Abuse and smear tests

[me2oo]

I'm posting this here as I don't want a questioning of the validity of abuse and subsequent reaction response, so value a feminist perspective.

I suffered sexual abuse in my teen years. As a result, I really really struggle with going for a smear test. The letter sends me into floods of tears, as do all the reminders, and the thought of going makes me physically recoil. So I avoid them, and I know it's not good.

Has anyone experienced anything similar? Is there anything you can suggest?

No I don't think that's quite right. You can have abnormal cells which are caused by HPV, abnormal cells which aren't caused by HPV and you can have HPV without it causing any abnormal cells. As far as I know!

There’s a lot of scaremongering going on here. Unwind - I just wanted to post in support of your comments. The likelihood for most women is incredibly small, as cervical cancer is one of the rarer cancers, and yet the risk of being unnecessarily treated for a false positive is very high. I think every person should educate themselves on any medical procedure they are offered, particularly a screening where GPS receive financial gain for getting their patients to submit to it.

For some reading, I can recommend hunting down Dr Angela Raffle’s blog and articles.