The awkward — but necessary — experience of getting a Pap smear

Getting a Pap smear isn’t among my favorite things to do, ranking somewhere between eating cauliflower (ugh) and going to the dentist (worse). I usually find the experience awkward, but it has to be done — every three years for most patients, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists — to detect changes in cervical cells that may become cancerous. Over the past 30 years in the United States, the number of cervical cancer cases and deaths has decreased by half, mainly because of the increase in screenings.