I’ve never had a smear test and I don’t want one either

[Seventeenstars]

Controversial I guess, I’m 36.
I don’t think it’s necessary, as I’ve read about my risk factors and I don’t meet the criteria. All the men I’ve slept with (without protection) were virgins and yes I know they were for sure.
I also have no family history of any cancer.
My partner has prostate cancer in both sides of his family, his dad has it currently and he’s not even been offered a screening test for this.
I find this so frustrating and contradictory when women and men are treated so differently and if you refuse smear or breast screening you’re seen as an awful person, and those who do are morally superior.
Men aren’t coerced into invasive internal examinations.
I have an aversion to having things inserted in me internally and feel I have a right to that decision regarding my body.
There are home tests for HPV available, which I have done myself in the past - all clear.
My question is why do they persist with this archaic procedure when there are other options available?

I keep getting phone calls from my GP surgery trying to persuade me to book a test. I don’t understand why they’re always pushing it, but just totally dismiss other medical issues, which has been my experience several times.
Do they get extra commission for this or something?
There are even pop up ‘clinics’ and drop in sessions going ahead near me.

Of course I know I’ll be bombarded with replies saying I’m selfish, stupid and uneducated. I’ve even read other women saying that those who refuse should be denied any medical care!
But I have done my research and I am more than aware of the implications.

OP, you know you can opt out of reminders for smear tests? Just ask for a form to fill in.

What are you on about? This is such an unhelpful comment. Of course you have a choice! Nobody has the right to perform unwanted internal exams without your consent. You also have the right to an elective c section, which is what I had, for a variety of reasons.

Yeah! Go Schiller!

How can you say for certain that these men were Virgins? They might have rogered half the county for all you know 😉😆

I think people have responded to you in a negative way because you started a thread with an inflammatory post on a subject that is sensitive for many, many women.

I don't know what you hoped to achieve by saying that you don't want a smear test because most people either don't care or are cross with you because either they or someone they know has had cervical cancer. It was thoughtless and tactless, and your inability to read the room is very obvious on this thread.

Yes, I had two births without internal examinations. In fact, if membranes are ruptured then it can be preferable to avoid them as they're an infection risk.
In my case there was no benefit to having them and I didn't want them.

Absolutely! I will go for mammograms as an example because that is an actual cancer screening whereas a smear test isn’t, and harassing women via letters, texts and phone calls is absurd. I have been very clear with my GP that I will not be having another smear test and the letters, texts and messages on my NHS app keep coming. Because I’m a silly little girl who doesn’t understand of course.

20 years ago they still used a metal speculum, and (as far as I know) and from this year, some GPs are offering home tests I hear, so those are 2 good changes.
The only thing with that is that maybe the nurse could pick up on any other issues if you go in for one, but I'm not sure if they do that here. Some countries do a yearly gynae check so when you're having a smear, they might advise you about other issues.
Doubt anyone will criticise you too much OP, not seen anyone doing much about people who refuse vaccines, which could have a direct effect on someone else's health, so why would they come for you for this?

This. They look at your cervix to check for visible changes too. Can't do that without examining it. Just like to get teeth checked they look in your mouth.

Yabu

Read up on Total Pelvic Exenteration and this was after chemo and internal radiation. Radiation where they insert a rod up your vagina and basically zap you from within strapped to a bed.

this is the result of having a smear test come back with cancerous cells in my friend in her early 30s. A person like yourself who assumed she was also ‘low risk’ but thank goodness she kept up with smears.

your ignorance and assumption that you are low risk is wild.

Prevention costs less then a cure...

That’s not good. If you’ve told them to stop contacting you then they should have respected your wishes!

I wish you would reconsider.
Even lesbians can contract HPV. You can also be born with it. So no one is zero risk for HPV. The HPV test only picks up whether HPV is currently active in the vagina. Most of the time HPV is dormant, and so even those with HPV would test negative. So a negative test is proof you have never caught HPV.

No family history of cancer is irrelevant because this isn’t a type of cancer caused by a genetic mutation. This is a cancer that is 90% of the time caused by the HPV virus.

Your partner will be offered a prostate exam after age 50. Which is an invasive internal exam where the doctor inserts several fingers into his anus and check his rectum for any swelling of the prostrate.

“men aren’t coerced into invasive internal examinations” - well I would hope no one is coerced into an internal examinations but make no mistake men are also offered internal examinations regularly. Have you thought about how many STDs require a swab to be inserted into the urethra of the penis? And how that is much more painful than a swab in the vagina?

I think your aversion is overriding the science here, such that it may be classed as a phobia. I get it, it’s like needle phobia. Have you thought about asking for alternative tests for HPV? Or perhaps sedation you can take in the waiting room before a smear? (Like they do for dental phobia patients)

I agree doctors often dismiss serious medical issues, but that isn’t a reason to dismiss your own self from screening for what is a cancer that if caught late is very deadly.

It’s a few seconds discomfort that’s it. It’s not nice to have done but I wouldn’t be here now if I hadn’t had a smear test when I did. They had to do a biopsy and removed pre cancerous cells.

It is not a pleasant procedure but if it's the only option for now then I will do it. I had a late miscarriage and then had to have a very painful and traumatic check then d&c under general in hospital. So getting the smear these days bring back some very traumatic memories and flashbacks for me. But I will do it because I feel that if testing is available then it's kind of my duty to do it when I have two young kids who need me around.

My husband also is at higher risk for prostate issues so once a year he makes an appointment to get blood tests. GP has always been fine with that.

I have a friend like you,
I HAD a friend like you, shes dead now as shes had cervical cancer

But if you don’t have HPV they do not look at your sample, so they wouldn’t catch the other 10% (not sure if this is an accurate figure?) anyway. That’s the problem. Once again, women are being shortchanged.

My smear detected abnormal cells.

They tend to test HPV levels and if they’re high then check for abnormal cells.

Most women probably have an aversion to having a weird plastic car -jack like item inserted into them.
But most of us would prefer that to dying of cancer.
You do you, I guess.

I had breast cancer three years ago, I almost didn’t go to the doctor to get the lump checked because no one and I meant no one in my family has ever had cancer, I’m the First
So don’t justify your actions by saying well no one in my family has had cancer, you could also be the First

So you want to know whether you are being unreasonable, but you don't want us to bombard you with a differing viewpoint? In other words you want us to vote YANBU and not discuss it at all.

Money. There's not enough of it

99.7 % of cervical cancers are caused by HPV. The NHS has made a reasonable cost based decision on risk v reward. By not looking at the cells, they free up the money from pathology labs, equipment and staff to be used elsewhere in the system. I worked in a hospital pathology lab 20 years ago. A massive room of people looking down microscopes all day, stacks of slides to check. And the room next door for the processing of the samples onto those slides. The wage cost of that alone! The NHS couldn't justify continuing to spend millions every year to look at cell changes under microscopes in order to catch 0.3% of cervical cancers, it's not reasonable. That money can be used elsewhere in healthcare to greater effect

Yes that is a problem, but you’re looking at it in a glass half full way.
The HPV test catches 90% of cervical cancers, refusing the test means 0% cervical cancers caught. I know which option I would choose from a pure statistical standpoint.

Hell, mammograms don’t even catch 100% of breast cancers. You wouldn’t skip that because it’s also not perfect would you?

But those aren't the only two possibilities

That’s what we keep being told yet this thread is full of people saying they had no HPV and abnormal changes were picked up. This is what worries me.

Plus I was on a thread on Facebook where this was being discussed a little while back and it’s been even more worrying for those women who had cells removed in the past but now their samples won’t be tested despite their history because they don’t have HPV. The system will basically just spit their result back out and no cells checked even if someone makes a note about it