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?

I haven't been for my last one three years ago since the (still in place) practice nurse admitted she'd 'never had one herself' and took three attempts over 40 minutes. I nearly hit the ceiling with pain on each attempt.

I was raped several times years ago and that smear was horrendous in the extreme, very reminiscent of that pain.

I have a chronic condition that means it's very hard to plan in advance, a drop in with a decent nurse with a basic grasp of biology would help.

Until that happens there is no fucking way I'll be having a smear. No amount of nagging letters or NHS handwringing will change my mind.

I don’t need to have a smear test as it’s not applicable for me, aside from that I’m not convinced on their effectiveness with the controversy of false positives and financial incentives for testing, etc. I completely understand why lots of women don’t want to have them.

It’s harder since the sexual health clinic stopped doing them.

I had my first at 25 when I went for a routine check up. They found abnormal cells and thankfully I was treated and despite them returning and requiring further treatment I am now ok.

I would urge every woman to go have a smear. It really can be the difference.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/health-42747892?__twitter_impression=true
Bbc article

Ha, upabitlate, don't talk to me about stereotyping! I never even suggested anyone was an airhead, you made the link between a women's nail appt and being an airhead. That's nasty.
Maybe I should have said routine dentist appt, it was just the fact I had my nails done last week that it was the first thing I thought of. What an airhead I am!

Anon Try again. A dental appointment is nothing like a smear.

I think it should be up to ourselves if we have a smear/mammogram or not.
Women are so infantilised in these matters. Like if there was a prostate test for men, it would be totally up to them if they had it or not.

thanks but I have no wish to have my breasts squashed in some horrible machine or have a violent nurse jam a speculum up my vagina. (yes I have had that experience).

As an adult, that is my choice.

I actually love the idea of diy. Ok it wouldn’t always be right but it would save hours and hours and hours of nurses time so that would save money. And if you were feeling for your cervix rather than having to look that would be less painfully (for me anyway)
I also have some pretty strong ideas about speculum needing overhauled though.

Come off it anon.

You said that young women were treating their smear with as much importance as a nail appointment.

if that isn't stereotyping and unpleasant then I don't know what is.

I note that your attitude is "women just have to get on with it and if they don't and they die then tough" which is also a deeply unpleasant attitude.

Maybe you can't see how the tone of your posts is coming off but I'm not the only one on the thread who is taken aback by them.

It would be sensible to look at ways to improve the testing process to make it easier and more comfortable before deciding to berate women who don't make appointments.

Weezol, no, it's nothing like a dental or nail appointment. Exactly what I was saying. None of those can potentially save your life.
Each to their own, but for me, no matter how uncomfortable, inconvenient or how much hassle they can be, I will always attend my smears.

How does your personal opinion help us understand why some women don't?

Actually, dental appts can be life saving, they check for cancers of the mouth and tongue...

You’re such a trooper anon.

" no matter how uncomfortable, inconvenient or how much hassle they can be, I will always attend my smears."

well done, aren't you are a good little woman, doing as you are told.

That's not what I'm saying, and not what I think at all. Quite the opposite, having recently watched a 27year old friend go through treatment for cancer detected by her smear. She probably wouldn't be here now And two gorgeous children would have lost their mum if she had decided not to bother with her smear because the parking is a pain or she couldn't get childcare.
Yes if we can eradicate these issues and make it easier for more women to attend, brilliant. But as it stands, I don't think enough people understand the importance of not attending for reasons which become trivial when you get told you have cancer.
I apologise for my tone, I'm not a fluffy kind of person, especially when it comes to such matters.

So you think women are ignorant of the effects of cancer as well?

Oh dear.

As long as women put up and shut up nothing changes.

Loads of women find this procedure unbearable, for a variety of reasons.

If we don't say look this really isn't working for us, then there is no incentive to find a better way. The whole thing is medieval.

I wish there was a better test where you could 'wipe and post'.

I wish you could drop in to a facility like you can with blood taking.

I wish you could get it done outside work hours and somewhere with parking.

I wish they could do it in a less barbaric feeling way.

The pattern in health is usually that the more educated you are the better the healthcare you receive.

Young women are better educated than they ever were and smear rates are going down.

Or are young disadvantaged women more likely to find it difficult to attend than their older counterparts?

Or a bit of both going on?

Personally I'd love to explore this more.

Instead I find it really backward and limited in understanding and trying to interpret why there seems to be a change in uptake.

Erm it's not that your tone is not "fluffy" it's that your posts come across as having an extremely low opinion of women.

This is the feminist section, posting a view that women are basically a bit thick, irresponsible, and more interested in their nails than their health is not going to go over very well.

I mean, how many men die from rectal or testicular cancer every year?
Are they told they have no choice but to have medieval instruments stuck up their holes on a regular basis? No they are not, they are allowed adult agency. Unlike women.

What about the high levels of sexual violence against women and girls in the UK?

That's never mentioned, bit of an elephant in the room really.

Of course women understand. It's not difficult. And not having childcare isn't a problem that necessarily can be easily fixed. I don't think anyone suggested that parking is a big issue, it was used as an example of factors that make it a total hassle to arrange.

I don't see any actual useful thoughts, and the fact you're not "fluffy" is irrelevant. It's your attempts to berate and humiliate women, rather than actually look at the issues.

Yes, a lot are. And a lot of my friends were unaware of just how important smears are, until our friend was diagnosed. Many thought they didn't really need to worry about it until they were much older or had had children. Not true.
Like someone earlier in the thread said, if you were told you can have a simple test for detecting one of the most common types of cancer in women, allowing treatment and potentially saving your life. What's to think about?