\u201cAre you s3xually active?\u201d the doctor asked during my 18th birthday checkup \u2014 and minutes later, everything changed.If I\u2019d known a routine appointment could flip my world upside down, I would\u2019ve braced myself better.It was my eighteenth birthday. I was sitting on a crinkling paper-covered exam table in a clinic painted an unsettling shade of mint green, trying to ignore how exposed the thin gown made me feel. I\u2019d already endured off-key birthday singing, cake too early in the morning, and the quiet weight of officially becoming an adult. The checkup was supposed to be the dullest part of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dr. Melissa Rowe didn\u2019t look up from her tablet when she asked, \u201cSo, are you sexually active yet?\u201dThe question felt off. Not shocking \u2014 just misplaced, like stepping onto a stair that isn\u2019t there.I deflected with humor. \u201cIf arguing with my alarm counts, then yes,\u201d I joked. \u201cOtherwise, no.\u201dShe stopped typing.Then she stood abruptly, her stool rolling backward.\u201cThen we may have an issue,\u201d she said, heading for the door. \u201cStay here. We need to prepare you.\u201d\u201cFor what?\u201d I asked.But she was already gone.The fluorescent lights hummed louder \u2014 or maybe it was just my pulse. I stared at a handwashing poster, trying to breathe.
I called my mom.\u201cShe asked me something strange,\u201d I said. \u201cNow she wants imaging. Immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
T<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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