Cervical Screening and Coronavirus

[Boredsheep]

I’ve had my letter through telling me my smear test is due. Called to book straight away as I always do but due to the coronavirus, the surgery isn’t booking them in to be done.

Is this the same everywhere or just my surgery?

Am I alone in thinking this sort of thing shouldn’t be left and that there is going to be a whole new set of health issues once we get back to some
sort of normality?

We are a testing centre and are still very much operational, testing any smears that arrive.We have seen a 90% decrease in numbers since lockdown.

90%, wow

Mine was cancelled a couple of weeks before lockdown and the screening programme has been stopped for 3 months. I am not happy about it at all. Wonder how many lives will be lost?

My Dad is actually in hospital and they have said that he needs a colonoscopy but it will only be done once he has been discharged as an outpatient appointment. I can't imagine it will be any time soon.

That is in Scotland.

@Namechangervaver Sorry didn't mean to rant at you. It just really upsets me. I have three kids and it really scares me to think is there something wrong that I don't know about.

I agree with @RoryGilmoree
On balance they aren't essential right now unless high risk

I actually cancelled mine the week before lock down as I didn’t want to be in a gps with this flying around. The receptionist laughed at me and then a week later they cancelled them all anyway.

Mine was cancelled, initially rearranged due to the nurse self isolating, but I started with symptoms too so for the best. They aren’t cancelling those with previous abnormal results. Still worrying as it can change.

More worrying is having covid symptoms and not being able to be checked out at all. I’d definitely have seen a GP with the tight chest and wheezing normally. It’s scary and people will die of these other things.

Years of austerity and funding cuts to the NHS have brough it to its knees. I think they do a brilliant job with what they have.
As to smears. The government think some 80% of the population. ..men women and maybe even children, will get coronavirus. 80% of women will not get cervical cancer. The figure given by Cancer research UK is 0.65% lifetime risk of this cancer. Even severely abnormal cells can revert to normal without treatment. As medics can't predict which everyone is offered treatment. A thorough risk assessment was done before they paused the programmes and it was deemed to be safe. The thing is we have been trained to fear this cancer and pushed and bullied into smears. We are told even a delayed smear could cost our life. Now when smears are cancelled no one understands why!! Since there's 30 million women in the UK and 900 a year die of this cancer..one third of who were completely up to date with their smears. . I don't think thousands of us will die as a result of paused smears. Those with symptoms I think will still be seen. Incidentally GPS get financial incentives if they can "persuade " enough of their women patients to "accept " their "invitations " to smears. Money which could go elsewhere to prop up creaking services.

I saw a piece online from a GP surgery still doing smears. The women waited outside in theit cars (or 2m apart In a queue if they don't drive. They rang reception to confirm arrival. The nurse then rang them when it was their turn and came to get them. She would probably be in some form of PPE. In between patients she would have had to clean and sanitise the chairs desk bed and door handles. All this additional work !! All foe a cancer we have less than 1% chance of developing.

I am way over due for my smear due to being pregnant last year. My last one came back with abnormal cells so I am really keen to get it done ASAP.
As soon as I had my baby, I called my surgery to book one but was told they were not booking any in for the foreseeable future. I will give it a few more weeks but if they are still not doing them by June, I will try and get a private one done as that would make me two years overdue.

@Kat786 do you think they are pointless in general?

Now I’m 55 I’ve been invited for a bowel screening. That was cancelled immediately before lockdown commenced. No new date yet.

Bored sheep I think the old style test for just abnormal cells was not particularly helpful. HPV testing is at least a step in the right direction. There were NO trials carried out on the original smear test comparing smeared and unsmeared women..it was just inflicted on us! I'm not telling anyone what ro do or not do....but when you look at CRUK stats you wonder why so much emphasis is placed on smears. 900 deaths a year from this cancer out of a population of 30 million women is not a rampant epidemic! Yet we are constantly told you MUST test! Even a delay could cost your life. So it's not surprising that when smears are paused in a situation like this women are upset and angry and think they will die. Stroke and heart disease kill more women than this cancer....it's the number 1 killer of UK women. To each their own. And I think it's criminal doctors are paid incentives to hound us into an optional screening. And I have been hounded in the past even after I officially opted out of the programme! !

There's another way to look at this. HPV I'd extremely common and the majority clear it naturally within 2 years. Not all abnormal cells go to cancer. The vast majority revert to normal on their own. So maybe some women delaying a follow up smear test with previously abnormal results will be totally normal on retest and subsequent re tests.....and no treatment! !

In Holland and Finland they start screening their women for HPV at 30 because so many under 30s have HPV. their women are offered a self test they complete at home. If HPV negative they are tested again at 35 and then every 10 years (if they choose to screen at all) always offered a self test kit. They have 5 screens over a lifetime. Their rates of CC and deaths from it are among the lowest in the world so their policy isn't harming women. A conventional speculum exam would only be offered to those with HPV positive results. And if smears being paused here is worrisome the NHS could source self test kits for here. The women could take a swab ( test is a swab test looking for HPV virus strands in vaginal secretions ) and post it to the lab. Why haven't we been offered a self test kit here?? It might drive up uptake and save more lives in this cancer epidemic we have....

I found this official guidance covering England and Wales. ..for all ladies worried out of their minds about this cancer
It may help to remember having cell changed and HPV are not cervical cancer. About 9 in 10 ppl get rid of HPV within 2 years and many low grade cell changed go back to normal without treatment. It's also good to remember that cervical cancer is RARE. This comes from no less than Jos trust!!
A Canadian government website states A pap ( smear ) test is a NON URGENT NON EMERGENT screening test
But yes I can totally understand why women are beside themselves with worry given that up to now we have been told we'll die if we don't have smears...

I've had a letter from my GP saying the screening programme has been stopped for 6 months so I should call to make an appointment for in 6 months time.

I got this text as I was reading this thread

I was over a year late due to pregnancy when surgeries began cancelling 'non-essential services' and they told me I couldn't get a smear done.

Last week there was something in the news from Cancer Research predicting the number of missed diagnoses, so I rang my surgery back and asked for some advice about - I explained how late I was for my smear, that I have a maternal family history of cervical cancer and that I was feeling anxious given the news regarding an increase in missed diagnoses. The receptionist agreed to get a Dr to call me back - They told me to come in the same day and explained that initially they had been told by the labs that routine samples would not be tested to make capacity for corona testing, but that the labs have since started processing more routine samples.

I guess this will vary from trust-trust, but its worth pushing this as all surgeries' advice is constantly changing in line with national and local developments.

Genuinely concerns me things like this are being cancelled. I know it’s important not to overwhelm the NHS but coronavirus hasn’t stopped other shit happening! Cancer, heart attacks, strokes .. all still a very real thing! So long as GP’s/nurses wear PPE, I don’t see the problem? Imagine the backlog when these services re-open. It doesn’t bear thinking about. The NHS might not be overwhelmed now but it’s going to be in the future with everything that’s been cancelled & people not being diagnosed with serious illness. And I actually find that more frightening the Corona!

A letter through to my practice (London) says as of 10 April, no invitation letters will be sent for 4 weeks and lab processing staff/couriers are being utilised elsewhere. Anyone who has symptoms (bleeding during/after sex, menopause changes etc) will be seen by a consultant where available.

I can understand how worried some of you may be about paused smears..since its been hammered home we MUST test it's IMPERATIVE we test if we put it off WE WILL DIE. ..I've never bought into this line of thinking
What puzzles, me is....the NHS has said it's OK to pause, they did a thorough risk assessment, even Jos trust say the same thing, if you want you can check CRUK for more information, as to death rates etc..so why are you reassured?
900 deaths a year from this cancer from 30 million women, one third of these up to date with all of their smears. .
Around 875 women a year die in falls on stairs, do you ever worry about dying in a fall?
If the nurse carried on doing smears she'd be using PPE that a hospital or care home could use and between each woman shed have to thoroughly clean her room..is this really the best way for her to spend her time..

Should read why aren't you reassured sorry