I've never had a painful pap smear (some discomfort here & there) until this year. It was awful. First, she had a hard time finding my cervix and took forever digging around to find it (mine is also retroverted ). Then she told me she couldn't & I'd have to come back. At which point I told her which side it was on & encouraged her to continue. I don't know if I've ever had the brush used before, but this time it felt like I could really feel it scraping. It was very painful & the whole experience was horrible. It seemed as though this was her first ever pap smear. For some reason the pain made it seem all the more intrusive.