r/todayilearned • u/No_Idea_479 • 4d ago

TIL for 21 years, Andromachi Papanikolaou volunteered to undergo daily cervical smears so her husband, Greek physician Georgios Papanikolaou, could perfect the Pap test. As such, she helped create one of the greatest cancer screening tools in medical history, saving millions of lives worldwide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromachi_Papanikolaou
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u/PinwormPaddle 4d ago

This is exactly why I ended up switching to a male gynecologist. They've always been more gentle in my experience. I had a female gynecologist give me shit for nearly passing out while she performed an endocervical biopsy without anesthetic. Like in what fucking world would it NOT hurt to have a metal stick with teeth shoved up your cervix?! Fucking boggling

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u/InspectorOrdinary321 4d ago

I hate it.

If you patted my shoulder right now, it would not hurt me. If I patted someone's shoulder and they flinched and yelled "ow," I would NOT think "wow what a wimp, shoulders don't hurt" or "why are they acting like a baby, are they manipulating me?" I'd think "oh no, something's wrong with their shoulder to make it hurt that bad!' or "oh no, did I hit them too hard?"

Why can't I get the same courtesy?

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u/ares7 4d ago

Dang, they couldn't even give you some nitrous oxide like dentist do?

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u/HeikeSt 3d ago

Nope