To ask if smear tests are as worth having anymore?

[sandradailys]

Not saying they're not worth having, but wondering if they're worth having as much as they use to be

Before I get shot down, this is because -

I have read they don't actually send of cell samples anymore, they're just checking for HPV?

So they're not the same anymore. It just checks for HPV?

And if you didn't have it the last time, and haven't had sex or still married, it isn't going to suddenly come up on the next one if it was negative last time?

I'm really trying to debate if it's worth getting. For very private reasons that are extremely painful.

Thank you to anyone who can clear my lack of knowledge up! Or point me in the right direction

I hate all the guilting involved with smear tests - do men get the same about prostate checks??

I had a horrendous time with my last smear - 3 separate visits, and on the last one the nurse accidentally removed my Mirena! All for a bunch of cells that were binned.

I will have a private swab done next time, if the NHS haven't sorted themselves out by then.

It must cost so much surgery time to carry out all the binned smear tests; I don't understand why they don't do an initial self-administered swab and follow it up with a smear if it's HPV positive.

The “smear” test is pointless now. It’s impossible to access an actual smear test unless you’re infected with HPV. They just check you for HPV and if you’re clear they put your sample in the bin.

I’ve had cervical cancer in the past and I’m terrified it’ll return. But I can’t get a smear test because I don’t have HPV. Cant even pay privately because they do the same. If anyone knows of a way to access an actual smear test when you don’t have HPV, please let me know because I’m shitting myself in case my cancer comes back.

How does this work going forwards then with the hpv vaccine, if you're vaxed you don't need a smear? They'll be done less

So basically what is happening is women are having smear tests, but if you’re negative for HPV they don’t even look at the sample?

@RequiemForAcat yep, spot on.

@Raddix shit that's awful. I would hope your MP would take up the fight if you contacted them, but you may not want to go that route. It would cost peanuts across the population to extend it to women who have previously had cervical cancer FFS.

HPV can lay dormant. My last smear showed I had it. I hadn't slept with anyone new. It's definitely still worth having a smear.

I was having smear tests every 3 months after cancer. Then every 6 months. Then suddenly they went nope you don’t have HPV, no more smear tests for you.

Ladies who have had abnormal or cancerous cells removed: they won’t continue to monitor you afterwards. If you’re negative for HPV after the surgery they’ll tell you to fuck off, no more follow up smears for you.

Can you get the vaccine if you’re over 30? If so, are you then immune to hpv?

And if you didn't have it the last time, and haven't had sex or still married, it isn't going to suddenly come up on the next one if it was negative last time?

Unfortunately HPV can actually lay dormant for many years so it's absolutely necessary to get it done.

I have cervical cancer diagnosed on a routine smear. HPV positive.I had never had an abnormal smear before or been HPV positive and I have been with DH for 40 years. I have never missed a smear. Infrequent sex in the last few years.If you have been sexually intimate with someone , ever, you are at risk of cervical cancer. The screening system is for us and our health and not being screened is illogical.

It's better to have than not to. But I agree I want very happy with what they do now. Also if there no hpv indicated they don't test you again for 5years. It used to looking for abnormal cells and every 3 yrs. I'm inclined to think it's good old nhs cut backs!

It can absolutely lay dormant and the test will be negative.

Years of negative tests, one HPV+ smear test and discovered level 3 CIN. Currently negative HPV.

I potentially don't have enough cervix left to carry a baby.

@Raddix there isn't a way of accessing a smear test without positive HPV because the whole system is a screening system rather than a diagnostic test iyswim.If you have symptoms you can be seen and colposcoped , I understand why you feel anxious though.

@stclair' 'All depends on how young you were when started having sex, smoker, number of partners as to whether likely to pick up the strains.''

This is nonsense.

Being a smoker or the age you started having sex are irrelevant.

People who have multiple partners do have a risk simply because they will come across more people who might be infected.

But you could get HPV by sleeping with one man only. There is no test for men for this virus and that one partner could have caught it and passed it on to you without realising. So you could be a 30 year old virgin who has never smoked a cigarette in her life and then catch HPV from that one partner....

Condoms don't protect you from HPV as it indeed can spread through skin to skin contact.

This is why this the most common of STIs. Also not the strains are high risk and will develop into cancerous cells.

I hate all the guilting involved with smear tests - do men get the same about prostate checks??

Sometimes yes - my father will have the blood marker test for prostate but he refuses to be "probed" as he puts it, and his GP never fails to tell him off for this.

I do think as more and more fully-vaccinated-before-any-sexual-contact women move into the system is going to become less and less efficient in terms of women tested:diagnoses.

Obviously of numbers of cases drop hugely that's brilliant, but a system where say 95% of the tests get thrown away after the initial test would probably argue for a different test.

What is a private HPV test please, how does that work? I would really love to not have to go through another smear for various reasons.

You can get hpv at any point, it lies dormant.

That's not the same though. There's no national screening.

Not only can it lay undetected when inactive, you could have it, body clears it, but then be reinfected by your husband.

I’ll continue to have my smears after having grade 3 abnormalities after having a clear smear 3 years prior and being with the same man throughout both.

I agree. Smear tests are horrendous for me, even with prescribed valium. I now order a HPV test from superdrug for 50 pounds. Worth every penny.

Following because I have been wondering the same thing - I have been with my partner for 20+ years. When did they start testing for HPV? I've never been told I had it, but unsure whether they would have tested for it previously.

I've been with the same partner for the last 7 years, and my last but one test was negative and the most recent one was positive. HPV isn't only sexually transmitted, and I'm not worried about any cheating etc. I think they're still worth getting.

That’s exactly the problem! I’ve already had cancerous cells removed but I’ve never had HPV. Under the new rules I wouldn’t have been diagnosed and would probably have died. And now because I don’t have HPV they won’t give me a smear test to check it hasn’t come back.