Smear test - is it normal to find leaves and twigs?

[User748937744]

Ok, clickbait title - for a reason!

I am in my 40s and had my first smear test today. It was so fine and so quick and so painless and so straightforward and I wish I’d been brave enough to go for all the many years I’ve ignored the invitations!

Aibu to tell as many people as I can who might also never have gone to just do it?

I’ll happily go back next time I’m called.

I only went today because I’ve had some symptoms that were concerning.

It was so built up as something embarrassing and possibly painful in my head and it just wasn’t either.

Please, please go. You can always say you’re nervous and would like to be seen by someone really understanding.

Instead of engaging people with ridiculous titles, we should all be complaining about the limitations of the current smear test! Currently the test only looks at if you are HPV positive, this is NOT the only indicator for cervical cancer and we should go back to the old smear test criteria!

Post menopause they are very painful.

@katepilar It’s a metaphor suggesting that it’s so long anyone looked up there that vegetation may have started growing/dead leaves and twigs could have accumulated.

Agree with all the comments re: overselling the benefits of testing. Also agree with the stories of pain - I had a mixed experience when young; probably operator dependent. I now actually tear with any speculum inserted so it’s not just a case of ‘a few seconds pain’; it’s agony and the blood contaminates the sample rendering it unusable.

I HPV test. I hear lots of references to the smear being a ‘pelvic exam’ too and that being what makes it worthwhile over HPV testing. I find it hard to believe this is an
effective pelvic exam. For one, in the non-pain days they were in and out so fast, unless there was an actual oak tree up there I don’t think they would have noticed. In the pain days, all attention is on gaining access and blood containment. Not a lot of pelvic exam happening there either. For two, without putting down the skills of nurses, does their training and exposure to cases of actual issues really adequately equip them to make medical judgements short of noting an oak growing out of there? Some nurses might do this day in day out, but many certainly don’t or not at a level to ensure exposure to sufficient cases.

Yes it is outrageous. We should try to get a petition. Of course it will do no good but it's the principle. Women are being ignored for having the audacity to have non HPV cancer.

I think she kept putting things off, though, so the cancer had time to take hold...

We should all have both hpv and cell check

Oh God, I think I know the one you mean. Horrendous.

No she kept going back to the doctor and being fobbed off. I think the media wanted a narrative that here was an idiot who hasn’t had smear tests and if only she had, she wouldn’t have died. But she did have them and by the age of 27 when she was diagnosed, she’d had abnormal cells removed several times.

Less than 1% of cervical cancer is non-HPV. If you don’t have HPV your risk of cancer is vanishingly small and you risk doing more damage by having cells removed unnecessarily.

I had my first smear at 22 always all negative and clear until last year age 40 I tested positive for hpv. I myself have only had 3 partners over the last 20 years: Apparently can lie dormant for years or even decades

Nope, nothing will convince me that it's nothing less than nasty.

I know things have improved with plastic speculums etc but last time I thought she was having quite a rummage!

Wow, have you had an empathy bypass or something? Have you actually read what some people's experiences of smears have been on this thread? Probably not, otherwise you might not have found the sarcastic quotes necessary. I mean, I get/agree with your basic message that smears are worth it, but there was absolutely no need to put it in such a nasty way.

Yes, smears can save lives. They can also be excruciatingly painful, way beyond "a bit of pain and uncomfortableness", or even in worst case scenarios impossible (have you never heard of vaginal atrophy?) so get down off your high horse and think yourself lucky if yours aren't problematic.

Ah OK, that's interesting (and also very sad) to read, I didn't know that. I think the media did slant it that way.

Worth it yes, but for some people it absolutely is not minimal and is not mere discomfort. The reality of women's experiences with smears is way more varied than that. I do get why you're speaking up for having the test done, though, and I hope your friends make a full recovery.

This is so inappropriate. You should speak to the practice manager.

But how reliable is that figure? I've heard 0.5%, 1%, 9%, 10%, 5 to15% and 0%.

Do you know whats even more painful? Dying a slow death from cancer that could have been avoidable. Sorry I sound blunt but ive had many smears in my lifetime some quite painful but id rather that than the alternative.

I tend to think that mass screening is set up and never properly re-evaluated. Easier to scare women into going to unnecessary procedures.

Cancer Research UK (and I think they’d know) say 99.8% of cervical cancer is caused by HPV.

Some posts on this thread are so fucking patronising. It's not just uncomfortable or painful for some of us. The gynaecologist couldn't understand how the nurses at my GP surgery had ever managed to do my smear - the only way was by poking and prodding me around while I cried in pain. Thanks to that lovely gynaecologist I know it doesn't have to be like that but why should I only get treated properly if I go private? If I can't afford to go private I won't be having another one. If the NHS want women to go for testing then they need to treat them like human beings rather than pieces of meat and realise that not everyone is the same.

Sorry for the rant, but it really pisses me off that women are expected to put up and shut up!

Oh stop with the amateur dramatics, this rhetoric if you don’t have a smear test you will absolutely die an agonisingly painful death from cancer, honestly let women decide for themselves without the hyperbole.

I don't go because I've lost faith.
No help with painful periods since 1994, belittling attitude of midwives during labour.
I've given up on the NHS for help with obs and gynae.

The nurse who does them and posted on this thread said 9%.

Actually I have known someone who was sedated for it. I don't know what kind of sedation - presumably not GA!