To think that if you work in gynecology...

[SirBoobAlot]

You should probably be able to say the word vagina?

Had my pre-op today. The gyne nurse was lovely, slightly scatty but very nice. She handed me the MRSA swabs to do, and said, "So this one is for your nose, and this one is for down there". What made it even better was she didn't say down there probably, but mouthed / whispered it Miranda-style.

Really made me giggle.

You should have said, loudly, "mai vaGYYYna or mai AYYYYnus?" just to see what she did

It really cracked me up. When I handed them back to her, I said, "This is the nasal one, and this one is the vaginal swab."

i thought at first you were going to say she mis pronounced vagina and was going to chastise you for making fun of speech impediments.

so very glad to see it's not that at all.

my mum is a midwife, has been for 30 odd years and i have never once heard her use the word vagina. all sorts of other names for it but never the right one. must be a HCP thing.

Well IME it should actually be a perineal swab not a vaginal one.... But our nurses actually explain that by saying "the skin between your vagina and your bottom" or similar.

Oh and I have no issues whatsoever using the correct terms.

Most of my patients don't understand them though... (I tend to compromise by using both - vagina, then if they look blank, whatever euphemism I think may help them to understand)

That's really funny. I guess they do it to avoid making people feel uncomfortable. It really bugged me after having DS that not one professional referred to my 'breasts' they were always 'boobs'. Just doesn't sound right to me in a clinical setting!

I lived with a medical student at university who wanted to specialise in gynaecology, he was quite socially awkward but his biggest impediment was that he couldn't talk to women without blushing furiously let alone talk about anything personal or intimate. 'Vagina' would probably give him palpitations.

He didn't go into gynaecology in the end thank god!

Erm, isn't the "down there"swab for your groin? When I had mine before my ablation it was nasal, underarm and groin swabs.

And have you tried using the Latin pronunciation of vagina with a HCP i.e. "wageena"? Their reaction is usually hilarious.

You had a swab for your vagina! .

When I had my pre- op [for hysterectomy] it was nose only swab.

I'm a bit shocked to be honest. .

Ours are nose, throat and perineum.

MRSA swabs are nasal and groin Not vagina! The nurse probably got a bit of a shock when you handed it back!

It was followed up with an ECG, so it was a very sophisticated afternoon

agree with batteryhen.. ours are nose and groin. we all say vagina in our gynae dept.. have lots if variations from patients though.. front bottom being a particularly common one with the post menopausal ladies :)
hear all sorts of things in our rooms I tell ya ;)

Bloody hell , does this mean my health authority is lagging behind and a little bit shite? .

Nose, throat and perineum here

groin and nostrils here

well not literally. . .

During my midwifery degree we had a whole session under the guise of sexual something or other, where we had to come up with as many terms used for genitals! The rationale was that not all people may be comfortable using biological terminology!!

I know some hospitals ask for nose, groin and throat but ours is just nose and groin. sirboob sounds like a fun day!! :)

I didn't actually shout 'vagina', though I did want to.

Just realised it was possibly a perineum one though, as chlamydia is regularly testing for, it was just the MRSA ones that needed doing again because of when all the swabs were last done. All the more reason she should have been more specific than ''down there'' I suppose Oops...

Sounds like a fun day, very romantic

The more MRSA swabs you take the more likely you are to isolate it. The difference in hospital policy on how many swabs to take depends on how big an MRSA problem they have v cost.

I should think, OP, that yes, the nurse is able to say the word vagina only she wasn't after a vaginal swab. It was a groin swab she needed. Classic case of bad communication. I suppose you could have asked for clarification.

I remember my doctor asking me whether I'd ever had an examination downstairs. I was completely bemused and said, "But this is a one storey building!"

Embarrassed to say "I've got a boil on my vulva and I think it's infected" to a male GP, I said "I've got a boil slightly south of the groin..." and he said "What, on your leg??" Doh!

I was very relieved to move & swap ferility specialists when the original one couldn't use the "proper name" for any sexual matter...
Eg. As long as the swang is in the lady parts and the swimmers go free, them we'd expect to make the bambino in x% of couples.

It was comedic at best, and certainly didn't put us at ease (or inspire confidence). Medical terminology does inspire confidence in what's being done to your body.