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Readers React: The mother-daughter solution to educating college students about pelvic exams

Medical equipment in an exam room at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., is shown.
Medical equipment in an exam room at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., is shown.
(Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images)
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To the editor: I’d like to offer an unconventional approach to learning what to expect during a pelvic exam: Attend one of your mother’s.

The summer before I left for college, my mother brought me to her pelvic exam appointment and asked our family doctor if I could sit in. After initial resistance, he acquiesced, and after some prodding by my mother, he also explained each step of the process.

So that this learning experience could be shared with other mothers and daughters, my mother and I co-wrote an article for a women’s health journal titled “My Daughter’s First Pelvic.”

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Karen Swanson, Los Angeles

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook.

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