One in three people don't attend cervical screening!

[DomesticatedZombie]

Quick, everyone, get your DH and DSs and DFs to the doctors toot suite!

www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/health/scarlett-moffatt-cervical-screening-nhs-23100780

New NHS campaign for cervical screening seems to be scared to use the word 'woman' too much.

A whole video in which the word 'woman' is not used. And an article that uses the word 'people' with some desperation.

'The full findings from the new survey reveal in the North East show that more than half of people said they were nervous about their most recent smear test'

I'm not surprised that hear that men would be nervous, tbh.

For those who aren't aware of the detriment caused by Kinsey's partial report of the expt. in touching a cervix, this is a reasonable news item.

The Kinsey investigators reported when the cervix was “gently stroked” with a “glass, metal or cotton-tipped probe,” only 5% of 878 women reported they could feel it. This data was the basis of Kinsey’s claim of cervical insensitivity.

However, when the investigators stimulated the cervix of the same women with “distinct pressure” using “an object larger than a probe,” 84% of the 878 women reported they could feel it. Kinsey’s conclusion did not take into account his own significant finding.

The sensate cervix
There is extensive clear data from diverse sources that women can certainly feel stimulation of the cervix. Women commonly report they can feel the Pap smear procedure in which tissues are scraped from the cervix surface.

Many women undergoing cervical dilation for insertion of an intrauterine device (IUD) report pain.

news.yahoo.com/cervix-sensitive-surgeons-acknowledge-part-120656470.html

It goes on to discuss some useful MRI studies.

It’s a pity there aren’t prostate screening ones to compare to Zombie - I’m guessing it would be vastly less authoritarian in tone. GP practices also get funding for making sure they do annual reviews of the management of patients with certain chronic conditions including asthma & diabetes. I normally go through the review questions in an unrelated nurse appointment because although my care is hospital-managed I get that the funding’s needed. I didn’t, however, fill out the survey sent to my phone this year for them to claim funding from, because that’s slightly beyond taking the piss.

BestKnitter
1/6 adults in England & 1/5 in Northern Ireland have a literacy level of age 5-7 or lower & the average reading age of the UK population is 9. So even before Jo’s Trust did their survey (2017) where it turned out 44.2% of women in the UK don’t know where their cervix is all messaging should have been written to be accessible to people with that level of literacy. (According to Jo’s Trust 23% of Scottish women don’t know what cervical screening is for, either.) Astonishingly, all the women in this research on hard to reach groups are women, despite the recent linguistic push into “people”. They’re also women who’re, statistically speaking, going to need absolute clarity of language - ie woman not cervix - in health messaging. That doesn’t seem to have come up as a consideration though, despite them employing translators for the purposes of completing the research (And should resources in other languages not be “using inclusive language” but just sticking with women, why is that? )

displaying the numbers in this way is misleading in its own right because it makes it look as if almost all 'people' were avoiding it for a 'trivial' reason.

Perhaps it's all the male "people" who were embarrassed.

Two thirds of female people needing this screening are hard to reach?

Let's make it even harder for them so that male people feel better!

Ffs.

@KattyR786 thank you so much for that information! My last smear was so painful and I was still spotting 3 days later. Nurse commented she’d “given it a good scrape” . If I can do a far less invasive thing at home I’d much prefer if.

@SamphiretheStickerist

The fourth word in the video is woman.

It's used again in the second sentence.

At which point I stopped watching because what I saw didn't match what was said in the OP.

Hm. Just rewatched and you are correct - I wonder if the version that was posted on Twitter was different? Unless I'm just losing my marbles, which is possible.

Whattochoosenow your more than welcome! A good scrape huh? What they don’t tell you about the “small soft brush” they apparently use now to take smears is that it actually has wire in its bristles and does indeed make you bleed!!also that if a smear comes back as inadequate with not enough cells to test, you have to wait 3 months to allow said cervical cells to regenerate! So much for this simple harmless painless test!!

I think the Superdrug test is a long swab on a stick you insert as far as you can and twist, it needs strands of DNA and test material found in vaginal discharge/ secretions. Sorry if this is TMI

endometrial biopsy sans anaesthetic that I’m also going to be subjected to.

This is all over TikTok, of all places. And doctors are posting their textbooks where they are clearly told that women feel no pain during those procedures and pain relief is therefore not needed. Thousand and thousands of women disagree. Maybe they just could have asked one of us..but guess they asked 'people' and Dave said he thinks it's fine..

@G5000

endometrial biopsy sans anaesthetic that I’m also going to be subjected to.

This is all over TikTok, of all places. And doctors are posting their textbooks where they are clearly told that women feel no pain during those procedures and pain relief is therefore not needed. Thousand and thousands of women disagree. Maybe they just could have asked one of us..but guess they asked 'people' and Dave said he thinks it's fine..

FFS, seriously? That's ridiculous.

I take smears. The brushes we use don't have wire, they're made of polythene. Most are. Bleeding is usually due to an ectopian, not caused by a wire brush.
For those such as Bestknitter without a cervix, a vault smear may be needed, hence the repeat letters. Best to check with your GP.

Sorry should read strands of HPV Not DNA

G5000 you are entitled to anaesthesia for this procedure, stick your heels in and don’t have it without one!

It’s a pity there aren’t prostate screening ones to compare to

These are the reasons given by the NHS for not screening for prostate cancer:

Although screening has been shown to reduce a man's chance of dying from prostate cancer, it would mean many men receive treatment unnecessarily.

More research is needed to determine whether the possible benefits of a screening programme would outweigh the harms of:

<span class="italic">overdiagnosis – people being diagnosed with a cancer that would never cause symptoms or shorten life expectancy</span>
<span class="italic">overtreatment – people being treated unnecessarily for tumours that would unlikely be harmful</span>

The problems with overdiagnosis and overtreatment also apply for cervical screening and breast screening. But those programmes for women are still in place.

Old crone… true say! I quote from Germaine Greer the Whole Woman, “ women are herded like cattle into screening!”
You’re far more likely to get breast cancer than cervical, but after careful consideration I also opted out of mammograms, never been asked once why I don’t go for that! Yet I was pressured to smear even after I’d officially opted out, though to be fair, I’ve not been asked about smears for a while now

Interesting video discussion by relevant scientists in cancer research: Benefits and risks of screening: Cancer as an exemplar

This is about several cancers but it makes the point about HPV infection and cancer and that cervical screening is for pre-cancer not cancer. (In line with several PPs' remarks but it's good to have it in one place.)

The problems with overdiagnosis and overtreatment also apply for cervical screening and breast screening. But those programmes for women are still in place.

Hm. I started this thread pissed off about one thing and am now pissed off about (several) other things, instead.

@DomesticatedZombie

The problems with overdiagnosis and overtreatment also apply for cervical screening and breast screening. But those programmes for women are still in place.

Hm. I started this thread pissed off about one thing and am now pissed off about (several) other things, instead.

That's why there are ongoing disputes among some sectors about whether these should be cancelled.

tbh, there's lots of dispute about the value of the lung cancer screening programmes in progress and whether they're case finding in the case of testing high risk people (stratification) and will never be ready for actual population screening.

@DomesticatedZombie

Is that required of them, I wonder?

I'm NHS and our umbrella organisation recently suggested we do it. I haven't, but some of my colleagues have. I roll my eyes when it's mentioned. No one needs to know my sex apart from my patients (I perform intimate procedures) and at that point it is pretty obvious.

Maybe they just could have asked one of us..but guess they asked 'people' and Dave said he thinks it's fine.

Dave can fuck right off.

To ask why you’ve missed/delayed/declined cervical screening? http://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/amiibeingunreasonable/4485663-To-ask-why-you-ve-missed-delayed-declined-cervical-screening

My letter said they test all smears for HPV and only examine the ones that test positive.