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.

Do they not use lubricant automatically? If not, no wonder it is painfull for people. My dr always uses lots of lubricant.

I had a bad experience. I mentioned at the next one that I’d had a bad experience last time. The HC”P” carrying out the next one basically raped me, while telling me it wasn’t so bad.
She smirked, actually smirked, while telling me it wasn’t so bad, while employing the pressure for scraping coconut meat from a shell, to my cervix. I bled for a week afterwards.
I will never go for another one.

I’m glad you went!!
I’ve had high grade HPV previously and had to have LLETZ treatment
had HPV again at smear last year but no abnormal cells found, waiting for my brush and sweep appointment to come through- good luck

I haven't read the whole thread. I had regular smear tests since I was 21. I'm too old to need them now! My last one was post menopause and did hurt. The people at sexual health clinics are very good at doing the tests. IME.

Agreed. The many responses with negative experiences to me just show how poorly women’s health is managed; yes, the OP has chosen a particular angle which has annoyed and upset some, but if women’s healthcare was more of a priority and women’s pain taken seriously, it would be possible to post something innocuous and well-intentioned without it garnering the scale and intensity of response seen here.

I feel like the main issue is what fact that so many of these stories exist, that so many women’s experiences have been so awful, tell us about women’s healthcare. Smear tests are one example but there are many others.

Thank you 🙏

I don't remember it being particularly painful but I've found it mentally quite hard. I've had past experiences that this can be triggering, I understand a previous poster saying it can open up PTSD. I feel vulnerable and exposed but I do it for my health.. unfortunately not so much for my mental health.

I find it really painful, and was advised to ask for a small speculum and to take it slowly. I am furious that they insist on my gay DSD having one when she has never had penetrative sex with a penis.

My cervix likes to hide so I have had similar experiences. I got a referral to hospital last time as they have a bed with stirrups they can move up and down and it was so easy. Maybe ask for that next time if it is difficult.

A senior private GP did mine once and it was obvious she hadn’t done one in years. Kept telling me we were running out of time so I should relax to get it over with. Of course it clamped shut 😂
Next time I opted for an NHS nurse… super quick and completely painless.

Women can catch it from female sexual partners too.

Wow you must work 70+ hours a week doing a smear every 10mins to rack up '100s' a week love......

Sorry you experienced that. Hope you made a complaint and found a different surgery.

No because I knew no better and thought it was normal

Thanks OP, nice of you for understanding that us silly little women need to be tricked into reading something because we don't know what's best for us.

At least it isn't the usual spiel about how we're stupid for being embarrassed, conveniently ignoring that it's a painful procedure for many of us. It's also traumatising for some women, for various reasons, but of course you wouldn't address that: nobody does.

But you must have seen posts before saying exactly the same and you didn’t feel compelled to go so what is more persuasive about your post than any you’ve ignored for years?

The first time they insisted she had had no sexual experience at all. She was treated very badly.

Fair point.

There's been a thread like this every couple of months for years.

Sorry to hear that. Hope you've now found a different practitioner to do it.

No I have not had one since.
I find any medical procedure very difficult including things like having my BP taken.

Why on earth are people putting stupid pointless titles 😵‍💫😵‍💫
Just put smear test .. bloody stupid to add leave and twigs ffs.

I've had two pain-free smear tests in my life - I'm 65. One was done by a practice nurse with 20 yrs experience as a midwife; the other was done by the practice successor that she trained.

To be honest I find them very uncomfortable and usually painful, but needs must

Oh look, another thread of women policing other women’s bodies. What on earth do you think gives you the right to tell other women to go and get medical testing?

Unfortunately she fails to tell you the other stats, like how the smear test would never be introduced today if it didn’t already exist because it’s statistically ineffective, causes a vast amount of unnecessary procedures and anxiety (as it produces a high level of false positives resulting in further treatment such as punch biopsies which weaken the cervix and can make pregnancy more dangerous), makes women think they are ‘saved’ from cancer when actually cell changes usually go back to normal, and that a nurse performing smears for approx 40 years is likely to only see one to four cases of actual cancer, most of which would already be symptomatic. The lives ‘saved’ since the introduction of the smear test hasn’t actually changed, statistically, from the data pre-screening.

Smears are one of the biggest farces of modern medicine. Try asking your local practice how much extra they are getting as incentives to push you to have smears. I refuse to act like my body is constantly on the edge of being ‘sick’.

Presumably you’re also demanding scans for brain cancer, since you’re more likely to get that than cervical. No? Why not?

If you want more information, Dr McCartney, a GP who refuses smears herself (and as an aside, as was one of the co-founders of JK Rowling’s rape crisis centres) has a lot of great work and data on smears and screenings generally.

In the spirit of your comments, OP, if my comment makes just one woman critically think about her own health and assess her own risks instead of blinding following along, then I’ll be glad. You seem to fail to realise that medical treatment is a personal choice.