u/TransitionMission305

I had to book a fairly short-notice work trip for a 8/27 flight, west to east coast. Only 4 middle seats were left to choose (other seats were available for a higher cost).

I've usually had pretty good luck moving my seat closer to my flight date and I realize we are about a week out now, but I'm seeing nothing budge. I know at 24 hours/check in, I'll see something, but does United start pulling status travelers up into the better seats at any expected interval? Like should I be on the app specifically at 48 hours pre-flight? I'd really like to get out of the middle seat. Regular economy ticket booked.

So I'm on either a 6-month to 1 year pap smear testing interval due to mostly ASCUS results (never been HPV positive). I had a colposcopy in 2024 after an ASC-H pap and that ended up finding nothing, but have continued with the ASCUS paps ever since. My doctor is trying to get me synched back on a one year interval that coincides with my well-woman appointment. So I had a pap in April. It came back in 3 days as ASCUS with the reflex HPV done which was negative. Prior to that, most of my paps are taking anywhere from 8-20 days to come back. It's just frustrating because of the anxiety of waiting to see if my next pap smear is going to force my doc to do yet more biopsies.

So here I sit, having had a pap smear last Friday on June 24th and it's now June 31st and zilch. My friend just had hers done in May and it was almost overnight (but she's completely normal so I don't believe they do the reflex HPV test). And as I said, the fastest one I had was in April at 3 days.

I've been having mine done via Labcorp for forever. East Coast. Is it a summertime thing? Low staffing, etc. Does everyone's results take this long? I hate it!

I don't post here a lot but I have several times regarding HRT use, vaginal odor, pap smears, etc. This is a bit of rant and I'm not sure I've got it solved, but maybe it helps one person.

I am 11 years post meno. Not on HRT but use topical estrogen and have done so for a very long time. During most of my life, I've had vaginal issues with itching, burning, pain etc. Probably misdiagnosed with yeast many times. When I was in my late 40s, I was "sort of" diagnosed with lichen sclerosus. Never treated well/aggressively for it, but after menopause, it got less irritable. Also, I had a hard time where I am getting anyone to take it seriously but, as with everything else, it seems to be getting more recognition these days.

Somehow in my 11 year journey of meno, I started getting abnormal pap smears. No HPV. Finally in 2024 I had to have a colposcopy. Biopsies were benign but still continued to get abnormal paps, which does drive my GYN crazy.

As with most women in menopause, I am completely dry most of the time. Gone is the natural lubricant than younger women take for granted which is also sometimes annoying. But it really does keep things balanced. I miss it. With that lack of lubrication, I have often felt there is now an odor there. It's not in my groin, it's not sweat, and there's nothing coming out. It just seems to be embedded in the vulvar skin and internal to the vagina and i hate it. I've mentioned it to my GYN and she's like "oh that's normal." No.

In April I had to have another repeat pap. This time I thought I'd try to prepare for it by going back to a loading dose of vaginal estrogen. I'd read somewhere that it could help to normalize the cervical cells. So I did a loading dose for 2 weeks, took a 4 day break, had the pap, still abnormal. Additionally at the end of the loading dose, I was really starting to feel more irritated than I normally do. During the pap, my doctor said "you do look irritated." Nothing more said.

The day after the pap, my vulva went into overdrive. Burning like I don't think I've ever had. It was awful. I also took a look down there with a mirror and could see that the lichen sclerosus was also in a massive flare. I had white areas where I had never seen it. Now how long was that there, I have no idea as I don't examine like that all time.

I ended up buying a 7-day yeast treatment out of desperation. It immediately started working and by Day 3 I was feeling SOOOO much better. I finished it all up. It's been a week--I feel great.

But here's the biggest thing--that odor that I've had for years now--it's completely gone and I am back to really smelling like....myself....

How is this possible? I'm starting to think I could have had a low-level yeast colonization for YEARS. And then I read that yeast is responsible for abnormal pap smears. I'm just astounded and beside myself. I don't know whether to be mad at myself or my doctor for not pursuing this more and accepting it as a change due to age. Now I'm wondering if the vaginal estrogen is causing this.

At any rate, I'll be treating with a yeast treatment before my next pap smear just to see.

I know there's been a few questions about odor here that's internal. It's really hard to tell if you have yeast in menopause because you don't get the tell-tale discharge.