/assets/images/provider/photos/2745732.jpg)
Your daughter is growing into a young lady, and you realize it may be time for her first visit to the gynecologist. Here’s a look at when you should bring her in, plus a few details about what we accomplish during this first visit.
It happens so fast — your cute little daughter with the chubby cheeks has turned into a beautiful young woman, seemingly overnight. With this transformation, you realize it may be time for some more adult healthcare, which starts with her first gynecology visit.
At Bay Area Physicians for Women’s Health, our caring team of women’s health care providers offers comprehensive adolescent gynecology for just this occasion.
In the following blog post, we dive into when it’s a good time to bring an adolescent in for reproductive healthcare and what she can expect during this all-important initial visit.
The timing of your teen’s first gynecology visit
Let’s first discuss when you should start bringing your daughter to see us, with the understanding that there’s no hard and fast rule, but we do have some good guidelines.
The average age that girls first start their periods is around 12, though many young women start their cycles before or after. Once a girl enters puberty, her reproductive systems start to come online, and this is when she will benefit from specialized reproductive healthcare.
As a result, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that adolescents start seeing an OB/GYN between the ages of 13 and 15, a range that coincides with the start of a girl’s transition through puberty.
Although this is a great rule of thumb, there are exceptions, such as:
- Your daughter’s early periods are problematic — abnormal bleeding and bad cramps
- Your teen is sexually active or in a relationship
- Your teen hasn’t gotten her period by the age of 15
You shouldn’t be too concerned about erratic periods during the early days of her menstrual cycles, but you should pay attention if she’s having quality-of-life issues because of abnormal periods.
What happens during your teen’s first gynecology visits with us
If your daughter’s first visit with us is routine, we place more emphasis on education than anything else. In fact, it isn’t often that we perform a pelvic exam during early gynecologic care unless there’s a specific issue that we’re investigating, such as the aforementioned abnormal bleeding.
To start, we gather some information and collect some basic health data, such as her weight, height, and when she started her menstrual cycles. We also ask you, the guardian or parent, for any pertinent family history, such as immediate family members who have gynecologic conditions like polycystic ovary syndrome or uterine fibroids.
We also check to see whether your daughter has had the HPV vaccine, which we can administer any time after the age of 9 and up until the age of 26 (the CDC recommends the vaccine around the age of 11 or 12).
Once we gather this information, we allow time for your daughter to ask us any questions she may have about the changes taking place in her body. We will also be asking some questions of our own, so we urge you to encourage your daughter not to be shy or nervous about being open and honest with us. We’re here to help and educate, not to judge.
If we learn that your adolescent is sexually active, we may talk to her about sexually transmitted infections and how to protect herself.
As for the exam part of the visit, if it’s just routine, we typically perform an external exam of her genitalia. Pap tests aren't recommended until the age of 21, so your daughter shouldn’t expect this screening during her early visits with us.
As you can see, there’s nothing that your teen should be nervous about, and we will make every effort to put her at ease.
If you have any more questions about your teen’s adolescent gynecology, please don’t hesitate to contact our office in Mobile, Alabama.