Hi,
Hoping someone can offer advice/ reassurance 😊
I went to my GP back in June 2020 for bleeding after sex which I'd had on and off for for a few months. They informed me that although they weren't doing routine smears as we were in the midst of the first lockdown mine was due as the last one had been 2017. GP carried out the smear and and whilst doing it noticed a red area on my cervix which she referred me to gynaecology for. I was pretty anxious and waited 2 weeks for the gyn appt, in between times I called my GP surgery to try and get the results of my smear which hadn't been posted out to me yet, to be informed by a very unhelpful receptionist they would never tell me over the phone and I had to wait. Anyway fast-forward to the gyn appt I was given an internal scan carried out by a consultant who looked at my cervix, womb and overies and informed me everything looked normal and healthy and when I asked about what my GP had seen he just said GP's often don't know what they are looking at and my cervix is just quite sensitive. I left the appointment feeling very reassured and didn't give anything much more of a thought. I never recieved the smear result in the post but I concluded it must have been fine or I would have heard something and also feeling reassured by the gyn appt and being in the midst of a pandemic there was lots going on.
Anyway, I fell pregnant early 2021 and had a baby boy November last year. I did experience bleeding after sex again during the pregnancy which I was checked out at meternity triage for a few times and on a couple of occasions the Dr said they had seen a cervical ectropian which is not uncommon during pregnancy as the cervix is much more sensitive I was told.
Again, I didn't think much more about it until a few weeks ago when I read that you should get a smear a few months after having a baby so I called my Dr to ask and told them that I had had one in 2020 but should I have another. I had moved house early 2021 so I am now registered with a different Dr than the one that did the smear in 2020. When they checked there was no record of me ever having had one in 2020 which was very strange but they kindly looked into it further and can see from my previous GPs notes that it was definitely carried out but it was either sent to the lab late or the lab just didn't test it in time, probably due to covid, as on further investigation it appears to have expired.
I'm now very worried as I've not had a smear since 2017 and I was normally very vigilant about the whole thing having had one borderline abnormal smear at 20 (I'm now 35) and being on 6 monthly checks for 2 years and then annual checks and eventually 3 yearly checks when there was consistently no further abnormalities. I know I should have chased the smear but after being told not to call the GP surgery to request this I wasn't sure where else I could ask. I was also told by the gynaecologist that everything was absolutely fine so I wasn't overly concerned taking the view it must have been okay (I know this was stupid now 😔) my GP now can't book me in for a smear for weeks so I paid for a private one last week and expect the results in the next few days but I'm terrified. The Dr who examined me said my cervix looked fine and my GP tried to reassure me not to worry as I had it checked by a gynaecologist who noted my cervix looked normal and it was inspected numerous times during my pregnancy. But I have developed terrible HA since having my little boy and a very difficult labour. Apologies for the longwinded thread but just looking to see if anyone else has experienced their smear not being tested during covid and maybe just hoping for some reassurance as my mind is in overdrive thinking the worst, especially having just had a baby 5 months ago. TIA XX