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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think gas and air should be made available for smear tests?

134 replies

Strawberrytallcake · 25/11/2011 19:44

or do I just need to man up?

OP posts:
Teaandcakeplease · 25/11/2011 21:18

Oops a comma or two may have helped then Blush

TheSydenhamSet · 25/11/2011 21:26

I hated my first smear so much. The cold, hard metal speculum, then the scraping. I found it awful. I was absolutely dreading my next one but knew I had to do it. I ended up crying on the table! (i know, my fears rather out of hand, but there you go). Anyway, I needn't have been so scared, it was nothing like the first one and that was all down to a change in the equipment used. It was a plastic speculum and rather than a tool scraping away, it was a plastic brush which the nurse quickly 'swished' around. The contrast between the two experiences was huge and i was so grateful to come away untraumatised and smiling!

TeaOneSugar · 25/11/2011 21:26

I have a Cervical ectropion (otherwise known as a knackered cervix), my smear takes ages, the nurse uses two brushes and it makes me bleed. really really uncomfortable.

The procedure usually commences with the nurse looking in, tilting her head and saying "oh dear..."

TOTU · 25/11/2011 21:29

YABU

My first smear test made me puke and ring my mum to pick me up. After that, they got bearable.

I do love G&A though. After my hysterectomy I had 2 drains that needed to be removed. One was done without G&A (fucking agony). One was done with G&A (bliss...).

Of course now I now longer need smear tests Grin

TOTU · 25/11/2011 21:33

Oh, and I had a cervical erosion years ago that had to be frozen!

I was barely 20 years old and legs in stirrups with a doctor aiming a freezing gun type thingy at my cervix. I was then given a sanitary pad as I was told there would be fluid discharged as the frozen bit 'defrosted'.

Ah.....the memories. Wish I'd I've had G&A for that rather than a boyfriend asking when we could next have sex.

PontyMython · 25/11/2011 21:35

Oh I will definitely be going - I might be terrified but it's not as terrifying as cancer.

Thankfully DH will be coming with me.

I don't know what equipment they'll use here (different surgery) - hopefully it'll be better. It certainly made a bit of difference with my inductions - first time I had syringe/prostaglandin gel, with my second it was a pessary tablet thing they stuck up there which wasn't quite so bad (still had me in a right state but it was quicker at least).

Come to think of it I'm not actually that great with, ahem, digital penetration - sometimes I do tense up with DH. It probably doesn't help that I have rather strong thigh muscles I have been known to crush dh's head :o

Beveridge · 25/11/2011 22:15

My first couple of smears were actually fine and I assumed that the reason some people didn't go was simply out of embarassment but then I started to find them more and more painful. Hoped it would improve after childbirth...but that hasn't happened.

And it's not just sore when the speculum is opened, it just gives me the absolute heebies when they take the sample and I usually feel pretty 'spaced' afterwards.And I usually bleed afterwards, I have a very 'sensitive' cervix that doesn't like to be interfickered with!

And even though I am a great proponent of G&A (love, love, love it!) and I do think it should be made available, I don't think the real answer is pain relief, I think the real answer is more training for the HCPs that do smear tests. My blood pressure crashed after one and caused me to faint, which I was told was due to a cervical spasm which is usually due to poor technique. Plus I once have had to have 3 smears a few weeks apart to obtain ONE suitable sample as there wasn't enough cells, blood was obscuring the sample, etc.

However, I have once had an excellent experience in the middle of all the bad ones which took only seconds, had only a few moments of discomfort and the sample was successful - this has to be down to training surely? And the fact that the nurse took me seriously when I described the problems I've had. Top tip she gave - make your hands into fists and put then under the small of your back, lifts everything up a treat! Unfortunately, this nurse retired Sad

And of course, as unpleasant as smears are for some of us, you would have to be crazy not to go for them - every sympathy for being such a wuss that the nurse stops and calls through the doctor because you're making such a racket (I was that soldier! Blush) but no sympathy for being too much of a wuss to go for them in the first place.

saladsandwich · 25/11/2011 22:27

for me they seem to be getting more and more painful each time i need to go, i know im making it worse now though because i'm so nervous i tense up and make it worse :( i do't think G&A would help though and it is only for a few minutes

RevoltingPeasant · 25/11/2011 22:35

Okay - this is really REALLY freaking me out.

I am 32. I have never been for a smear test.

The idea of them disgusts me massively. I know I am being a complete idiot about this, but it feels like some kind of violation. I always assumed that was me being weird though.

Is it really that bad???

RevoltingPeasant · 25/11/2011 22:36

PS - i am booked for my first one next week. :(

Beveridge · 25/11/2011 22:53

RevoltingPeasant Smears are not in the top twenty ways to spend your leisure time certainly even when they are straightforward and expertly done but it's all relative. Nothing like an all clear to put your mind at rest and make you realise it's worth it. Smile

I hate them but I would NEVER miss one.

Lunabelly · 25/11/2011 22:55

RevoltingPeasant - they are never as bad as you think they are going to be - afterward I always wonder what my fuss was all about. You'll feel all brave afterward!

Mind you, at my 6wk after DS was born, my womb was so tilty that it was a tad painful, G&A would have been lovely - but I'd want G&A for stubbing my toe. Blush

But the way I see it - we are so lucky that there is a routine test for early detection of these cancers. A few moments of meh is a price worth paying, yes? How wonderful would it be if there were routine tests for early detection of all cancers?

RevoltingPeasant · 25/11/2011 22:56

Thanks :)

ThePathanKhansWitch · 25/11/2011 22:57

I take half a 5mg Temazepam when i have mine Blush.

Had a very bad experience years ago with a Dr, who was quite rough.

runningwilde · 25/11/2011 22:58

Yanbu - for some of us, smears are more painful and this would be a great relief. I find smears incredibly painful - I have a high cervix (whatever that means) which makes them so painful

And gas and air is fantastic!

Cybbo · 25/11/2011 22:59

I just think in these days of key hole surgery they could find a less invasive way of viewing the cervix and taking cells

I bet if men had to have large cold metal probe inserted uptheir jacksie every 3 years they would have forwardrd scientific advances more quickly

Camerondiazepam · 25/11/2011 23:00

RevoltingPeasant IME it's one of those things it's better to dread so you come out thinking "not that bad, what's all the freaking fuss about?". Honest!

RevoltingPeasant · 25/11/2011 23:01

Although..... please tell me if I am being R (for ridiculous!).

Do you think men would undergo a possibly painful internal exam?

I can't help wondering if there is a less painful/ nasty way to do it.... but science hasn't bothered finding it because it's mostly done by men.

RevoltingPeasant · 25/11/2011 23:02

I mean, remember that Aussie (I think!) woman anatomist a few years ago who discovered a whole lot of stuff about the anatomy of the clitoris which male scientists had basically never bothered to find out? Can't help but wonder if there's a much easier way to do it which doesn't involve all this...

oflip · 25/11/2011 23:02

Brilliant idea except it would need to be prescribed and thay would cause delays Sad
I would go with less reluctance each time because it IS painful, im almost on the ceiling trying to climb up the couch away from the nurse..

Beveridge · 25/11/2011 23:23

Oflip You could have it coming out of the walls like you do in labour wards, then the only delay would be taking a new mouthpiece out of the packet!

AmberLeaf · 25/11/2011 23:25

I would pay to be able to have some G&A when I have a smear test.

I will never forget the first one I had, the doctor screwed open the metal speculum and she literally screwed it into my flesh, it was hideous and I didnt know any different, I thought that was how smear tests were always going to be.

Absolutely hate the feeling of the thing scraping on my cervix, Im really jealous of women that find them easy.

I need one currently, no problems but its long over due.

I hate myself for putting it off, but it scares me.....please feel free to nag me. I know its important.

oflip · 25/11/2011 23:28

It is a drug and therefore would need to be prescibed no matter where it came from, cylinder or wall.
Many GP surgeries do not have walled gasses, so it would be a cylinder. Shame, becasue like i say, brilliant idea.

trulyscrumptious43 · 25/11/2011 23:28

I am an utter woos. (sp?).
So much that my consultant told me I should have a G&T before my next one.
Previously she has given me some kind of sedative to take before I came in - can't remember which ones but 5 minutes after taking one, my legs gave out, I hit the decks and had to be helped to the car.
I am a year overdue now for next smear and just can't face it.

MardyBra · 25/11/2011 23:29

YABU for using the dreadful sexist expression "man up". "Get a grip" is less gender specific.