The worst cervical cancer campaign ever...

Yes, it’s crazy that unnecessary, time-wasting, invasive tests are still being carried out with no thought as to what would be more comfortable for the women involved. Good luck with Superdrug, Clabony!

Sometimes I feel like the aim is to make as many women suffer as possible. For years, women tried to raise awareness that cell changes in young women were most likely benign if they didn't have HPV, and that the screening programme led to unnecessary interventions on women who wouldn't have developed cancer.

Now the NHS explains all that on its official websites. But we're still expected to submit ourselves to an unchanged, painful screening process. The only concession to the new awareness that it's HPV that is the signifier? They throw away the samples at the lab that don't test positive for it.

Thank you @CorruptedCauldron and @NeighbourhoodWatchPotholeDivision and @MrsTerryPratchett
I've learned so more on this thread than from my GP surgery.
I'm sure I can manage to do a Superdrug test on myself, and then see how it comes back. So for me, that's a step forward. Thank goodness for the women on here!

FFS they could do SO much better if they weren't shit. Nervous women would be fine with a quick self-administered test. And them they'd have fewer smears to do and therefore could target resources, book better and take more time.

It's not a stupid question.

These days the lab checks the sample for particular strains of HPV, and then, if the strains are present, the sample is checked for abnormal cell changes.

I assume it's like that because they think it's more efficient than administering HPV tests and then recalling women whose samples are positive for HPV, to screen them for abnormal cells.

Mostly they think that because they don't listen to women.

You can indeed get a home test from Superdrug, it costs about 50 quid and gives some peace of mind if you’re not having cervical screening. Obviously if you came back HPV positive you’d need further investigation. As I understand it, when you go for a smear test, they now throw your sample in the bin if it’s HPV negative. They only examine the cells properly if the sample is HPV positive. So for me, it’s Superdrug all the way these days. I ordered it online and got my results very quickly.

I know it's a stupid question, but if you can get a home test for HPV from Superdrug ( which I didn't know) why do you still need a smear test if it is now for HPV only and not abnormal cells?

If there was some kind of home test I would do it.
I can't cope with a stranger and an intimate procedure, and the minimising of that fear.

How is a 'cheeky and playful' campaign supposed to encourage women ? It's infantising. Also what's with all the empowering BS ? It's condescending.

I think the whole thing needs an overhaul starting with not harassing women when they go in for unrelated medical issues.

They need to guarantee a female will do it, have appointments or dedicated drop in clinics for women who have trauma, pain or any other barrier, where they can go and meet the nurse, talk about it with no pressure to actually do it (like some dentists do).
It needs to be emphasised that it will be private and the woman will be listened to and in control the whole time.
Recognition that the test might not even be worth it for some women (screening is not supposed to cause further harm) with no more 'but you might die'.

There should also be out of hours and easy availability for women who aren't particularly bothered by the actual experience but have no time, lead busy lives, can't get an appointment and quite frankly just push it to the bottom of their to do lists.

Also some sort of recognition that a lot of women are questioning it's efficacy when all they do now is test for the HPV virus and not cell changes.

I breathlessly await the follow-up campaign which will presumably be a "cheeky" spin on the US phrase put-out.

Don't complain about the pain, shut up and put out maybe?

Surely your GP can’t just do what bloody dentists do and drop you if you don’t use appointments regularly enough.

This stuff is horrendous.

Meanwhile, I tried to get a GP appointment for my son to be told that the practice can only offer an emergency service at the moment and if I wanted his (routine and chronic) issue to have medical attention I’d need to go to A&E.

Because now we are in the bizzaro-world where GPs send you to A&E for routine stuff because they’re busy operating an emergency service.

But somehow they still manage to nag me about smear tests.

Indeed it does use "women" (with one example of "women and people with cervixes").

So was that in their original copy - and if so, who changed it?

There is some reasoning given for the design:
"We wanted a campaign that was playful and a bit cheeky in order to grab our audience’s attention so the strapline, Don’t Keep ‘Em Crossed, was perfect. Cervical cancer screening is often a cause for worry, with lots of women putting it off, but we’re hopeful that our campaign has helped change this.”

Oh dear, no.

Also:
"Influential implemented an out-of-home strategy whereby campaign posters were displayed at targeted venues, such as hairdressing and beauty salons, gyms, bars and coffee shops in an effort to reach its audience."

So its target audience is who, exactly?

@Flowers4me

I'm sorry you're going through this too @JenniferBooth - it is coercive and plain wrong. No thought to what might be going on for us that might be making these appointments difficult.

@Flowers4me i got a similar letter a while back saying as i didnt use the GP surgery services they were taking me off the list

a. i e mailed them back in May Im still waiting for a reply
b when i ring them im always at least 14th in the queue (im on pay as you go)

c. i tweeted them and got the same result ...........nothing.

Fucking gaslighting shit

I followed the link to the marketing agency’s webpage advertising that campaign and their webpage uses woman / women throughout the page about it. Not people.

I'm so sorry to read about peoples bad experiences and totally understand how that can cause someone to avoid these things. I missed my appointments for years. I couldn't face them; after two traumatic births and a bad experience as a 20 year old I couldn't face any more. Then out of the blue, I got an aggressive letter from my GP (male) which said because I'd missed appointments I would be thrown off a list. I didn't even know he had a bloody list; I couldn't believe it but I was too exhausted as a carer to complain. I just never went back. This is the sort of shit NHS needs to get on top of; there are too many barriers for some of us women and it affects us accessing healthcare.

What the actual..😮😡😡

But hey, people are talking about it … woohoo!! Just like that endometriosis charity appointing a misogynistic trans activist as a CEO celebrating being ‘talked about’.

I have noticed over the last few years people mindlessly believing the falsehood of ‘no such thing as bad publicity’. It really is a falsehood and people should stop fucking repeating it.

I would be one of the people this advert is aimed at. What it has achieved is cementing the fact I will never ever go for another smear.
Same for me. For a charity to think that's ok, well, it doesn't fill me with any hope that the procedure will be any different from the awful experiences I've had before. I'll take my chance and avoid the triggering trauma.

Yep! There really is. I have read a great deal of it with my professional experience behind me and it is fucking appalling.

Why is it always womens procedures that are painful

I agree. But I am merely pointing out what this poster seems to be doing.

Having had one nurse to hold me down for my last test while another tried to reach my cervix, I am also very much someone who is reluctant to attend any in the future. The pain took days to subside and I felt hugely sorry for the nurses who were desperately trying their best not to hurt me.

There is a lot of really poor quality research done out there. Really a lot.

Yep, agencies offer services like that. It is not uncommon.

Look they may have done something. But that type of research is expensive and for this to have been effective would have to be done across carefully recruited groups. Not just a broad and general focus group. Perhaps they did it across a broad and general focus group for cost limitations which would absolutely make the focus group meaningless.

And maybe Influential gave them a very generous discount to be used as a showcase. And so the amount spent may not be as much as what it should have cost.

It’s not even as positive as women should be celebrating crumbs rather than cake. It’s that a chunk of the women are deathly allergic to the bloody crumbs and we’re supposed to pretend that doesn’t matter.

The thing about this kind of campaign is that it isn’t just ineffective for many women, but it is actively discouraging. In a context where the NHS is pretty aggressive in nagging women about smear tests, the overall effect may be to discourage women from engaging with the health service if they can avoid it.