Women failing to attend smear tests

I am wondering is this was in Ireland, lots of my friends have Irish parents.

I can't remember now but have come across it multiple times.

No -

It was back in the day - doctors would just whip it all out / some of it out "while they were in there" as a sort of preventative thing because, well, women's reproductive organs are always out to kill them.

I can't find anything too relevant on google but I know people whose mums it happened to when they were relatively young. Of course sudden menopause and all gone in your 40s for no good reason is hardly trivial but that's where we were at.

I mean they used to do all sorts of things to women didn't they. Consent was not really considered important up til what 20 years ago? - dr knew best.

UpABitLate, I suppose the same principle as the mastectomy then. I hope that got consent in advance.

PeacefulBlessing

And nor do you in that many women find smears uncomfortable rather than painful, but that isn't what you want to hear is it??

something from 1995

I’ve never had an intimate wax but I’ve never heard of it involving inserting things into the vagina?

It's going back a while but was not uncommon.

Why is waxing the vulva relevant to a procedure on your cervix?

@Walkingdead11 why are you determined to make light of a serious issue and laugh at women recounting their painful experiences here? How does this help increase the uptake of smear tests?

UpABitLate

Oh please but it's perfectly okay to listen to tales of smear hell but not beauty hell.......tad convenient! Oh and I know women find waxing painful because a) I'm a woman who's been waxed and B) other women have told me.

It used to happen a lot.

They'd see something iffy and "whip it all out" while they were in there.

UpABitLate, I've never heard of someone having their entire reproductive system being removed without consent. I do remember back when women with a breast lump would go into theatre not knowing if they would wake up with a mastectomy or not. I remember someone having this done, she was told it wasn't a good idea to have a second anaesthetic so better to do it all in one go if they found cancer. They did get consent though, they didn't just do it without the woman knowing. I always thought that must be really traumatic. I don't know if the doctors really thought it was better or if it was just cheaper to do one op instead of two.

expatinscotland im sorry you have had such a horrendous experience. If a nurse can’t locate a woman’s cervix she will be referred to Colp or Gyn where they will try and perform a smear test. I look at smears every week where the woman is sent to a colp/gyn just for a smear test, no biopsy involved.

granny I don't know

my personal experience has been mixed from both.

Men aren't treated just the same.

Read the links.

I have never heard of a man going in for a routine op to remove a cyst on a bollock and coming out to find his entire reproductive system has been removed. For example. Although I think that happens less now... Still the idea there is equity is laughable and also disputed more and more frequently as research into it continues.

UpABitLate does that vary with male/female doctors?

I know certain ethnic minorities are more likely to get diagnosed with mental health issues as well.

Margaret McCartney book The patient paradox is an excellent read for more information about this, along with the dangers of other screening tests.

If I remember correctly a woman's lifetime risk of unnecessary further treatment following a smear test is around 70 per cent.

something I think I’m confused over your use of the word ‘normal’

If many women complain of pain, isn’t that normal?

I’ve been for a colposcopy and had LLETZ. The people were lovely, I was given local anaesthetic and it was fine. I would love to go there for my smears but really, I don’t need to. I just need a nurse who is gentle.

Hospital clinic time should not be eaten up by me just because some practice nurse thinks the best way to insert a speculum is to ram it in hard.

Oh wow read the rest of that piece (second one) it's awful!

I didn't post an older one from the BBC where women are described as "wimps"... because it irritated me

Oh dear too many year with the police and black humour then. It is odd that on here it is all how terrible that women are treated so much worse than men but you don't really like to know that men are treated just the same. Spoils the woe is me thread doesn't it.

LettuceWrap, I think genetic testing will be a revolution. The thing that worries me about 23andme is if people think it is 100% and then maybe don't get the diagnosis/treatment they need. False sense of security I suppose. I'm not happy that I qualify for screening but given my family history I am glad it is there, more for my DD and GDs than me. My only problem is I don't know how long the wait will be.

"One reason for this gender disparity may be that doctors wrongly perceive women are being more irrational and emotional than men, and therefore dismiss their complaints about pain as being all in the mind rather than having a physical basis. Clinical studies have also found that doctors are more likely to think women’s pain is caused by emotional issues rather than physical causes, even in the presence of clinical tests which show their pain is real. Similarly, researchers J.Crook and E.Tunks found in their study ‘Women With Pain’ that women with chronic pain conditions are more likely to be wrongly diagnosed with mental health conditions than men and prescribed psychotropic drugs, as doctors dismiss their symptoms as hysterics."

more on pain

pain

its legs akimbo with your vagina out having hot wax poured on you and then pulled out

You have your vagina out? What literally? They actually pull your vagina out of your body..?

Oh

Hang on...

You mean vulva don't you?

Sorry, but it is rather funny that you're trying to shame women for not having smear tests...

Oh and you might not find it less painful or invasive. That doesn't mean other women don't. You don't seem to understand that your personal experience cannot be extrapolated to that of all women.