Women looking to get into education in Sao Paulo are sometimes asked to prove their virginity in order to get jobs.

That is if they want to avoid having to submit the results from their exams.

Potential teachers are supposed to go undergo a pap smear to show they do not have different types of cancers, or have a doctor prove that they haven't had sex, according to the Associated Press.

The exams have been in place since at least 2012, and the point is to show that potential teachers will not need to take extra time off for health issues. It previously required women to also take a colposcopy, which examines the cervix, vagina and vulva for disease.

"It violates women's right," said Ana Paula de Oliveira Castro, a public defender of women's issues in Brazil. "It's very intimate information that she has the right to keep. It's absurd to continue with these demands."

Attention was brought to the test last week when a 27-year-old woman said she was embarrassed to ask a doctor to write her a note saying that she was a virgin.

An investigation has been opened by the state agency, notes the Huffington Post. Government spokespeople have criticized the practice.

One said, "Anyway, it is known that science suffers advances over the years and that it can change. About a year ago, the Department of Medical Skills made revisions in order to make the language more understandable to Sao Paulo citizens."

Many have taken to social media to express disappointment, but the message has gotten a little muddled. People believe that it means one needs to be a virgin in order to teach, but the jobs are not discriminating based on whether or not someone is a virgin.