Cervical Screening

[Interestedinhealth]

Hi all,

I'd like to find out what makes you go for your cervical screening (smear test) and how you would encourage others to go?

I'd also like to know why you don't go and what would change that?

Reasons to go: with cancer, prevention is the only thing we have. Hence I go because i want to make sure that if i am unlucky to develop anything it is found it at early stages.

I encourage them to go making them understand the smear test takes few minutes, there is not any pain (maybe only a discomfort but much less than having your legs waxed).

I'm due mine now but the thought of it gives me flashbacks to giving birth and I feel sick. I will suck it up eventually and go as I have previously had hpv and the LLETZ procedure.

It would be great to know which City you are in as I'd be interested to know if there are differences between Cities/towns

MaggieMay, there are also other causes to cervical cancers.

I'm 25 this year. I have received 2 letters inviting me to go. I'm not going to.
I've had enough medical professionals poking and prodding me down there during pregnancy, labour, birth. And as a result of another problem I had after giving birth. I do not intend to let anyone else until dh and I want another baby in a few years.

I was reading an article this morning about cervical screening that reported that (locally) the number of women having them has dropped. The “Jade Goody” effect having been and gone it seems.

www.cambridge-news.co.uk/news/cambridge-news/cervical-cancer-screenings-plummet-cambridgeshire-14003737

I don't go. Cancer research UK states a woman's lifetime risk of cervical cancer is 0.65%. I'm a lifetime non smoker and my risk of lung cancer is 8%. The UK still uses the old style test for abnormal cells when HPV is responsible for over 99% of cervical cancer cases. A menopausal woman such as myself is likely to get a false positives result on the old style test. Should anyone wish to test for HPV they can order an online kit they can do in their own home. The Dutch and Finnish women have been offered the self test kit for years. Should I ever decide to screen again this is the option I will choose. As to others it's their decision what to do. I'd never tell another woman what she should do with her cervix but I'm regularly jumped on when I state I don't screen

Why? You sound like a journalist.

Also Jade Goody had adenocarcinoma a form of CC very rarely picked up by the smear test and the most common type of cancer in younger women. Jade had regular smears.

Why would you like to know? If you're a journo or a researcher have the decency to say so, have you no ethics training?

I encourage them to go making them understand the smear test takes few minutes, there is not any pain (maybe only a discomfort but much less than having your legs waxed).

This annoys me. I find smear tests very painful. It might not hurt for you, but the women who do find it painful aren’t lying.

Fear makes me go, cancer terrifies me and I have DC so don't feel I can justify not going really. I hate the procedure itself, the indignity and sheer awkwardness of it, the paranoia about personal hygiene and the discomfort of it. I've had both good (or as good as it can be!) and really, really bad experiences and I'd be a liar if I said it doesn't sometimes take me a month or two to get round to booking when I get my reminder but I always go. I had abnormal cells and a colposcopy about 12 years ago so was on yearly repeats for quite a while, I'm back on 3 yearly now and tbh, much as I hate it I think I preferred going yearly. 3 years seems a long time for 'stuff' to be happening I know nothing about.

@Kat786 my surgery actually tests for HPV during the standard smear. Always worth checking with the GP as I think it’s being rolled out across the UK.

I've had cancer.
I'm here, alive and kicking because that cancer was found early and therefore treatable. I don't understand why you wouldn't accept the offer of a test to find out early if you were unlucky enough to contract cervical cancer.

Back for Good. .I'm really sorry about your experiences. However if I choose to screen again I will source the self test kit privately. Having done my research and weighed up the risks and benefits I am happy to live with the extremely small chance of getting the disease. As I said everyone must do what they feel is best for them

I don't have smears. I spent a long time looking at the odds of getting cervical cancer, looking at the method used and what the results actually mean. I'm happy with my decision, but totally respect anyone's decision to have it done.

If anyone is interested, there was a paper written a few years back that collated the data from the bristol screening service from 1976 to 1996 (348,419 women). The link is below, it's an interesting read.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/12714468/

My mother didn't go for smears and ended up with advanced cervical cancer. We found her unconscious due to blood loss. Thankfully she is ok now. As much as I hate smears I force myself to go for them. I've just had a colposcopy for high grade changes. It's just one of those unpleasant things in life that I have to do. It's never as bad as uou imagine. Slightly undignified but a necessary evil.

I've not been for a test yet because I'm not yet 25.

What annoys me is seeing women online saying 'come on ladies, a smear test isn't painful or embarassing.' Obviously it's good to encourage people to go but saying that is a blatant lie because some women are embarrassed and some experience pain.

I'm opting out for now. There is a lot of over treatment of changes which would not become cancerous. If I had symptoms I would see my doctor.

I go because it's offered and I don't have any reason not to.

...well until this last smear I didn't have any reason not to, but this recent one I found really, really difficult. Like several pp having had babies since my previous smear I found it almost traumatic. I don't know, I guess I just don't trust anyone down there anymore unless I know they care about me, such are the scars of certain mean and contemptuous maternity staff.

Not going this time because I'm pregnant. Will book once I'm 6w pp.

I spent 10 years+ avoiding the conversation and ignoring letters from Drs. I had a planned C-Section with my DC and never had an internal exam.

I'm now 39 and last autumn I had a life-threatening infection and in the aftermath of that I realised there were some steps I could easily take to make sure anything else was picked up on so I booked my first smear.

Done and dusted in 15m. Friendly nurse. Letter back in 10 days giving me the ok. I felt so proud of myself for having the test at last and totally ridiculous for putting it off for so long.

I don't go because I'm really shy and hate it as it hurts so much. I know I should but keep putting it off