Nurse who had to perform smears on TW?

[waterlego]

Sorry to start a thread about this, but I’m sure I recently saw a screenshot on Twitter taken from an MN thread in which a poster said that their nurse friend had been required to perform smear tests on TW. Can anyone link to that thread? I would like to share it in a Feminist FB group I am in, if possible. Thanks in advance.

This is actually a thing in Canada. Sigh. Of course it is. Trans women and cervical cancer

And information for males who have transitioned on how to look after themselves is wrong why? Yes, there needs to be clear information which doesn’t confuse cervical smears with examination of new-vagina tissues but if there is a risk of cancer for those with new-vaginas why is it ‘wrong’ to provide that information?

Any risk of cancer should be communicated clearly Transpeaked that isn't what this discussion is about. Cervical checks/smears have a very specific purpose and only women have a cervix.

They probably ought to be swabbed occasionally.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2695466/

I seem to have had a post deleted for stating that humans cannot change sex.
I have over the past three months been made aware of the subject which is being discussed on this board, and have heard a new phrase which seems to be very fashionable amongst certain people:

"the sex which you were assigned at birth"

Is someone or maybe a group of people trying to rewrite the science of biology?

@2ndwavefeminist - I should have made it clear who I was replying to.

TheSmallClangerWhistlesAgain I thought that might be the case. There's definately a small subset of transwomen who very loudly try to convince everyone - and maybe themselves - that they are real women. So they claim to have smear tests, get PMT, period pains etc. just like real women.

They may pass this off as joking, but it shows up their deep insecurity about their self-identity even though they're now supposedly living their "authentic selves".

The other helpful point on that page is that transmen who have had a hysterectomy don't have a cervix. I haven't had one, so wouldn't have known exactly what is being removed. I imagine they will have this explained to them but IME it's easy to forget what doctors tell you.

They may pass this off as joking

Those I’ve seen appeared to be deadly serious.

I realise TW don’t have a cervix, but I wonder whether a neovagina that is regularly penetrated by a penis might be affected by some of the viruses that can lead to cervical cancer such as HPV. So a smear test might not be the same, but it may be discovered at some point that regular testing of a neovagina might be necessary.

drspouse your cervix is not always removed with a hysterectomy and you still need cervical screening. Your surgeon should tell you and you may have had a choice as to whether it was removed at the same time.

AnyOldPrion it may well be that artificially created 'vaginas' need monitoring but it will not be cervical screening and will be specific to those who have undergone that type of surgery and not suitable or aimed at women.

My mother was invited for a smear after a hysterectomy. Her cervix had been removed so she phoned to say it wasn't needed. She was told that she did still need to attend and they did what I believe is called a 'vault smear' where they take cells from the end of the vagina. So a trans man who has had a hysterectomy as part of their gender reassignment may still need a smear afterwards - but they won't be invited for one if they are registered as male with their GP.

I imagine it's a good idea to have the health of your artificial 'vagina' checked regularly, given the bacteria/microflora that can reside in there. But pretending it is a smear test that is exactly the same as women have doesn't help anyone.They'd need to be checked for completely different things anyway.