All women and people with a cervix every five years now smear test

[justasking111]

Five years in Wales is this the norm in England, Scotland, Ireland?

Our surgery put it up on their FB page this week.

It was three years here last time I checked.

Yabu it's fine no reason to be concerned

Yanbu it's too big a gap.

I used to have smear tests every three years and i went from negative to grade 3 abnormal cells in 3 years - next stage cancer. had a colposcopy and had it all removed, but in my opinion 5 years is far, far too long between tests.

I think in America it's every year?

Same here @cardibach

Unless the wording only specifies women/girls for female healthcare, then it’s pointless. Female health is for girls and women. Trans men know they’re female in their biology. I find it difficult to believe that your truly GC of you find the wording from the surgery ok. But yes, let’s leave it there.

How is it confusing for non-fluent speakers. It says ‘all women’. The other bit is for a very small group who will absolutely understand it.

But it;s not "all women". It's women who are in the age group, and who haven't had their cervix removed.

As a person with a cervix I was surprised to learn that they only tested for HPV at my last cervical screening, and didn't actually test the cells.

If not all cervical cancers are caused by HPV, then how are we supposed to get diagnosed for the ones that are not?

I’m ok then. But it seems it’s going to home testing for all, so I may do it.

I voted YABU but I actually meant it the other way round.

Both my best friend and my sister have had cervical cancer and both had had a normal smear less than five years ago, i think for both it was around 4.5 years sgo. Neither had ever had abnormal cells.

My friends was caught fairly earlier but she still had to have a radical trachelectomy, my sister was a little later and she had to have a radical hysterectomy and chemoradiotherapy, she's only just coming out the other side of it.

Five years is too long. Womens health care was already shit.

People with a cervix. Ffs. Women, females.

You don't need to hit your cervix. HPV testing just requires a vaginal swab. The NHS still take the cervical sample at the smear even if they don't routinely look at the cells (but they have them ready for cytology if you're HPV+), but a home test doesn't need those specific cells.

Keep an eye out for any symptoms, like cancers that don't have screening programmes. It's also important to get any symptoms checked out even if you've had a recent clear smear.

How frightening for your friend and sister. Do you know if they were tested for HPV at their previous smear?

Women are people.

This is how it was written in my letter as well.

The world has gone bloody bonkers!

I’m 5 yearly. I thought it was because of my age. Didn’t realise it was everyone.

Thanks. Off to Google symptoms now.

Almost all are though. Public Health Scotland published a study earlier this year saying that there have been NO cases of cervical cancer so far in anyone who was vaccinated since 2008.

Obviously the vaccinated generation are still fairly young but it's very promising

OH it is

I think the current screening system of only checking the cells of those with HPV positive tests is awful and will mean many women with cervical cancer will now be missed until its too late and can only assume this is a money saving exercise at the expense of peoples lives.

I’ve been having smear tests since the age of 19, I’m now 40, I have never once tested positive for HPV, I was however diagnosed approx. 7 years ago with final stage pre-cancerous cells over the entirety of my cervix and had to undergo loop diathermy. I had lots of additional HPV tests around that time over several months, all came back negative as have all subsequent smears. This was just before the system changed over. Had I been under the new system of only checking for HPV I would have been missed and likely have developed cancer undetected. I may not have been here now. It’s a scary thought!

One Dr told me a negative HPV test does not actually confirm that you don’t have HPV. If that is the case then again why are HPV negative tests not having their cells checked!? Its scandalous.

As someone that has never had a positive HPV test and is not sexually active under the new rules I now find the concept of going for smear tests pointless if they aren’t checking for any changes in negative people like me.

because the ones not caused by HPV are extremely rare and the old test didn't catch them either. "pre cancerous cells" are mostly not pre cancerous and many women were given invasive treatments they did not need.

That's really worrying @GlitteryUnicornSparkles
Can I ask what symptoms you had in order for them to test the cells without a hpv+ sample ?

No symptoms, it was standard practice to check the cells of every smear test regardless of HPV status back then. Only checking the cells of those with HPV positive tests is a relatively new thing.

As I say, under the new system I would have been missed, luckily I was under the old system at the time.

Women, trans men and non binary people. Not sure why this is so difficult.

Yes, unless you are a man who has sex with men 🤷‍♀️

Many women don’t have a cervix. Many trans men do. So what they actually want is people with cervices. If that applies to you, get tested, if no then it doesn’t. Or do you feel trans men are not entitled to healthcare?

My sex life has been such that I am 💯 certain I do not have HPV. So I’m never going for a smear again. No point to it at all.

I made the same decision some years ago. Not out of anger but because I disliked them so much. My own risk assessment told me that my risk is vanishingly low so I skipped the last few.