Women failing to attend smear tests

[guardianfree]

Women generally but young women in particular - 1 in 3 not attending.

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/jos-cervical-cancer-trust-charity-smear-tests-terminal-illness-health-wellbeing-hospitals-a8171011.html

I know they're unpleasant (and often feel humiliating) but what can we do to reassure women that they can be life savers?

The level of anger and contempt this issue provokes against those not wishing to be screened genuinely is fascinating.

I agree. I’ve made an informed decision that cervical screening isn’t for me. I don’t know why some people think women are too stupid to assess the risks and benefits and make their own reasoned judgement.

Why do you assume that women who are considering ways to improve uptake of smear tests, do not get smears themselves, prams?

I have had smears grin aged 16, and was on annual recall until about 6 years ago when I asked if it was really necessary for me to keep coming all the bloody time and they said, oh no, not really

From not grin!

Xenophile-
Totally agree, its not on and it's not right that as women we are just expected to grit our teeth and get on with it.

My main issue with my experience was that I wanted to monitor my abnormality to see if it goes away- cin 2 has 95% chance of not turning to cancer, cin 3 takes on average about 10 years to turn cancerous, if at all. (The very aggressive cancers that develop quicker are more likely to be missed by a smear) Having considered this I wanted to conservatively manage it. I was told that despite me not wanting to have lletz that I "needed" the treatment, it's very difficult to tell a doctor no. I don't see the urgency or need to push women into treatment

Why do you assume that women who are considering ways to improve uptake of smear tests, do not get smears themselves, prams?

Why are you telling me I assume that?

I am angry, I've seen too many people needlessly dieing. The NHS is a precious part of our life in the UK, free healthcare that many countries would kill for. So when I see these deaths, many of which could have been prevented it saddens and angers me, I cannot help that. We know that certain campaigns don't work for everyone, no campaign can work for everyone. Take the smoking campaigns, are they working? Well it would seem they are, since we have the lowest uptake of smoking in the younger generation for a decade. But still many are ignoring messages about smoking. We can't do one way of doing this that will please everyone is the point I am trying to make.

Missymoo

I think the way women are assumed to be too thick or whatever to be able to make informed decisions such as you've made about things they've looked into is just more patriarchal bullshit. Benign paternalism maybe, but still paternalism.

So berating/haranguing/showing images of people dying of cancer is a valid way of trying to increase uptake rates? Making sure women know that those running the NHS think they're stupid, ignorant and wats

...wasting valuable resources?

so when I see these deaths, many of which could have been prevented it saddens and angers me, I cannot help that.

It’s very hard to say whether screening tests would have helped with an individual’s likelihood of surviving or not. It’s more complicated.

Well it would seem they are, since we have the lowest uptake of smoking in the younger generation for a decade. But still many are ignoring messages about smoking.

The smoking ban meaning that general attitude that smoking isn’t as socially acceptable as it once was is a major factor there, plus the invention of cigarettes.

I remember when cervical screening started (more than 50 years ago).

The information given then (as far as I can remember) was that the 2 factors which increased risk were sexual activity at an early age, and how many sexual partners you'd had.

I don't know if more current research shows the same results.

Walking-
Yes you have a point, some will want more awareness, whilst others see the campaigns as pressure to have screening-
but the thing with cervical screening is that it's so one sided, there's no balance of risk vs benefits, just seems to guilt trip women into compliance.

the thing with cervical screening is that it's so one sided, there's no balance of risk vs benefits, just seems to guilt trip women into compliance.

Spot on.

Sorry but I do have the opinion that many of us humans are deeply stupid.....and I include myself in that stance before knickers get twisted!

Well walking, I’m not. One of my two first class degrees is in medicine. I am more than capable of assessing risk vs benefit and I’m not attending cervical screening.

It’s a shame you have such a low opinion of yourself. What do you think qualifies you to berate other women for their well thought out choices when you yourself are “stupid”?

Frankly I wish that the NHS had any sort of recognition that for some of us, due to past trauma, getting up the nerve to go for a smear is really fucking difficult.

I'm not stupid. I am not lazy. I am not a delicate snowflake. I have PTSD from a traumatic childbirth. And I don't need the media hectoring me about it.

Parrot-
Yeah I think those risk factors still apply still, along with some others including; smoking, number of children, certain strains of hpv are more aggressive than others, some hormonal contraceptives are associated with slight increases.

Always ask for lube, tell them you are nervous.

Once the nurse dropped the glass slide while doing mine and it smashed. She left me legs akimbo with speculum inserted while she rooted in the cupboard for dust pan and brush and cleaned it up, then did it again.

Horrible things but a necessary evil. Get it done.0

So essentially, anyone refusing to do what they are told is stupid regardless of the basis for reaching their decision?

OP Thankyou fir this thread and perfect timing for me. I’m 48 and have had regular smears thinking I was good and when the results came through that I was “ cancer free”. However, I dreaded them.. they were painful, took ages because of my awkward cervix, I bled for days afterwards and they often had to be repeated as they didn’t get enough cells. Plus everything others have said - appointments difficult to get etc.

So I’m two years overdue and I had been feeling guilty about it. Then a friend died suddenly from a different v aggressive cancer. He’d been told he’d probably had it for years with no symptoms. It made me realise that testing for one thing is no guarantee of health at all. Immediately I decided no more smears for me and this thread has just confirmed it. And no, I’m not stupid or shy or vain about my bikini line...I’m just an informed woman making a choice .

I had a good experience when young when I got my smears done at a young persons' sexual health clinic (Brook I think) and the nurse told me to ask for a long speculum in future. I felt great taking away that bit of empowering information.

At every subsequent smear appointment (I'm now 50) I've asked for a long speculum and without exception everyone's looked at me like I've asked to order a pizza. Occasionally they will look for one but most of the time they don't have one, in which case I've been told to tell them if the discomfort becomes 'intolerable'. So apparently it's fine to ask someone to submit to a routine intimate examination - yk, one they have had multiple opportunities to get right - which may feel intolerable.

Then out of the blue, during my last appointment I asked the nurse and she said she always uses a long speculum as it is easier to position and more comfortable for most women. (She gave me a more comprehensive explanation for that but I can't remember the other details.) So it has only taken approximately 25yrs to find someone to use the correct equipment (and actually she would have done it anyway so I can't even say it is down to me asking).

Have also had a breast biopsy likened to a piercing (along the lines of 'You have a piercing, why are you so frightened of this little biopsy?') which I think was meant to help me feel better about it - ? - but just made me really fucking angry. (My piercing is not on my breast if that isn't already clear.)

They're often so tone-deaf around these issues, I'm sure they have no idea where they're going wrong. That smear campaign with the lipstick is just awful for multiple reasons, I can't imagine who thought it was a good idea.

Walking, I was removed from a GP's surgery for not complying and going for a smear. Their bullying behaviour led to me not being registered with a GP for five years.

I've heard of similar cases.

Not every campaign will work, but there are too many women who have similar stories or have other concerns which are not being listened to. I can't help but feel poor attitudes to women and to ethics are just completely counter productive all around and listening to these properly could improve cancer survival rates AND not affect women in other areas of their health too.

I don't think this is difficult to do. There is just an unwillingness to do so, because of the mindset of the way screening has been promoted in the past is so fixed and set on this aggressive way of guilting and emotionally blackmailing women. There is little in the way of trialling alternative promotional campaigns. Mainly because this might cost more to do this.

But I do now question its value given that young women have had the vaccine

The young women who have had the vaccine are mostly not even old enough for smear tests. What has teens having vaccines got to do with women in their 30s and 40's needing smear tests?

"You were unaware that healthcare policy is sometimes influenced by politics and prevailing opinion"

Cervical smell tested was rolled out as a universal right in 1987. Before that it had been somewhat idiosyncratically available. Women's groups campaigned for this roll out. It wasn't the patriarchy imposing degrading procedures on women but not men, it was an argument made and carried by eome and scientists.

Perhaps one day men will campaign for better screening for prostate and testicular screening, and perhaps one day a universal screening will be rolled out for them too.