to not bother with a smear test

[setpieces]

I'm supposed to have them every 12 months due to abnormal cells.

I cannot get an appointment at my GP practice. They have offered me 3 dates I simply cannot do (I'm supporting a parent having an op the week before Xmas, Xmas eve (still with parent) and 2 Jan (away with kids). It took an hour of following hopeless website and booking referrals plus a phone call (engaged) and callback to get this far.

By the time I get the test (assuming calling back at the end of next week as requested is successful) it will be 2 months after I got the letter then another 6-8 weeks for the results.

I might as well wait for the condition to worsen and refer for treatment in 4 months time.

Because the nurse told me they would, and the results letter said HPV negative (previously positive) and no abnormal cells detected.

You keep calling every week until a date finally does suit you.
Everyone else manages just fine to find an appointment.
Or if you are going to be living where your family does for a while you can register as a patient at a surgery there and get it done that way.
There's options.
It sounds like you are just giving up because it doesn't suit you.

Unless you want to sport a username like mine, you're an idiot. Go and get it done at a GUM clinic if you can't get into your GP.

YABVFU

Call every week. Ok, but they never answer. They call me back, I'm too busy with work. I cannot arrange my smear in front of clients! And because they offer unhelpful appointments like Xmas eve, I can't just say the date is X, fine. It takes ages, with a calendar, to find out if I can do what they'll allow me to have.

Vow are you going to find the time to get the cancer surgery...?

It's 10 minutes on Christmas Eve that could save your life, but whatever they also offered before Christmas and after Christmas. Take some damn responsibility for yourself. You moan because they're too busy to answer, yet you don't want to answer them because you are too busy. They aren't going to risk dying though are they? Have you just posted to be goady? Struggling to see the point of this, you don't seem to want anything out of it except make excuses.

YABU.

You keep ringing and ringing until you get what you want.

You need to be more persistent OP. This isn't something you can put off.

You’ll be spending a lot less time with your kids if there is something dodgy there and it worsens.

I know 2 people who have died from cervical cancer which would have been picked up if they had gone for smear tests.

Prioritise your health OP, it is precious and so are you.

I'm going against the grain here, because I get it, OP.

The last time I had a smear was around 6 years ago. 6 months before that, they were still looking at cells in any case and detected abnormal cells; I went from CIN 2 to CIN 3 in the space of 4 weeks, they removed a good part of my cervix as a result. I was due a follow-up 6 months later (which I managed to find an appointment for) and they merely tested for HPV, which I'd been negative for all along, rather than checking that the treatment had worked long-term on my cells, and referred me back onto the 3 year pathway.

I tried to book an appointment after 3 years, but every time I managed to get one (many weeks ahead as I can only have certain days/ weeks off and the nurse only worked 2 days a week) I was heavily on and had to try and rearrrange - I tried for 6 months before giving up, because, at the end of the day, my cells weren't even being looked at.

Had the same issues again 2 years later when my GP realised I still hadn't been for my smear. I have now stopped trying.

I'm sorry op but you just have to make it happen. I had a nightmare trying to get my toddler her flu vaccine appointment but because it was so important to me I made it work. Yes it took multiple phone calls, asking to speak to the manager etc but it's done now and I wasn't taking no for an answer. Treat your smear with the same urgency.

Stop being so melodramatic and a martyr.

Go privately if you have to
Terrible attitude

In the past 2 months they’ve only offered you those 3 appointments?

I would just keep trying.
You could even ask if they’ll contact you if they can fit you in.

Tbh if you can wait 12 months then I can’t see another couple of months making a difference.
If the science felt that a couple of months can make a big difference then they would test you every 3 or 6 months.

FWIW I needed to get checked every year too.
Then covid happened and I became homeless etc and didn’t have an address let alone a GP.
It was at least 4 years before I got an appointment as tbh it was the last thing on my mind and then I sort of buried my head in the sand but I recently got my results back and it’s clear which I am so thankful for.

I am so angry that I left it so long and it’s pure luck that nothing more serious was found.

Please don’t be like me.
If you have to wait a few more weeks then that’s fine but make sure you get an appointment in the new year if you can’t before.

You are a fool.

Personally I’d be trying harder to get an appointment. Because you know, I value my life. Stop being a martyr, be persistent and get it organised.

Wasting your time?

Is this a wind up OP?

I'm assuming you are bothered enough about your health that you've arranged snear tests previously, in order to know thar you have HPV. It sounds like it's not so much that you can't be bothered as that you are under a lot of pressure and feel like you are banging your head against a brick wall trying to find a way to make everything fit. Like everyone is placing demands on you but no-one is helping.

It can be so hard if you keep ringing your GP, spend 20 minutes on hold and then get told there's nothing available. It can be particularly hard around Christmas as there's a break in a lot of routine services

Is there another way to arrange a smear - sexual health clinics, for example? You're not being unreasonable to feel like letting it slide for now, but it's definitely worth finding a way to do it.

Could you ring the surgery near your parents house and explain and see if they can see you there whilst you’re staying at your parents?

@irishchick93 She missed a smear because she was embarrassed. When she finally went to the next one it was clear she was in trouble and she had metastatic cervical cancer. She had a lot of surgery and treatment but it couldn't save her. It was an absolute tragedy. For this reason I almost frogmarched my own daughter when she was due her first last year. It's not worth it.

What is more important you being alive next Christmas or your work?

This makes me feel slightly sad, it's a perfect example of how women have been conditioned to put everything else before their needs. Work, parents, kids, xmas. Everything else is more important.

Most sexual health clinics in any area are able to perform a smear. You need to try harder.

This place is weird sometimes. Chants of 'my body, my choice' when it comes to things like abortion, but someone who is putting off having a smear for whatever reason gets flamed into oblivion. I remember a comment on here where OP was scared to have a smear due to being raped, and someone told her that she should be writing her will... OP was in her 20s. Some people speak on here like if you don't have a smear, or are a few years or even weeks overdue, you will die.
And abnormal cells does not mean cancer. Many cases of abnormal cells clear up on their own with no intervention needed.

YABU - take the first one. It doesn’t take long. Someone can step in with your parent, surely.