to be so upset? GP surgery told me I would be removed from their list if I don't have a smear test

[veryworried29]

Namechanging uber-regular here.

I received a text from my GP surgery which said "Please confirm address by phone. If not you will be removed from surgery list."

I rang immediately and was told that if I don't come in for a smear test then I will be struck off the surgery list!

Dh and I have been with this surgery for 18 years and our children since they were born.

I don't feel I need a smear test. We very rarely have sex and when we do it is always with a condom. I have had years of clear smears before me.

I find them horrifically unpleasant, in the same way that some people are phobic about the dentist, infact think I may have a form of vaginismus (sp?) hence the lace of piv sex.

Tbh, it almost feels like I must agree to be raped (sorry for emotive language, but this is how it feels to me) in order to keep a place at my GP surgery.

I cannot begin to describe how upset I am about this. There have been tears.

I'd be grateful if you could bear this in mind when replying ... I know this is aibu, but I do feel I have a genuine aibu to run past you all with this one.

I'm sorry you feel like this but smear tests are absolutely vital. I hate them too. They're unpleasant but better than cancer.

I had my smear tests just this week, yes its not an overall nice experience not on my daily wish list. My first year of having smear tests it took 3 tries to get a good sample. But, sorry I personally think it is rather silly not to go to them, because you deem it unnecessary (medial knowledge or training for this ) and you dislike it. (who doesn't?)

If God forbid, you did decide in later years to have a smear or started noticing problems down there and it was cancer and there was now nothing which could be done to treat it, what would you do them? Or the treatment had to be evasive. Or even more bluntly, you have pre cancerous cells now, don't go and when it is then discovered and its in later stages it costs the nhs a whole more to treat you then if it was detected earlier.

Also a lot of young women under the age of 25 are trying to get the age of smear testing brought down as cases are bein missed.

I think you are showing an immature attitude, my aunty was noticing problems for a while with breast, but never went to doctors and now breast cancer and secondart cancer in bones and now her liver.

We should be thankful we have the free screenings we do, however undignified we feel when we have them done.

Sorry off my rant box now

whselooking. Why the sceptical face????

If it is sexually active people who have unprotected sex with a number of partners who are at highest risk, then I am surely pretty low risk. I understand that does not mean no risk, I honestly do.

I don't think they can remove you! Disgraceful to threaten you with that thoug, utterly disgusting bullying tactics.

I think you may have to put it in writing that you don't want smears. It is your right to choose and I speak as someone who has had cervical cancer! As long as your decision is informed and you really feel that is best for you, it should be your right to make that choice.

Speak to the practice manager would be the way forward I think.

OP fight both fights.

Absolutely write a letter of complaint about this policy. Absolutely take it higher so that no-one else ever gets told this.

But also, please, please, address the anxiety around not having one. Because your reasons aren't sound. You say you know the arguments, but the reasons you've given don't bear out the facts surrounding risk.

So, do both. Hold them accountable for their bullying policy AND tackle your anxiety about a procedure which could save your life. Win win win win win.

Vaginismus is not a case of 'dislike'. It is a complete spasm of the vaginal entrance , resulting in an inability to have any penetration unless it is forced. Believe me, I tried to have a speculum exam for an infection, and shot the speculum out across the room as my muscles went into complete spasm.

It can make a speculum exam physically impossible, or can cause severe distress - I have had to have internals with epidurals, IV sedation, agave fainted,mall sorts.

If it were a case of 'dislike' it would be much simpler.

Thanks for the helpful information about the legalities of this, which I have noted.

I will also have a think about how to make the procedure easier for me, including getting drugged up to the eyeballs if necessary.

Leaving thread now as I just don't need hundred of posters saying the same thing over and over.

But thanks for all input .

Please ignore those people giving you a hard time, you sound like you have weighed up the risks. I just wonder if you would consider some sort of talking therapy and medication to help you relax? I had to have a mirena inserted under sedation because they couldn't find my cervix er that might be because half of it is missing and although i was a bit because im brazen and brave having been through treatment for cervical cancer, i was really quite nervous about the whole thing so the sedation made me so i didn't give a monkeys that i had a full medical team in the room and just felt really chilled out about the whole thing - when i say chilled, it was like being ultra-relaxed so it was all good. If you WANTED to, i am sure they could arrange something similar for you if you spoke to a sympathetic nurse/doctor?

Who the fuck do your surgery think they are???

they can't make you do anything especially anything that happens in your vagina

I'd leave the surgery, it's your doc that you liked..the surgery are just a place you go.

Op your last post is ill informed! Any woman who is sexually active is at risk.

Can't remember the percentage but the majority of women will be exposed to the HPV virus at some point through normal sexual activity, not multiple partners!

I did not have multiple partners and I always used condoms, I still got cervical cancer!

Veryworried - I would advise you to get an appointment with your GP to discuss your worries and fears - maybe, as an earlier poster has said, some tranquillisers beforehand would help, or maybe your GP can exempt you, once he or she understands how strongly you feel (and hopefully that would mean no more threats from the surgery/health authority).

Please don't just let this lie - talk to,your doctor and see what can be done to help you.

Yes they can remove you from the list they simply need to claim the relationship has broken down and the fact you never go or have regular check ups would back them up.

Whether or not the OP is at risk of cervical cancer is not really relevant here for now. The point is that threatening to remove someone from a GP list because they have declined screening is outrageous.

OP I hope you complain. Once you are no longer worried about losing your GP perhaps you should see if you can get help with this but again, that is something you are free to decide, just like whether you want screening.

OP, another YANBU and thanks for making me think.

I felt like the end of the world after my first smear test, I wanted to jump off a bridge or something. I had one more about a year after my baby, that wasn't so bad, but now I feel like I'd be back to the beginning. I'm not sure how the odds would pan out of dying from cervical cancer vs absolutely losing my mind.

I didn't know that GPs might do sedatives, etc. They don't tell you this when sending endless reminder letters. I have very little contact with my registered practice, and don't even have "a" GP, just a pot luck of 12 doctors, some who will listen and some keen to see the back of you asap.
Sorry strayed into rant. Good luck with staying on your practice list and whatever else you decide to do.

jacks365 Wed 12-Feb-14 16:51:43
Yes they can remove you from the list they simply need to claim the relationship has broken down and the fact you never go or have regular check ups would back them up.

Thats bullshit. You have a RIGHT not to accept invitation to screening programmes. Guidelines state that refusing treatment is not an acceptable reason to remove you from a GP list.

Theo I didn't mean skeptical, I meant, what you're talking about has nothing to do with the op's question. Iwas perplexed as to why you'd posted it tbh!

I hate this bullying.

I cannot get contraceptive pill prescription if I do not have my smear. I don't want my smear as I do not consider myself at risk from a sexually transmitted virus, for reasons that are nobody's business. I would like to remain on the pill, as it helps me with PMT. I would be happy to pay for the pill myself, but that is not allowed either!

This is a form of coercion and bullying and, like OP, I am very upset about it.

The procedure to me is invasive and upsetting. Notice how men are not forced into having their balls checked. Their balls, their choice. However, us women, are not boss of our own vaginas.

I feel that it is my body, and should be MY choice. By withholding contraceptives unless I comply, by threatening to take you of the GP list, they coerce and bully women into letting the NHS into their body.

Like I say, obviously, the same rule does not apply to men. They can make their own decisions.

Fucks me off, YANBU!!!!!

Sorry Jacks, that's bollocks.

Anyway, no surgery in its right mind would get rid of a patient based on a preference like this - women of childbearing age are too valuable a commodity just to get rid of

oh no, just read you left thread! Please read what I said, I want to know your thoughts!

If anyone has a complaint about their GP surgery that is either not adequately addressed by the surgery itself, or that you do not want to directly approach the surgery about, contact NHS England. They are the ones who commission GP services now, and are responsible for complaints

Fiscal - a better analogy would be that men are not forced to have prostate exams - a simple, but slightly I comfortable and embarrassing test, that can detect he presence of prostate cancer.

There would be an uproar if all the men were told they had to go and have their GP stick a finger up their bums for a rootle around, otherwise they'd be struck off their surgeries' lists!

Your body your choice

Does anyone know what the latest research is on the effectiveness of the cervical screening programme? I remember seeing something about a BMJ article detailing problems but that must have been 10 years ago.

It is a hot topic at work due to a colleague who was always screened now having advanced cervical cancer.

I don't know if the OP will come back, but no, YANBU, and I think indeed you probably are low-risk. Cervical cancer is quite rare, especially when you compare it to breast cancer or stroke or heart disease or any one of a number of common diseases.

For some women, a smear test is a distressing experience - there's no point in people saying "of course it's not like being raped" because for the OP it is. Some people do have phobias and extreme physical or psychological responses to things. The fact that you don't have those things doesn't mean they're not true for other people.