Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
General health

Mumsnet doesn't verify the qualifications of users. If you have medical concerns, please consult a healthcare professional.

Original poster

Smear test question

29 replies

Showmeheaven · 13/06/2010 00:13

Anyone know if it is really necessary for me to keep having smear tests due to the fact I have only had one sexual partner in my lifetime (dh). DH has never been with anyone else either. Its a few years since I've had my last one and I cannot find a definative answer in Google.

The only reason I ask is that my Mother (and her generation) never had them, possibly because it wasn't necessary

Just wondering, anyone know ?

OP posts:
secunda · 13/06/2010 00:15

Yes it's still necessary. HPV is not the only cause of cervical cancer. Your mother's generation never had them because they hadn't been 'invented'

Original poster
Showmeheaven · 13/06/2010 00:18

Right, but I never heard of anyone getting cervical cancer in that age group either.

OP posts:
secunda · 13/06/2010 00:22

here

Look at the bit where it says "Mortality rates generally increase with age with the highest number of deaths occurring in the 75-79 age group. Less than 6 per cent of cervical cancer deaths occur in women under 35."

So older women do get it and die of it.

pinkteddy · 13/06/2010 00:24

Well sex isn't the only cause of cervical cancer. Its known that women who smoke are twice as likely to develop it as non smokers. Also taking the contraceptive pill for longer than 10 years can also be a factor. I would strongly recommend that you continue to have them. It can take a long time to develop and can be more common in women who are sexually active at a young age.

If you are afraid of having it you can discuss with your GP or insist on seeing a women doctor either at your practice or at a family planning/sexual health clinic.

I am not sure when the cervical screening programme started but I guess the test wasn't available when your mother was young. The tests and screening programme are developing all the time. HTH.

Original poster
Showmeheaven · 13/06/2010 00:33

Hmm, that statistic is a surprise.

It does go on to say "However, a woman with only one partner could contract HPV if that partner has previously been in contact with the virus"

But I guess its not a risk worth taking, an app with the GP it is.

Thanks Secunda.

OP posts:
Original poster
Showmeheaven · 13/06/2010 00:36

Thanks Pinkteddy. I'm not a smoker, and don't take the pill either, but will have to get my ass in gear

OP posts:
rabbitstew · 13/06/2010 08:23

Smokers and people on the pill may increase their risk of getting cervical cancer, but normally only if they also have HPV infection - ie it reduces their body's ability to clear the virus and normalise abnormal cells that may have developed (a clear link here with smoking, less certain of the connection with use of the contraceptive pill). The chances of getting cervical cancer without HPV infection are exceptionally remote. However, to ever have had sexual intercourse, or intimate contact with someone, puts you at risk of contracting HPV - it is passed on by skin to skin contact, so penetration is not necessary, just someone getting close to the relevant area(!) - so still advisable to get smear tests regularly. Plenty of women have died of cervical cancer despite only ever having had one sexual partner.

rabbitstew · 13/06/2010 08:55

ps by relevant area, I mean the genital area, not the cervix! HPV is also implicated in other cancers, not just of the genitals, but also of the mouth and throat in particular. There are lots of types of HPV, though, and only some types are strongly linked with cancer and even then, the majority of people who get infected clear the virus within a few years without ever having been aware they had it in the first place.

Have looked into this a lot, having been very upset by an abnormal smear test result the first time I ever got tested, having only had sex once in my life at that time (and therefore nearly not bothered to respond to the invite) with someone I trusted and using protection.

RatherBeOnThePiste · 13/06/2010 15:30

I would just have it. I lost a very good friend to cervical cancer. She had a 14, 12 and twins aged 2. It is advisable to have regular smear tests, what exactly have you got to lose by having a smear test?

purplepeony · 13/06/2010 18:48

OP- how old is your mother? Mine is 83 and she has had them all her life. She, as far as I know, has only had 1 sexual partner, and him possibly likewise.

From what I understand, HPV is responsible for about 70% of cervical cancers- not all of them.
For the sake of 3 minutes, once very 2-3 years, I'd just keep having them.

LynetteScavo · 13/06/2010 18:53

My grandmother who would be about 100 if she were still alive had cervial cancer. (Thankfully she survived)

I'm pretty damn sure she only every had one sexual partner!

There must have been some sort of test in those days...she had been tested then had a dream that she had cancer, and insisted on being re-checked, and sure enough she did.

purplepeony · 13/06/2010 19:09

Of course there were tests way back. I wonder OP if your mum just wanted to be an ostrich and not actually bother due to some fear of them? As I said, i am one of the older MN- 55- and my mum is 83 and she has had smeasr regularly all her life.

CloudsAway · 13/06/2010 19:35

Only 70% caused by HPV? I didn't know that. Does the smear test detect abnormalities that lead to the other sort, though?

I think on the invite letter it states reasons you might not have to have one, and not having had sex is one reason. Surely they would make you have them anyway if there was still quite a high chance you could get it?

purplepeony · 13/06/2010 19:40

well, nuns don't get it as far as I know.

why are you so concerned about having it done?

purplepeony · 13/06/2010 19:42

www.cancerhelp.org.uk/about-cancer/cancer-questions/cervical-cancer-in-virgins

Original poster
Showmeheaven · 13/06/2010 22:01

My mom is 75 and I'm quite sure she has never had one. I'm not overly concerned about having them done, its just something I keep putting on the long finger.

I work with a girl whose sister is a GP, she is in her fifties. When she was training to be a doctor (in the seventies) the name they used for cervical cancer then was 'social cancer'

OP posts:
purplepeony · 13/06/2010 22:17

Show- that is just plain weird if you don't mind my saying so.
I am 55 and have never ever heard of social cancer. My mum is 83 and has had smears all her life. Maybe your mum just never got round to it- like you?

purplepeony · 13/06/2010 22:18

Show- are you and your mum in the UK? you use the words mom which is US.

Original poster
Showmeheaven · 13/06/2010 22:25

No, not U.S., I'm from Ireland.

I would imagine the term social cancer was not widely used and was dropped completely because of its, well, political incorrectness!

OP posts:
BelaLugosiNoir · 13/06/2010 22:39

I posted a bit from Bosch recently about HPV and cervical cancer, my Internet's a bit dodgy on my iPod so can't post a link but if you search on my name you should find it. Rabbit has v sensible things to say above.

Screening started in the UK in the 60s on an ad-hoc basis; people who were keen and interested set up labs. The formal organised programme began in 1988, that's when women started being called for tests. Anyone 65 and under then would have been called.
The two peaks for cervical cancer are 35-40 and 75+. The older age group have often never been for a screening test or went once 30 years ago.
OP - not being screened is up to you and is a discussion you can have with your GP. As rabbit says there are a few possibilities of getting HPV.
A suggestion could be to have an HPV test which checks the presence of high risk HPV - this might be useful in assessing your risk so could be worth talking to your GP about.

BelaLugosiNoir · 13/06/2010 22:42

I've worked in screening for 15 years and worked with people who've been working the programme since the 60s and never heard the term social cancer used.

Original poster
Showmeheaven · 13/06/2010 22:48

Purple, I have had several smears in the past. Its been approx. 5 years since my last one, so I'm well over due.

Thanks for that Bela. I'm certainly not against being screened but I will ask my GP while there, just out of interest. I think I know what her answer will be

OP posts:
rabbitstew · 13/06/2010 23:33

Showmeheaven - why not just accept that you have a low risk of developing cervical cancer, but that you do not have no risk. You are not a virgin. You have a cervix. What is your problem with this?????..... Do you want someone to come up with some spurious statistic for you to show you that the risk is suitably low in your case for you to discount it altogether?!!!

Original poster
Showmeheaven · 13/06/2010 23:51

Oh dear. I didn't realise I had a problem. Gulp. I just thought I'd throw the question out there and see what answers I got. I never said I am against getting smears. I think some people are taking me up wrong or I'm coming across wrong

My heart is thumping in my chest after your post Rabbit. I think I'll leave it now.

OP posts:
purplepeony · 14/06/2010 08:17

OP if you care to read the link that I posted it says clearly that you can be affected by the HPV virus through non penetrative sexual activity.

It also says that 80% of people have the HPV virus at some point in their lives. Most people do not develop cervical cncer as a result of that but a few do.

The simple fact is that people can be at risk for all kinds of reasons and greater risk forlifestyle reasons; that cancer site I posted also shows that the number of baths or showers you have a week adds risk!

I suspect that in Ireland things maybe lagged behind the UK in terms of screening, which is why your mother did not have smears. Mine certainly did have them, defintely after my brother was born in 1964.

As Rabbit says, you might have a low risk, but that is not the same as no risk at all and your mum's life choices do not have to be yours, now that we have more facts about he disease.

Swipe left for the next trending thread