I only take one of my legs out of trousers and pants, so I'm half dressed.
Legs bent and flopped out. I make the appointment when I'm ovulating as the cervix is low and soft in the vagina then.
My dr uses a small plastic speculum which she warms up under the angle lamp. I lie with my hips up on a pillow / roll of the blanket. I hold a pillow on my tummy.
We chat a lot about stuff before the puts gel on the speculum and then inserts it, and opens it a little bit.
She's quick then, and just brushes my cervix with the little brush and then gives me a baby wipe and some paper roll, and turns away to put the sample away in the labelled bag for the lab. It doesn't hurt at all and the heat from lamp helps relax me.
She has a little mirror so I can see as well, but I'm not that interested in looking. She tells me how my cervix is looking etc when she's doing it, so I know it's ok. I have a retroverted womb, so the cervix points backwards. She knows that so is ready.
After it's all done I wipe off most of the gel, pull up my clothes when she's busy with bagging the sample, put on my shoe, and that's that.
I always bring a pantyliner to put on as the gel can feel very sticky!
We are so lucky to have a free smear programme in Ireland. All the gps have had specialist training and are excellent.
My GP gives me a breast exam at the same time, every two years.
I hate the daily mail,btw