When should I start seeing a gynecologist?
A woman should start her visit to the gynecologist at eighteen. The college of OB-GYN recomends a first pap-smear to be done at eighteen or when a person becomes sexually active. That may be as early as thirteen. Also there are women that I see, or girls that I see at the age of thirteen for different problems. So if a woman has a problem, or a girl has a problem, it does'nt really matter what age they have and sometimes I see young girls three, four years old with vaginal infections that are recomended to see me by their pediatricians, and they really don't know what is going on. We take care of those problems to. But just for routine if someone has never had sexual intercourse and they just want to start seeing a physician, eighteen is a good time to start. It's a good time because at this age you get educated about your organs, how they work, how to examine yourself, what to expect. For example breast exam, someone will show you how to do it, a good breast exam, when to do it, what to look for. The same thing with their periods, what's normal, what's not normal. Also a lot of hormonal changes may be going on at this age or even earlier. For example I have a lot of patients that have hormonal problems where they have irreregular mensis, increased hair growth, acne, they gain a lot of weight very quickly. These are things that we can adjust and take care of very early on if we know early on that this problem is going on. So the answer is if you notice anything that you think is not normal or is not usual and should not be there.
