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?

^what do the breast screening programme do?
Everyone seems to go for those^

I’m 47. I have never been called.

I go to all my smears. I hate them, they hurt and usually make me throw up. They always leave me shaky for the rest of the day, but i’ll still go. Just made an appt actually.

Anon, because most women now work, and are not wasting half a day's leave on this? Because they can't take kids with thme but live miles away from family? Because they can't fit personal care appointments outside of "children" time. You can take your kids to the dentist with you but not a smear. Women may work near one GP's surgery but be registered with one near home so can't use the one near work for tests in her lunchbreak?

I won't get parked if I get into work late and my GP never has late afternoon appointments available.

Some of this isn't rocket science but it is about making appointments work for women who have more to do than sit at home fitting around the bloody GP. And that's before you get the nurses with the more "interesting" bedside manner and the badly trained one who mangle their patients and don't stop when they're asked to.

Am I surprised that the take up is so low? No, but I am surprised that the NHS seems incredulous to all this.

I'm not young but it would get me there if they sent me the appointment rather than remind me to book myself. My last one was 2 years overdue before I finally talked myself into it.

Ive never had one that wasn't to some degree painful and I don't rush to go again.

LeCroissant, there is a study on doing that for groups of women with very low take up. Makes you wonder why it can't be done for everyone else if it's apparently "good enough" for hard to reach groups.

DontcallmeJohnBoy I'm not saying they can't or shouldn't be made easier for women. However, I'm surprised people put parking/childcare/work issues before their health, surely all these pale into insignificance if the test detects something abnormal, allowing early investigation and treatment and potentially saving their life. If that's not motivation for people to attend, I don't know what is.

I know I'm overdue a smear but haven't made an appointment yet because, when I'm not at work, I'm looking after a small child. I have no family closer than 2 hours drive away so no-one to mind said child while I pop along. Appointments are only available one day per week and not outside working hours. I also have irregular periods and I've had to cancel before because of this.

If they made it a bit easier for me, I'd go ahead and book one.

I hate smears so much I have a double brandy before I go in. And I don't even like alcohol. I take it to get through that.
I was lucky as I was tested before the start age was 25.
They found pre-cancerous cells when I was 21. I had laser treatment and was fine physically. I've never been right mentally since.
I'm being called for my smear but I'm dragging my feet. I'm 44, my cycle has started to vary so I'm never sure when I can actually book.
I've got mammography and probably biopsy tomorrow for breast lump so which I'm terrified of. I'm not in a good place mentally so am not strong enough for the smear right now. I'm sick of my female parts being pulled around now. I've had enough.
You can't make women have smears. Jade goody lost her battle and that helped raise awareness for a while.

BikeRunSki: you have to be over 50 to be called for breast screening in the UK.

I was in another discussion about cervical smears recently, and a lot of women said they found them painful because they had a tilted uterus or their cervix was a long way back. You need a really competent professional to be able to do it with minimum pain and fuss. Also for women who have been sexually assaulted or had a very difficult birth, the smear can be triggering - that's triggering, not as in "poor little snowflake feels a bit uncomfortable" triggering, but full on flashbacks, shaking with fear, sweating, kind of triggering.

anon989
Women are used to putting their own needs last, behind the needs of children, partners, employers and the rest of the world. We really shouldn't be surprised when they don't find the time for a procedure that is often painful and usually personally uncomfortable.
It's always been a relief on the few occasions where the test has been painless - on occasions it has been excruciating. And yes to the idiotic 'I can't find your cervix, it's tilted'.

They won't be putting their needs before anyone if they are stuck in hospital or even worse dead. Someone else will be looking after their kids then, and parking and work won't be an issue!

That's not going to help women who haven't got childcare for when they can make appointments. Berating them isn't going to change that.

My last smear was a revelation, the nurse chit chatted literally all the way through about kids and cooking and schools and just general bobbins.

She was in and out in seconds and I barely had time to register it.

One thing we need to do is educate girls that their vaginas smell perfectly fine, look just the way they should and have the perfect amount of hair whether it’s a full on bush, a quick tidy or a Brazilian. No one is judging and a vagina is the most powerful organ a woman owns.

We should start a LoveYourVagina campaign.

If someone said "there's a simple test we can do, that will eliminate the chance of you getting one of the most common cancers in women, and potentially save your life" - surely you take it up?

My experience of many, many smears have been fine. Not embarrassing or negative in any way. I'm going to throw Jade Goody into this mix, her having to leave her two gorgeous sons - is it worth NOT having the test??

Cervical cancer can, and does, kill women frequently.

Maybe drop-in would help, they always expect you to know the exact date of your past period, have a regular cycle etc.

if it were drop in, with all female practitioners who did it all the time (and were therefore v v good at it and so quicker and gentler - it usually works that way), then that would help I think. Even at places but with parking - clinics.

They used to do smears much younger, I had them from 16 and had changed cells and a piece of cervix out to look at which was a horrible experience -stirrups etc - didn't tell parents or anything obviously and just went up to London by myself. Since then they have realised that it is normal for cell changes when we are very young throughout the cycle, and if you smoke I think. ie there was no reason for me to have to do that. So when I read people and reports around whether smears are doing more harm than good I always wonder. Certainly as with prostate I think there is a lot of unnecessary treatment.

If only there was a way to have it done without having to have something stuffed up your cunt - which let's be frank is hardly pleasant in general and for some (quite a few) women is highly traumatic. The attitudes to girls, women, sex, vaginas, pubic hair, all of it, is hardly conducive to leading women to feel relaxed and comfy about this in any way. And it is a highly invasive procedure - no 2 ways about that. Why is it a surprise that women avoid it?

AssassinatedBeauty I was replying to GuardianFree. I realise there are a lot of issues and the process could be made easier, but at the end of the day it's up to the woman to take responsibility for her personal health for her own sake and that of her family / children. Yes it's an absolute pain in the arse but if I didn't go for mine and ended up leaving my son without a mother as a result, it doesn't bear thinking about.
This is not a nail appointment, some things, IMO, are worth the hassle.

And the most annoying thing is that when I had my history taken by however many HCPs when I was pregnant, they were all sceptical that this had actually happened, and 1 outright said she found it "impossible to believe".

WTF?

anon your assumption that women don't attend as they treat it with the same importance as a nail appointment is stereotyping, patronising and nasty.

Women aren't going. Rather than just saying they're ignorant air-headed fools, if anything happens they've only got themselves to blame, why not try to find out what the issues are so they can be addressed and more do go.

I have two problems with this campaign.

Firstly its smear for smear. As in lipstick. I rather resent the stereotype. It puts me off to be honest. I don't think it get any message across rather than reinforcing a stereotype.

Secondly the overall figure for uptake of smears is 75%. Thats high. Who is it who decides what an acceptable level of uptake is?

This campaign gives the impression that the only reason that women, and especially young women don't have smears is embarrassment.

Its not.

Sometimes women CHOOSE not to have them. And thats ok, if its an informed choice. Yet you never ever see any reference to this.

The campaign uses someone who has treatment but even this is misleading as there is no discussed of the false positive rate nor the fact that you might never develop cancer anyway. So the risk of screening itself is never mentioned.

The alarming point is more that women from different backgrounds are making different decisions. We should explore that more. Is it purely about embarrassment or is it because they practically find it harder to attend? Is it because they trust doctors less? Is it because they are treated somehow differently to another group? Are younger women making different decisions because they are more educated in assessing risk or because they lack education?

I think the whole thing rather misses an opportunity and doesn't really necessarily make the subject go beyond smear tests good, women stupid for not having them with a gender stereotype thrown in for good measure to promote the whole thing.

See that's the attitude that pisses me off about this. Nail appointment? Really? I'm not the sort of woman that does any personal grooming. Wtf.

Oh I read it on the BBC earlier it didn't say about any campaigns. I'll have a look at the link

I have a long history of sexual violence. I have begged to be able to meet the nurse who would be doing the smear and was told this wasn’t possible. I have asked for a referral to a more sympathetic service and that’s not possible either. Writing this post has made me have to go and vomit in fear, I am physically unable to walk into the clinic. Trite little homilies Just make the whole thing worse, the assumption being that if I just had enough gumption I could just go and get it done. I don’t. I just don’t have the strength for it and I am disgusted with myself enough without being told that I’m basically a bit shite as well.

Hey ho.

I think it is good practice to link it to contraception. My own surgery do this, so when you go for your annual check, the Nurse also looks when your next smear is due.

However I also think it is really important to talk to the women, and I understand it tends to be younger women and identify exactly what is putting them off. Years ago the trope was that men were difficult to achieve public health interventions with, but women were easier due to more regular contact with Primary Healthcare; through contraception, pregnancy, children's health services etc. I wonder if it's related to the age at which people become Mothers???

Must say I think they could make it easier to get convenient appts, for both smears and mammogram.
I was recently sent a mammogram appt. . which I definitely could not attend. As the letter asked, I phoned to cancel and request another, just 2 - or 3 weeks later.
'Oh, we can't book that far ahead, sorry.'
So frustrating.

I’m long overdue a smear but I can’t work up the courage to get one. I’ve got a ridge on my cervix so I end up with bleeding and weird contraction like cramps afterwards. I’m not sure what could be done to make more women go for a test, develop a blood test maybe.

Of course the optimum solution would be to find a test that didn't involve having to bare your bottom half to a stranger and spread your legs.

I wonder if they have looked at other ways of doing it.

There was a new speculum invented recently - or redesigned - by women - who pointed out that the device hadn't changed since I don't know the beginning of medicine.

Women are expected to put up and shut up, and suffer the consequences, I wonder how much effort goes into whether there are different ways of doing this, or ways that are less hideous for even the average woman.