Do your smears hurt?

[Bostyrone]

Mine couldn’t be completed today as my cervix was awol and after 4 goes she abandoned speculum and rebooked me in 2 weeks time. And it HURT. It was this morning and I’m still uncomfortable.

And what if they can’t do it next time?

I've had one get stuck inside.
Nerves and pain made things spasm and it was ages before it would come out.

Apparently my three kids have messed up everything down there as my smears have increasingly been painful. Now I'm a candidate for the special clinic

"I think a lot depends on the person doing it - the last smear I had was so smooth and quick I couldn't believe it was over and had to check with the Nurse who did it. Nurses who do it all the time are usually better than Doctors who don't do as many."

I totally agree with this. I know that not everyone's "plumbing" is the same, and I am sorry that some women find the process so painful, because it shouldn't be.

I’m narrow and tilted so need to have the tiny tube and be at an angle.
Thankfully I’m not like a friend who has a flipped uterus and has to go on all fours.

Normally not that bad but the last one was really painful and I have RA so am used to pain. I bled for hours after too, but a few nurses have said I have a difficult cervix as I am really tall and it's tilted?!

If it hurts ots a bad nurse.
It shouldn't hurt. I've only been hurt once by a useless nurse. I complained, she was found to be on need of retraining.
They have different size speculum to choose from and should make a choice not work on auto. They are also suppose to put it in slowly. I've never had a painful one out of abput 8(excl dodgy nurse). Get a different person next time and tell them you were previously hurt so they'll be more gentle.

I am 46. They were no problem for years. After I had my son (12 yrs ago) they seem to be a struggle. My cervix is tucked away and is more sensitive and prone to bleeding. After a couple of awful ones, my last one was fine, the nurse used the longer speculum and I had no pain or bleeding.

You need a different health care professional!

l've only ever found them marginally uncomfortable until the last one. l'm post menopausal, and the nurse seemed to struggle a bit - asked me to put my fists under my bum to raise it up a bit, which l've never been asked to do before.
She also said "you'll only need one more after this" (l'm 61 this year) and quite frankly l'm inclined to give it a miss after that. lt hurt.

Every time and I get period like cramps for 48hrs afterwards 🤷🏻‍♀️

No, it's not fun having the speculum there while they invite folk in for a nosey but never ever painful.