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?

something from 1995

PeacefulBlessing

And nor do you in that many women find smears uncomfortable rather than painful, but that isn't what you want to hear is it??

UpABitLate, I suppose the same principle as the mastectomy then. I hope that got consent in advance.

No -

It was back in the day - doctors would just whip it all out / some of it out "while they were in there" as a sort of preventative thing because, well, women's reproductive organs are always out to kill them.

I can't find anything too relevant on google but I know people whose mums it happened to when they were relatively young. Of course sudden menopause and all gone in your 40s for no good reason is hardly trivial but that's where we were at.

I mean they used to do all sorts of things to women didn't they. Consent was not really considered important up til what 20 years ago? - dr knew best.

I am wondering is this was in Ireland, lots of my friends have Irish parents.

I can't remember now but have come across it multiple times.

UpABitLate, that link is very sad. I don't understand how it happens, I've always had to sign a consent form for surgery and it states what they can do. Those doctors have to be mad to do that without consent.

I've generally been very lucky with doctors but I did have the horror of waking up from a sleep after delivering a baby to find a doctor stitching me without anaesthesia. The midwife went mad at him when she realised what he was doing. It was ironic as I had a painfree birth but was traumatised by the stitching. When my GP did my 6 week check he asked me if the person who stitched me had a personal grudge as it was such a mess. I had a home birth for the next one, GP knew I was terrified of being stitched and when he realised I needed to be cut he was so apologetic. I swear he gave me so much local for the stitches that I couldn't feel anything for 24 hrs.

I recently had a smear after putting it off for ages. I was firmly in the painful, embarrassing and my last one ended up with a biopsy camp so scared. I was taken an hour late and building myself up to just leaving when I was called. My gynaecologist had treated my daughter in the last few years and I do trust her. So legs akimbo in stirrups she chatted to me about how my DD was, used a plastic speculum and it was all done in seconds.

When it was over I embarrassingly, slightly tearfully said to her 'that was the best smear test I've ever had'. Results were thankfully all clear too.

From the indy piece:

"Ten years ago, most surgeons would have opted for removal of organs without the patient's consent. "They would have had no compunction about doing this", says Mr Kingston. "Today we have to be very careful when making such decisions. Removing organs without the patient's consent is dubious practice medically and legally speaking.""

I think many young women don't go because they don't know what to suggest. I'm only 21 so too young for a smear but will have no issues going for one as have had a miscarriage where the same procedure of a smear was carried out so I know what to expect.
My twin however has no idea as you are simply not taught it so maybe education around the subject would be a good place to start?

AssassinatedBeauty

I'm not, I agree that some women do find smears tests very painful and invasive. I am merely pointing out that many other things some women do are just as painful, waxing, waist training, lip fillers, botox, tattoo eyebrows, stillettos, not to mention childbirth but they still do it. So it's okay in the name of beauty norms but not health ones??

UpABitLate, I had a hysterectomy nearly 20 years ago and I know I had to read forms and agree with surgeon about what he could and couldn't take. I assumed that was standard.

granny or just thought they knew best,

we are still a long way from informed consent as well for a lot of stuff.

And nor do you in that many women find smears uncomfortable rather than painful, but that isn't what you want to hear is it??

I know that some women find smears only a little uncomfortable.

Of course that is going to be the case. I haven't once suggested that all women find them painful.

You, however, have decided that women who don't have smears are ridiculous because some other women have their vulvas waxed and that is equally painful. When you can't assess other people's pain experiences.

One woman's experience on one external beauty procedure cannot be extrapolated to predict or assume another womans experience of an internal medical procedure on a different but related body part.

It's like trying to compare a scale and polish with a tonsillectomy because they're both accessed by opening the mouth.

I think that because

women's organs are internal
there is a perception that they go wrong a lot
women are expected to be stoic around menopause and stuff, it's not really talked about

the usually male surgeons didn't really see it as a very big deal

of course now we know that it is a very big deal and things are different, mainly, when it comes to this at least (whipping bits out). It's treated with the correct amount of seriousness

I do think it is more invasive that beauty treatments. I've never had a problem but when I had a transvaginal ultrasound I found it invasive and embarrassing. Totally not painful but it wasn't pleasant and it lasted longer than the smear. The woman who did it was lovely and had me laughing, relaxing me I suppose, but I'm not sure which was worse that or the colonoscopy. Being surrounded while cameras get poked up your behind is not dignified.

I had a transvaginal untrasound. I agree it was invasive and embarrassing. But also necessary at the time.

I can choose not not consent to unnecessary invasive procedures.

grannytomine

But you still did it, because it was necessary. The thought of anything going up my bum fills me with dread but if it was necessary then I would. When I had my daughter I tore badly and was made to have a catheter because I tore close to my urinary tract.....2 hrs in stirrups....a smear is nothing compared to that!!! Don't we have a responsiblity to the younger generation to not put the fear of god into them around smear tests, I don't understand how horror story's are going to help??

Don't we have a responsiblity to the younger generation to not put the fear of god into them around smear tests, I don't understand how horror story's are going to help??

No one is talking horror stories, just actual personal experience.

UpABitLate you might be thinking of the Michael Neary case in Drogheda Here's a link - it's grim reading. Scandalously, he has never been prosecuted.

They're not horror stories, they are actual experiences that women have had. If you treated women like adults then it would be helpful to say that some women find them painful, and then explain what can be done to alleviate this. And look for ways to make the procedure less painful. Etc etc.

PeacefulBlessing, yes it was necessary and good result for me, hope it was the same for you. I did want it done so yes the embarrassment was worth it.

Walkingdead11, I dreaded the colonoscopy but I have to admit it was no where near as bad as I thought. I've suddenly realised how much money I've cost the NHS in the last couple of years, colonoscopy, heart trouble and now the BRCA tests. If you ask me I'd say I'm fit and well but I am obviously a delusional wreck. Hopefully I get the all clear and don't have to consider a double mastectomy.

@WalkingDead11 but this is about patient choice? People choose to have painful things done, I might not want to but no one is hassling me?

Also have you read up on the dangers and problems of smear tests? Even if you believe in screening, the science and numbers are hugely unconvincing.

I really hate the whole oh once you’ve had a child nothing is as bad and the whole world can access your vagina if they want crap.

I’ve had three children.

My last smear was horrible.

re waxing: the NHS doesn't write to me persistently to tell me to get a waxing I don't want, my GP doesn't nag me to get a waxing because they had a patient who didn't have a waxing and now they're dying. It's not remotely comparable.

The latest tweet from Jo's Trust:

“Please don’t put off your smear test, the alternative is so much worse”: Lindsay warns women the dangers of missing their smear test"

The danger of putting off your smear test is mostly a pile of junk mail from a supposedly cash starved NHS and a lecture from the doctor. Your chance of missing a smear test and getting cervical cancer that you wouldn't have got anyway is probably about as good as your chance of winning the lottery.

Jo's trust says smear tests reduce cancer incidence by 75%. If that's true (which I doubt) then the lifetime chance of not getting cervical cancer if you don't have a smear is about 99%. The lifetime chance of not getting cervical caner if you do have a smear is 99.75%. Bear in mind most women who die of cervical cancer are over 85 and screening stops at 65. We need to look at absolute risk not relative risk.