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

Really? So when you go for your smear test you are sexually aroused? Fully open and just waiting for it?

I don't think it's patronising. The OP has taken time to try to help others who would like to have their smears but are too scared. She was once like them and now just wants to reassure others. Entirely altruistic.

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.

No. If it's done at the GP's it will just be on a couch. You are asked to put the soles of your feet together and let your knees fall apart. Not on a proper gynae chair

I really don't understand why women don't go because of the pain. I have a tilted cervix so its always more painful and longer for me. But it's a few minutes or so and then done. Childbirth is a lot longer and more painful!

Same with hysteroscopies. Better to get it done soon and checked out than wait to go under GA.

In both cases, you can buy over the counter Cocodamol to take beforehand, but it really is better to suffer a few minutes of pain than months or years of cancer, surely.

And use the smallest size of speculum.
And approach at the right angle, AND go in slowly

I'm about to go under general anesthetic for a coil fitting and smear test (as I've never had either before.) Apparently my cervix is very sensitive because the midwife only had to go near it last year and it hurt so much I begged her to stop and I ended up having a c section. (Ended up being fortuitous really.)

Well done 👏 I have been going for years since the first invitation but...the practice nurse has to use the teeny tiniest speculum 😬 I am so anxious each time. But so far it's come back no concerns. Hopefully yours is the same OP🤞

Sorry to read about all the horrendous experiences. Just wondering - are your smears done on a gynae chair? I have never had one done in the UK but have the impression that the GPs dont have the gynae chair?

Where I am women see a gynae dr every year, who has obviously a proper gynae chair and havent heard horror stories like you are describing.

What a ridiculously patronising post.

This is a really interesting thread in that it has shown lots of women are done with smears and happy to accept the risk. NHS needs to get on with the self testing for HPV asap for prevention

I had one yesterday, it was uncomfortable, painful, made me bleed and I was upset afterwards.

I go because I have to - but it’s not painless or easy :(

I don’t think it’s helpful to preach about it or say ‘just do it’. It’s not easy for everyone

I can’t vouch for how true it is but there’s some theory that you can catch it at birth from your mother .

Being someone who wasn't bothered about having a smear as i hadn't had sex for a long time and never had any issues. I went for a smear and needed a hysterectomy at the age of 40. Im so glad I didn't put it off any longer.

I don't live in the UK and while my last test had to be at the surgery I was offered the option to do it myself, which I did - not that the nurse doing it bothers me, and I've never suffered any pain from it.

It's just gross, isn't it?

@OttersAreMySpiritAnimal I've tested pos for HPV, no abnormal cells. Five yrs ago tested neg, and before that they only tested for abnormal cells, which I never had. I've been married 38 yrs. Neither of us had other partners. No cheating. There are other ways for the virus to spread, despite what we're told. Best to have your smear.

Well turnout for smear tests is incredibly low so clearly women aren’t convinced…..

And maybe that’s the difference for some women, for me it very much feels like a scrape rather than a brush! For me it is the worst sensation, even thinking of it now makes me nauseous, and that’s after two children - childbirth was a breeze in comparison. My last one was thankfully done under general anaesthetic while my ovaries were removed (which frankly I’d rather have than a smear!).

I once had a smear so bad they couldn't even complete it, physically could not get the speculum inside me (told me they couldn't use lubricant) and it was agony.

For my next I took a friend. This was then not allowed for the next appointment due to COVID rules so I skipped it. The one after was really traumatic and painful and honestly I'm over it. I'm not having another. I've had much better experiences at the local sexual health clinic and I wish I could have a smear there where they actually know what they are doing unlike my GP office.

Once the self testing kits get sent out I'll use that quite happily but I'm also sick of being told to go and how it's absolutely fine and nothing to worry about. That's just not true and at this point it feels dismissive and insulting, not encouraging. I would like to hear practical steps being taken to improve the smear, not the same old rhetoric of how it's a little uncomfy but painless and it's silly to fear them.

THIS THREAD HAS BEEN DONE A BILLION TIMES BEFORE SO DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT.

WHY ARE WE USING CAPS HERE? 🤭

You're absolutely right. Tell them all. I'd just like to add that ALL women should go, even if they think there's no way they can have HPV. Despite what we're told, there are non sexual ways in which the virus can be transmitted.

True, and a lot of people think a smear checks all sorts. One of the mums at school came from America and assumed they'd do all kinds of gynae checks/asking questions etc, and in my experience, they don't. It's good you've posted this as one woman I know of was convinced she couldn't have a serious illness (despite symptoms) because "they'd have told her at the test if there was an issue".
I really wish they would ask a few questions about pain/bleeding etc, and tell women if anything looks wrong, because it could improve quality of life if she has a "minor" issue, and if they pick up on a serious issue by extending appointments by a minute or two, lives would be saved.

Here's the thing, though. Well, two things. One - a smear can tell you you have HPV and many posters would say you should disclose that to future sex partners and this basically means it would undermine your sex life for potentially years. (I don't subscribe to that view).

Two - if you were diagnosed, would you want to be treated? Not everybody would, treatment can be traumatic.

I've never been for a smear and I'm happy with that. If you would want treatment and the HPV issue doesn't bother you then absolutely go for it. I don't like the patronising COME ON LADIES, GET YOUR FLOWER LOOKED AT stuff.

Agreed. It can still be painful for some people.