To remind you to look after your cervix (cervices?!)

[FourForYouGlenCoco]

I know it's been done plenty of times, but one more won't hurt, right?
So long story short:
Went for (overdue) first smear last year, after DC2 was born. Borderline changes & HPV - sent for colposcopy, they went for 'watch and wait' and asked me to come back in 6 months.
Went back, severe dyskaryosis/CIN III. Back again a few weeks later for lletz under local.

The hospital is an hour+ away. The logistics of it all, organising someone to take DC1 to/from school, trekking baby DC2 back and forth with me - not fun. But I am so so relieved I didn't put it off, so relieved I didn't just assume everything would be alright. In the 6 months between colposcopies, cell changes happened really fast. If I'd left it...who knows?
The lletz was really not that bad either - I was very apprehensive beforehand but it was maybe 5 minutes and done. Minimal pain, minimal bleeding afterwards, and definitely a damn sight better than cervical cancer.

So please, please, PLEASE book your smear if it's due or overdue. Go to your appt, don't bury your head in the sand, don't put it off. I know it's not how you'd choose to spend an hour, but it's really not that bad. And it's so fucking important. So do it.

But it is about control of women's bodies. And still in this country women from Northern Ireland cannot access abortions in the UK without having to pay for it. It will cost them £900 for the procedure. Plus expense.

Why should women have to arrange these tests around their working week?

WTF has NI abortions got to do with smears either?

Talk about derailing a bloody thread.. madness!

So what is bisexuality then? Dip in one week, dip out the next? Someone who doesn't have a long term relationship?

My daughter has never had a relationship with a man. She doesn't like men in that way (she does like men). She is 22. She doesn't consider herself a virgin either. If there is one thing myself and my ex agreed on was that she was a lesbian. When she came out as gay, it was no surprise to anyone.

Bisexual people are interested in men and women sexually. It isn't any more complicated than that :S

Because I don't agree with the OP. I've set out my case. I cannot stand the routine medicalisation of women throughout their lives once they hit puberty.

It makes some women nervous and apprehensive about invasive exams. Why should women have to be prodded and penetrated to have a smear? Why isn't there a blood test for this?

Why are older women subjected to tests the equivalent of 100 chest X rays for a mammogram?

A bisexual is a person who is sexually attracted to both sexes.
But a person who is homosexual might decide to have sex with someone of the sex they are not attracted to for many reasons. Doesnt mean they are no longer gay and now bisexual.

Elendon how about colon cancer screening? Both men and women have colons should women not take up the screening?

Absolutely Alpaca but to say that most lesbian and gay men have had sex with someone else is to my mind homophobic.

My daughter, who is a lesbian but prefers to call herself gay, didn't have the vaccination against cervical cancer at 14 and will never have smear tests.

Elendon - yes your daughter is a lesbian who has never been with a man. Good for her. There are also many lesbians who may have been with men before. They are still lesbians.

• sidenote - apologies for the thread derail, but I couldn't leave that!

Elendon no one said that most have or haven't had sex with the opposite sex AT ALL?!

As I said before, all humans have pre cancerous cells in their bodies. It's better to look for change than go for screening. You could be screen for colon cancer and in the next few months see changes in your habits, which continue, but you've just been given the all clear so why worry? After all your life is busy and you simply don't have the time to get it checked again.

MissBax I find your posts abusive. Hope you don't mind me saying that. You were the one to derail, given what I'd said about my daughter. But you choose to still make your sick point.

Timely for me too. I had actually already booked (an overdue) smear and cancelled a few weeks due to car failure. I literally just got round to rearranging yesterday and if I had not-this thread would have prompted me to. to people saying YABU!

I have them, but might not have them every three years anymore due to being very low risk and the risks of unnecessary treatment, which has already been discussed here.

There are valid health reasons to not want to have smear tests or not to have them every three years. They do not save as many lives as people think.

I don't like these threads much. They are started with the best of intentions but I don't agree with telling women they should go have their smears and not to bury their heads in the sand. Being told 'so do it' is a bit crappy. No one should ever be told to go for a smear. It's a screening tool, a personal choice and not something women should be told to do by anyone.

I find your posts abusive - well the mind certainly boggles.

slimthistime - in terms of the pap, i actually don't pay anything out of pocket. many of the health insurance plans here don't have copays or extra fees for what are considered preventive visits (women's annual checkups, mens annual physicals, childrens annual checkups). in my case, the pap smear is considered a part of the womens well visit as they call it - i pay nothing extra and my premiums don't go up or down, whether i have the pap or not.

i'm not sure about colonoscopy for men (or women) as i don't really know anyone at that age here. my fil, not in the US, had colon cancer diagnosed early enough to catch it, i believe because he had a routine colonoscopy. if you don't catch colon cancer early enough, it is by all accounts a horrible and really painful way to die (close friends know people in this situation).

Elendon my husband has colon cancer. He has no symptoms or changes until his pelvis fractured due to the bone mets which is far to late for treatment even to extend life let alone cure the cancer. Colon cancer is a silent killer and most will not get any symptoms until it has spread but once it has spread it is very unlikely you can be cured. Your life might be extended by chemo and surgery but it will get you in the end. Identified early and you have a good chance of a full cure.

A person I know told me when I first met her that she had cervical cancer and was going through treatment. I asked her how she was feeling and how the treatment was going etc.

It was a while later when I brought it up again that it transpired that she didn't have cancer, she had CIN111 and had the lletz procedure.

She still calls herself a cancer survivor. I don't know why she still believes she had cervical cancer.

Not the point of this thread I know...

Elendon I find your posts really bizarre.

How can I be homophobic if I'm bisexual? Why is that other poster abusive?

Are you feeling alright?

alpaca - I'm equally as baffled!

Elendon - But you choose to still make your sick point

So saying that some gay men / women have had sex with members of the opposite sex is now a "sick point"?!

I'm gobsmacked.

So saying that some gay men / women have had sex with members of the opposite sex is now a "sick point"?!

Its called experimenting I've experimented with the same sex. I am only interested in men.

horridhenry - thats precisely my point, but according to Elendon anyone who has had any experience with those of both sexes is bisexual, plain and simple.😕

Does anyone know more about the urine dip stick test for HPV?

If I read the post earlier correctly, the poster said that:
-smear tests only pick up HPV cervical cancer
-there is a urine dip stick test that picks up cervical cancer and therefore is equally as effective as a smear test (doesn't pick up all cervical cancer)

Is that true? Is there evidence for this?