Page 13 | Smear test - is it normal to find leaves and twigs?

Nearlyhealthy · 02/10/2025 07:56

I’ve always found them either painless or at worst mildly uncomfortable. It’s definitely better to go along and get it done imo.

bluebettyy · 02/10/2025 07:00

So you’ve had the total of one smear test and think youre an expert on the matter and can harp on about how easy it is?

Pricelessadvice · 02/10/2025 06:51

Mine have got more painful as I’ve got older, but I still go.
It took 2 people and a flashlight to successfully carry it out last time 😂I bleed a lot afterwards.

Original poster

User748937744 · 02/10/2025 05:56

UnintentionalArcher · 01/10/2025 22:58

Agreed. The many responses with negative experiences to me just show how poorly women’s health is managed; yes, the OP has chosen a particular angle which has annoyed and upset some, but if women’s healthcare was more of a priority and women’s pain taken seriously, it would be possible to post something innocuous and well-intentioned without it garnering the scale and intensity of response seen here.

I feel like the main issue is what fact that so many of these stories exist, that so many women’s experiences have been so awful, tell us about women’s healthcare. Smear tests are one example but there are many others.

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I’ll leave the thread in agreement with everything that @UnintentionalArcher has written.

Womens health so often is poorly managed.

I had a good experience yesterday - partly because the nurse I saw knew that it was my first smear and that I was extremely nervous. She did everything to put me at ease and was extremely kind and professional. We all deserve kind and professional treatment.

Thank you to the women who have said they are now booking a smear. And thank you to those who understood that my thread (written in minutes without too much thought because it’s a Mumsnet thread and not my PhD thesis) wasn’t ill intentioned.

OP posts:

Original poster

User748937744 · 02/10/2025 05:50

I didn’t mean to patronise, I didn’t mean to upset anyone. The “click bait” title was simply to get people to open the post - it seems to have worked 🫣

OP posts:

muddyford · 02/10/2025 05:43

JenXWarrior · 01/10/2025 23:30

Wow you must work 70+ hours a week doing a smear every 10mins to rack up '100s' a week love......

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Exactly what I thought. Hundreds a week...

CarterBeatsTheDevil · 02/10/2025 02:21

I read that screened populations see a 70-80% reduction in incidence and mortality re cervical cancer. Is that not the case after all?

JenXWarrior · 02/10/2025 02:17

ScorchingEgg · 02/10/2025 01:51

Unfortunately she fails to tell you the other stats, like how the smear test would never be introduced today if it didn’t already exist because it’s statistically ineffective, causes a vast amount of unnecessary procedures and anxiety (as it produces a high level of false positives resulting in further treatment such as punch biopsies which weaken the cervix and can make pregnancy more dangerous), makes women think they are ‘saved’ from cancer when actually cell changes usually go back to normal, and that a nurse performing smears for approx 40 years is likely to only see one to four cases of actual cancer, most of which would already be symptomatic. The lives ‘saved’ since the introduction of the smear test hasn’t actually changed, statistically, from the data pre-screening.

Smears are one of the biggest farces of modern medicine. Try asking your local practice how much extra they are getting as incentives to push you to have smears. I refuse to act like my body is constantly on the edge of being ‘sick’.

Presumably you’re also demanding scans for brain cancer, since you’re more likely to get that than cervical. No? Why not?

If you want more information, Dr McCartney, a GP who refuses smears herself (and as an aside, as was one of the co-founders of JK Rowling’s rape crisis centres) has a lot of great work and data on smears and screenings generally.

In the spirit of your comments, OP, if my comment makes just one woman critically think about her own health and assess her own risks instead of blinding following along, then I’ll be glad. You seem to fail to realise that medical treatment is a personal choice.

Edited

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Agree re brain scan example. Way too much focus on 'bikini medicine' IMO. No one seems to question this though, as usual.

bluebettyy · 02/10/2025 02:17

Your post is so patronising

bluebettyy · 02/10/2025 02:16

yes it’s important. But just because you find it easy and painless doesn’t mean everyone will. I find it painful and traumatic and my mum has had to return several times as they couldn’t get a test due to the shape of her cervix. It’s always agony for her.

ScorchingEgg · 02/10/2025 01:51

User748937744 · 01/10/2025 21:02

“For 90% of people takes less than 5 mins and is no big deal.“

thank you. This is great to hear from a nurse who does these tests all the time!!

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Unfortunately she fails to tell you the other stats, like how the smear test would never be introduced today if it didn’t already exist because it’s statistically ineffective, causes a vast amount of unnecessary procedures and anxiety (as it produces a high level of false positives resulting in further treatment such as punch biopsies which weaken the cervix and can make pregnancy more dangerous), makes women think they are ‘saved’ from cancer when actually cell changes usually go back to normal, and that a nurse performing smears for approx 40 years is likely to only see one to four cases of actual cancer, most of which would already be symptomatic. The lives ‘saved’ since the introduction of the smear test hasn’t actually changed, statistically, from the data pre-screening.

Smears are one of the biggest farces of modern medicine. Try asking your local practice how much extra they are getting as incentives to push you to have smears. I refuse to act like my body is constantly on the edge of being ‘sick’.

Presumably you’re also demanding scans for brain cancer, since you’re more likely to get that than cervical. No? Why not?

If you want more information, Dr McCartney, a GP who refuses smears herself (and as an aside, as was one of the co-founders of JK Rowling’s rape crisis centres) has a lot of great work and data on smears and screenings generally.

In the spirit of your comments, OP, if my comment makes just one woman critically think about her own health and assess her own risks instead of blinding following along, then I’ll be glad. You seem to fail to realise that medical treatment is a personal choice.

ScorchingEgg · 02/10/2025 01:29

Oh look, another thread of women policing other women’s bodies. What on earth do you think gives you the right to tell other women to go and get medical testing?

Talby91 · 02/10/2025 00:36

To be honest I find them very uncomfortable and usually painful, but needs must

WearyAuldWumman · 02/10/2025 00:25

GretaGip · 01/10/2025 18:25

it took four HCPs and 3 appointments to get mine done. And incredibly painful all three appointments were too.

so yeah, that’s why I prevaricate about it.

Shocking that not everyone has the same experience.

I've had two pain-free smear tests in my life - I'm 65. One was done by a practice nurse with 20 yrs experience as a midwife; the other was done by the practice successor that she trained.

Change2banon · 02/10/2025 00:24

Why on earth are people putting stupid pointless titles 😵‍💫😵‍💫
Just put smear test .. bloody stupid to add leave and twigs ffs.

TheSpiritofDarkandLonelyWater · 02/10/2025 00:00

LuLuLemonDrizzleCake · 01/10/2025 23:57

Sorry to hear that. Hope you've now found a different practitioner to do it.

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No I have not had one since.
I find any medical procedure very difficult including things like having my BP taken.

LuLuLemonDrizzleCake · 01/10/2025 23:57

TheSpiritofDarkandLonelyWater · 01/10/2025 23:32

No because I knew no better and thought it was normal

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Sorry to hear that. Hope you've now found a different practitioner to do it.

Naws · 01/10/2025 23:47

SALaw · 01/10/2025 23:43

But you must have seen posts before saying exactly the same and you didn’t feel compelled to go so what is more persuasive about your post than any you’ve ignored for years?

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Fair point.

There's been a thread like this every couple of months for years.

MyrtleLion · 01/10/2025 23:44

TheThingOnTheIce · 01/10/2025 23:07

Women can catch it from female sexual partners too.

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The first time they insisted she had had no sexual experience at all. She was treated very badly.

SALaw · 01/10/2025 23:43

User748937744 · 01/10/2025 18:18

Ok, clickbait title - for a reason!

I am in my 40s and had my first smear test today. It was so fine and so quick and so painless and so straightforward and I wish I’d been brave enough to go for all the many years I’ve ignored the invitations!

Aibu to tell as many people as I can who might also never have gone to just do it?

I’ll happily go back next time I’m called.

I only went today because I’ve had some symptoms that were concerning.

It was so built up as something embarrassing and possibly painful in my head and it just wasn’t either.

Please, please go. You can always say you’re nervous and would like to be seen by someone really understanding.

But you must have seen posts before saying exactly the same and you didn’t feel compelled to go so what is more persuasive about your post than any you’ve ignored for years?

RitaFromThePitCanteen · 01/10/2025 23:35

Thanks OP, nice of you for understanding that us silly little women need to be tricked into reading something because we don't know what's best for us.

At least it isn't the usual spiel about how we're stupid for being embarrassed, conveniently ignoring that it's a painful procedure for many of us. It's also traumatising for some women, for various reasons, but of course you wouldn't address that: nobody does.

TheSpiritofDarkandLonelyWater · 01/10/2025 23:32

LuLuLemonDrizzleCake · 01/10/2025 23:31

Sorry you experienced that. Hope you made a complaint and found a different surgery.

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No because I knew no better and thought it was normal

LuLuLemonDrizzleCake · 01/10/2025 23:31

TheSpiritofDarkandLonelyWater · 01/10/2025 22:12

If you cant understand then you are lucky. Have you felt pain and then get told by the nurse to grow up and put up with it? Because that was what happened to me. Then get told that if you dont have a smear then you WILL get cancer and die.

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Sorry you experienced that. Hope you made a complaint and found a different surgery.

JenXWarrior · 01/10/2025 23:30

SomeLikeitSnot · 01/10/2025 20:51

Nurse here who does smear tests.
Thanks OP we always appreciate some health promotion !
some people do find them painful- I’m incredibly experience and do hundreds of speculums a week and still have some patients who find it painful no matter how gentle I am/what size speculum I use.
For this self swapping for HPV- this is fine and definitely better than nothing but we also look at the cervix for changes and can refer for changes there too if needed (something like 9% of cervical cancer isn’t HPV related) so I would also choose a proper smear over self swab if you can manage it. For 90% of people takes less than 5 mins and is no big deal.

Wow you must work 70+ hours a week doing a smear every 10mins to rack up '100s' a week love......

TheThingOnTheIce · 01/10/2025 23:07

MyrtleLion · 01/10/2025 23:04

I find it really painful, and was advised to ask for a small speculum and to take it slowly. I am furious that they insist on my gay DSD having one when she has never had penetrative sex with a penis.

Women can catch it from female sexual partners too.