doctor or anyone whether or not you've had sex. So a tampon cannot take your virginity, a speculum cannot take your virginity. Performing a medical examination on you is not having sex with you. And telling women that examination somehow compromises their virginity is an incredibly dangerous way to scare people away from healthcare. But then she says that once you've had sex, in her words, a pump or a half, to start getting, you get two pops. And this is exactly how misinformation spreads around female reproductive health because pap smears are cervical cancer screenings. There are not screenings for whether a penis has entered your vagina. And yes, it's true that sexual activity is relevant to cervical cancer risk because persistent, high risk HPV infections cause the overwhelming majority of cervical cancers. But HPV does not require penis in vagina penetration to spread. HPV can be transmitted through intimate sexual skin to skin contact, including between women. And this is, the reason is because I've had numerous women in same sex relationships tell me that even medical professionals have told them they need pap smears because they don't have penetrative sex with men. Factually incorrect. Not know whether you've had a penis inside of you. And cervical abnormalities do not only become relevant penile penetration. There is a reason that cervical cancer screening guidelines give you an age to begin routine screenings. They do not say start at this age, but only after you've had penetrative penile sex. Different medical organizations currently recommend different starting ages and screening methods. But sexual activity is not a prerequisite for routine, age appropriate cervical cancer screenings. Yes, we can acknowledge the science that sexual exposure can affect your risk because HPV plays an enormous role in cervical cancer. But I've never had a penis inside of me, therefore I don't need cervical cancer screening. Appropriate screening or medical guideline. And telling people that a speculum takes their virginity while penile penetration is what suddenly makes them candidates for cervical cancer screenings is exactly the kind of reproductive health misinformation to stop spreading.