Do you ever feel as if doctors speak another language? You think that it's English, but it must be some weird, obscure dialect? Well, it takes a long time for doctors to learn the language of medicine (4 years of med school, 3-8 years of residency and fellowship), and they have an equally hard time learning when not to use it...like with patients. So I'm going to devote some posts to decoding the lingo that gynecologists use without thinking.

Almost every day in the office I mention to a patient that she has a retroverted uterus, and I'm met with a blank stare. Also called a "tipped uterus," a retroverted uterus tilts back in your pelvis, toward your tailbone. About one in five women have one--the rest have an anteverted uterus, that tips forward towards the bladder. You can't control this, it's simply your natural direction.

What does having a retroverted uterus mean? Probably nothing, but maybe two things--it may mean more difficult speculum exams, because your cervix tends to be hidden behind your pubic bone. If you feel like your gyno is mining for gold in there, tell her to "look up" to find your cervix. And if your uterus is tipped, sexual positions with deep penetration may cause discomfort: your cervix gets cranky when she's smacked, and can cause your uterus to start cramping. So positions where you control how deep he goes may be more enjoyable. Having a retroverted uterus does NOT affect your chances of pregnancy (so you still need birth control), or cause any complications when you are pregnant--the position straightens out (from either direction) by the end of the first trimester.

Has your gyno ever used medical terminology without explanation?