Polite Reminder: Get your smear tests done!

[cjt110]

Just that really.

I saw on the BBC news this morning a lady who had her smear test done a few weeks late. Fortunately, her cancer was caught early enough and she is almost 2 years into remission.

It made me wonder about when my last one was - I must call and check.

Also, the sad storyline playing out in Coronation Street at the moment with Sinead.

So... Off you go. Go check. Get it booked.

I have found them much harder since having DC - I had PTSD and some birth injuries so mentally they are much worse now, but I've had CIN3 and had to have treatment before, so no way I would not go.

Smears can be done anytime now. They do not have to be done mid cycle. So long as you are not bleeding. I was chatting to my nurse saying there really needs to be some campaign as most women assume it still has to be done mid cycle.

It's embarrassing and sometimes uncomfortable but it's 2 minutes that could save your life.

Sigh, mine is already booked for this afternoon. Hate it, but the thinking about is far worse than the actual doing of it.

Absolutely agree OP.

Having had an unpleasant experience with the attitude of my last nurse, I wonder how many people end up being put off by the people who should have been reassuring them?

Glad my post has triggered some to get themselves booked in x

I called to book a smear when my reminder came in in September (a month late) I was advised there were no more appts in September, October was booked for flu vaccines so to call back in November.
So I’ve tried......

Mari50 Does your local Family Planning/GUM clinic offer it? I was having trouble booking in my depot jab and someone suggested the local FP clinic. Got my appt booked in easily. In fact, I think I'll go there from now on.

I find speculums excruciating and I’ve had a lot of them. Also abuse history and my last encounter with a speculum five years ago (not a smear) was so bad that I haven’t been able to bring myself to have another.

I know I need to, I really do. I had CIN1 15 years ago but it resolved on its own luckily.

cjt110 yeah had thought about that option myself. Just called again- nothing til ?? with practice nurse so will try family planning.
Smears don’t bother me much at all, I’m always surprised at how much I clench my muscles though when I’m thinking I’m relaxed about it! And I remember going for a smear 15 years ago and the speculum they used was like something from Hostel, not a single use. Bleugh. Fine these days though and the nurses are always lovely.

Please. Please. Please.

My DM hadn't been for a smear since 1995. She is now Stage 4B Cervical cancer at 50 years old and if she had been for them regularly, they would have caught it in time.

We find out tomorrow if the chemo is starting to work on the tumour.

I don't want to lose my DM to cancer knowing that it all could have been prevented by routine checks.

Pester your GP's, find a local GUM clinic who do walk in services, just go and get them done!!

The standard turnaround time the NHS have to now advise is 12 weeks but results do come back a lot quicker most of the time. Mine was 2 weeks.

Oh God, this reminds me that my next one is nearly due and I'm dreading getting the reminder letter and dreading having another one even more.

With my last one (which was also my first) I only had myself to worry about so it wasn't too bad but now I have DS which makes it worse .

Feel a bit at the thought of going back for another one tbh

It doesn't hurt at all

Mine hurt .

I'm not bothered about having someone looking up there and I don't feel embarrassed. I just don't want the pain again .

Ah well. At least I have a couple of months (I think?) before I will get my reminder letter.

I force myself to go through the trauma and pain as I've got children who need me. If I hadn't got children then I wouldn't bother and take my chances.

Honestly if I didn't have DS I would have probably just ignored all future reminders. Nobody else would have cared much if I'd died but I bet DS will.

I think the “what’s there to be embarrassed about” or “it doesn’t hurt” rhetoric isn’t helpful.

For some people it will be hugely embarrassing and desperately painful.

I think we need to work on changing peoples mindset and not minimising their concerns but rather helping people to go for a smear inspite of them.

I wondered if the news item would trigger a thread about it. Screening rates are probably down because women like me have made an informed decision not to screen. Our choice entirely.

FrightsaidRed I’m a practice nurse and I do smears daily.

I’ve got a few women that find them terribly traumatic like you, and some prefer to insert and then open the speculum themselves - is that something you could try? Or doing it on your side, sometimes not being on your back reduces the flashbacks or triggers.

I also have met women who listen to music, bring a friend or partner to hold their hand, play on their phone, sing, take diazepam. Whatever works for them.

I don’t care if you haven’t shaved your legs.

I don’t care if your pubes are pink, green, absent, plaited down your thighs or just trimmed.

I don’t care if you have tattoos or piercings, or a vajazzle.

I do care if you’re nervous, or upset, or have had a bad experience previously. I will do anything I can to make having a smear as “pleasant” as it can be. Anything goes in my treatment room.

Smears aren’t compulsory. For some women they are painful, traumatic or near on impossible. For those women I help them work out where the pendulum swings for having it or not having it done.

I fully endorse screening, it can and does save lives. Early intervention can also avoid traumatic outcomes.

But no woman should be guilt tripped or blackmailed into having one (looking at you, practices where they withhold contraception or medication until you’ve had it done).

Reminders are good, those three years go quickly and we all chuck the letter to one side thinking “I’ll do that later”. And sadly us practice nurses are madly busy in October and November so appointments might be more limited. But please do go for one if you can, and don’t be afraid to make an extra appointment before if you want to meet the nurse, talk it through etc.

I've just come out of having to have yearly smears after treatment for CIN like a pp.

I'm quite open about it and it's scary how many women my age that I have spoken to about it have been through the same thing, and if they hadn't had their smears then what things would have developed into.

It is embarrassing, it is uncomfortable, but I think the more people talk about it, then it becomes not such a "thing". I have a friend who has gas and air when she has her coil fitted, would that be an option for those who struggle with the pain?

@PrincessScarlett Just wanted to point out that mid-cycle smears are actually still preferable, but for different reasons now, and the target turnaround time is 14 days. I screen smears, so I'm a fairly reliable source.

Sidge you sound utterly lovely - can I book my next with you

Far preferable to the last who went on and on about me being late for my smear including very emotive language about how I was risking death etc and clearly hadn't bothered to read my records at all.

I missed every test until I was 39. It hung over me like a massive cloud, I just could not face it. I didn't visit the doctors for 15 years because I thought they'd have a go at me, so I never even took the pill. This is pathetic I know.
Every time smears and cervical cancer were mentioned on tv or whatever I would cringe and the ball of regret at not having done it would get bigger. My DH started telling people we knew, and THEY started having a go at me to go get it done. I'd just cringe and fob them off. My DH actually rang my doctors to book me in, but they told him I had to make the appointment myself.
I suffer from white coat phobia and that's the main reason I didn't go get it done. It was really really stupid.

Then I got pregnant, had all sorts of people looking up my foof, still didn't go. Always found an excuse.

Over the next couple of years I realised I didn't want my kids to grow up motherless and I started making all sorts of lifestyle changes to prevent that, and one of them included going to get my smear test done.

Well what a palaver over nothing - it took less than 5 minutes, didn't hurt (mild discomfort at the most) and my god what a weight off my mind. I wish I'd done it YEARS ago.

Sorry for the long post but just wanted to share as I put it off so long for no reason at all, and it was so incredibly stupid.

MeetMe, re 12 week turnaround I was just commenting following PP who had been told 12 weeks. I too was officially told 12 weeks but that it's likely to be sooner. And it was.

Re the mid cycle for smears changing to anytime except when bleeding I queried this as always thought it had to be mid cycle but my nurse told me this had now changed and they can indeed be done anytime. One of the reasons being that mid cycle is a limited time frame so it makes women more likely to book smears if they can come in any time.

@sidge I wish you were my practice nurse!! I would have gone for it had my favourite lady doctor not retired and left the country. I trusted her. She made it bearable, but even then said she felt dreadful doing it and as though she herself were abusing me. I tried to do the insertion myself but tbh I struggle with tampons and I couldn’t do it. Once it’s in, it’s ok - it feels horrid but it’s in - it’s the getting it in for me.

I think I’m going to ring the GPS and ask to book in to see the practice nurse and tell her the problem then get it done after that, which is what I did last time. I’m a year overdue now, never usually takes me this long to pluck up the courage but it’s been a very tough year and was another thing I couldn’t face.

What I don’t understand though is how the rates for cervical cancer are actually far lower than breast cancer and prostrate cancer, yet cervical cancer is the one that they go on about continuously when it’s only something like 0.65% chance of getting it.

I’ve done tons of research on smears, and although ultimately I’ll still drag myself to get it done, when you read up thoroughly on the subject through an unbiased lens (one that isn’t fearful etc) the facts and stats are interesting and the reason many women opt out. I’ll try and post a couple of links to show what I mean. There is a financial incentive which irks me because 99% are caused by a particular strain of hpv which they could test for via a simple blood test .....they announced this years ago but it’s still not available. Yes it doesn’t cover the extremely rare types but frankly there are a bunch of other more common cancers I’d be worrying about first.

But having said all that out of fear and hype i’ll like still end up getting it done and re-traumatising myself.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/society/2003/may/22/genderissues.publichealth