I have recently gone to Planned Parenthood for the first time ever.
And don't start freaking out, I didn't go for an abortion, I went for birth control.
But before I tell that story let me indulge you in my birth control history. I had first started on birth control in high school, my doctor put me on the pill to relieve my cramps. I liked it at first, it was "cool" to be taking it, especially since it made that one week every month a lot easier. But after while I realized all the hormones in the pill was effecting my personality. It was like I changed into a completely different person over night. So I decided to go off the pill, I wasn't having sex so I wasn't to concerned about the birth control aspect and more of the hormones.
Eventually, I did end up wanting to go on some sort of birth control, but something that didn't have any hormones. There is only one form of birth control without hormones, which is the copper IUD.
An IUD is a "T" shaped contraption that fits into your cervix and can last anywhere from 3-10 years. They do have various IUDs that have hormones, which do not last as long, but the one I got does not have any hormones and it lasts up to 10 years.
And now for where Planned Parenthood comes into the story. I had wanted to get this for a long time but have just never really put it as a priority until one day when I was doing some bills and chores and emailed my Physician about getting one. Her response was to go to an OB-GYN or Gyno. And well my doctors office is two hours away from my home so I decided to look for other options. I hadn't looked into Planned Parenthood before but thought I'd take a chance on it and ended up making an appointment.
In the end, I went to Planned Parenthood, got my IUD from a very nice group of nurses and went home. I was afraid it might cost a lot of money but they assured me my insurance should cover the majority of it. Well, it turns out my insurance covered all $1,250 of it. And I got it done only a few minutes away from home.
And with all of that knowledge about Planned Parenthood fresh in my mind, I got my pap smear test results back from my physical I had just had at my Physician's office.
It came back abnormal with signs of LGSIL, which stands for Low Grade Squamous Intraepitelial Lesion. Which basically means there is mild dyplasia that showed up on my pap smear. Low Grade Squamous Intraepithelial Lesion is a type of irregular
development of squamous cells on the top layer of the cervix. The
cervix, as we know, is a little organ, in the form of a cylinder that
lies as a part of the lower end of the uterus. Squamous cells are scaly looking flattened epithelial cells. These
cells help in the movement, distribution and absorption of various
nutrients and liquids in the body. A Low Grade Intraepithelial Lesion is a condition in which a little
part of the cervix is affected and the cells have low levels of
abnormality. Now commonly the lesions disappear over time and there are no more problems. But in the rare cases LGSIL can cause cervical cancer.
Now learning all of this from my doctor who is two hours away was hard, and I tried to make an appointment with my physician for another pap test in about five months for an update on how it looks. Except my physician would not make an appointment for another one any time less then a year. Which gave me more anxiety than I already had. I basically have these things in my cervix that may or may not be serious but my doctor won't see me. So after talking to a few loved ones about it I decided my best choice is to go back to Planned Parenthood in a few months, take another test, cheaper and quicker than going to my physician for it and I would get the results back sooner.
I was never against Planned Parenthood, but I was never truly Pro-PP either. I just never thought I would need to go there, until I did and I am so happy I had that option. I can't imagine what I would be doing without that option. I support Planned Parenthood, because Planned Parenthood supports me.
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