Agonising smear test - any ideas why?

[Smearwegoagain]

I've had yet another scream inducing smear test which left me in tears. I'm supposed to have them every six months at the moment because of mildly abnormal results a while ago and I'm getting a bit anxious at the thought of them so put this one off for a year.

I never had a problem with them until the first one I had after I'd had DS (now 3). That one and every one since has been agony - worse than childbirth - I feel like I'm being stabbed when the speculum is moved around. It doesn't hurt when it's put in though.

I had an emergency caesarean so it can't be because anything was damaged down there during the birth. The doctor said maybe I had a sensitive vagina, possibly to do with oestrogen levels, but she said everything looked ok and it wasn't to do with me being tense.

I haven't had sex for ages so don't know if that's relevant.

Anyone else had anything similar or know what it might be?

Thanks.

I've no idea why it hurt - I was having weird discharge and bleeding after sex as well. Smear came back clear and all these problems have now settled down (9 months after childbirth). I assume that my cervix took that long to recover from childbirth ?

The nurse wasn't very interested in my pain and didn't offer any explanation btw!

I thought I was the only one to have extremely painful smears due to a retroverted uterus. It never used to be painful but the last one was agony. Nurse unable to get a scrape after 3 attempts until I mentioned retroverted uterus. She then said that the NHS now uses cheap plastic speculums and these are ineffective for obtaining smear samples on a retroverted uterus. She said the old metal type should always be used. Since discovering this info smears are now stress free and most of all pain free. I know this post is a bit later than the feed but just in case it's read I thought someone may benefit from this revelation. ??