This post has been created to provide an additional forum for discussion, and is a continuation of the old Blogcritics’ Unnecessary Pap Smears discussion. The original Blogcritics Unnecessary Pap Smears discussion had more than 10,000 comments, but the comments were deleted following changes to the Blogcritics’ site.
Fortunately, the comments from Blogcritics have since been recovered and are preserved here: http://unnecessarypapsmears.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/over-10000-lost-comments-on-unnecessary-pap-smears-find-a-home/ This post also provides a ‘part three’ continuation of the ‘part two’ discussion forum that exists on this site: https://forwomenseyesonly.com/2013/09/22/discussion-forum/
Thank you Alex for suggesting the addition of an open forum devoted to discussion on this blog.
forwomenseyesonly 
In that case with the setback of the virus it will probably be 2100 by the time they introduce HPV self testing…..!?
I wouldn’t be at all surprised!
I’ve been following up some of the “research” into self-testing. I saw a report from the Netherlands where they’ve been doing it for years, but it gets surprisingly poor uptake. Uptake in general is around 60% in NL, but they have no more cases and deaths per percent of the population than we do in the UK. They don’t have the pressure to screen like there is in the UK and other countries – many women have simply decided they are low risk and happy to go without testing. In UK, reports on self-testing trials they have concentrated on those who do not attend with only a small margin of success. They do not regard this as a general replacement for the smear test and only see it as a last resort option for long term non-attenders, many of whom, like us are in the know and have firmly made up our minds.
It left me thinking that I doubt self-testing will ever become a thing on the NHS.
My theory: they will gradually switch to 5 yearly testing, which will almost halve current programme. Vaccinated cohorts are now in the programme, and if these are negative testers, they could be offered 10 year gaps. My gut feeling is that NHS won’t go for self-testing but will drag out screening intervals, either by less pressure from GP, or cervical cancer becomes so rare, women lose interest and drag appointments out themselves. I think it wil be a continual decline in uptake, and a slow fizzle out.
Gee, they managed a “computer update” in the decade or more since PAPs were recommended yearly. I guess they cannot do a computer update for this now. CC has always been a rare condition: Women won’t suddenly see it as rare – they’ll think their lives depend upon it.
It is interesting how self-testing by sticking a swab a long way up your own nose seems to be very acceptable re covid at the moment. Apparently it is just as a nurse doing it, good according to the people on the Today Programme.
Yet women cannot be trusted stick a swab up their own vagina properly?
I’m pleased to have spotted the odd comment from some professionals asking why self-testing couldn’t have been implemented sooner so that it could be used during lockdown. Let’s hope things change after COVID.
I think now is a good time to challenge the medical establishment whenever and wherever we can on this topic, so that they need to know we’re on their backs and won’t give up until we see change. Wind in our favour at the moment, and the charities don’t have the cash to fight back.
To the barricades comrades!
So one of my doctors retired. After much discussion, we decided to give the replacement, a certified nurse practitioner a try. All I needed was a few routine refills anyway.
She turned out to be reasonable, understanding, patient, and nice. She didn’t nag me about the “routine” tests (mammo, pap) that we’re usually nagged about.
After a few minutes we told her about Trovagene and my husband asked her about latent HPV.
She said, after it’s resolved or removed, it’s clinically rated as gone. Until you’re exposed to it again.
How many other doctors know this but say otherwise? Or say nothing at all?
Oh my days ladies even Jos Tosh Site has betrayed it’s demented smear lovers. I juse saw on their Coronavirus FAQ page under is it OK to cancel smears. The reply was in view of the current pandemic it is RIGHT to pause them and say that typically the cancer takes years to develop. It also reminds them most clear HPV with no problems and cell changes CAN revert to normal on their own. But will the women LISTEN?
I bet that they typed that through gritted teeth lol 😂
Especially when delaying a smear through embarrassment /fearing pain could cost you your life lol….
Imagine what it’s like for women who’ve just had a colposcopy/biopsy or LEEP, were told to have these awful procedures IMMEDIATELY or they’d drop dead, are told that it wasn’t necessary. Or, those who had these procedures scheduled, were deliberately terrified, now they’re cancelled, and they’re more terrified being told for the first time that it’ll likely go away on its own, these things are “elective”, and might not be scheduled until after elective procedures can be performed again – 18 months from now. They, and those who love them are TERRIFIED, and they expect to die “any day now”.
The reasons, or part of them, are coming out in the news in the US. Hospitals are needing bailouts and some saying they’re in danger of closing because they cannot do these elective procedures! At the same time, they’re also claiming to be overwhelmed with COVID patients. A hospital local to me has been making that claim for over a month – with zero COVID patients. Still, they “had to have” a half million $$$ for “payroll”!
It’s all about money and power here, and throw in a bit of gratuitous sexual gratification. In government-funded and run healthcare systems, it’s not the extra money for their top executives and owners, but you’ve still got power and sex.
Friends of ours have said what’s going on here in terms of tracking has been first tried in EU. Same friend says her relatives are turning off certain cell phone apps. Is this true?
Here, it’s really pissing people off because every restriction technically is voluntary per our Constitution, and some County Sheriffs are opting not to enforce all laws. Thank God. Basically I agree.
The Fake News has hyped this to the max. CNN and network are knowingly censoring and biasing their newscasts accordingly.
Then, there’s states that didn’t close down, used common sense and voluntary self distancing, and their rates were less than others. SD as one. The governor there is Conservative.
Then you had, for example, the mayor of NY City, plus governor of NY state, claiming that going to church or synagogue was now illegal, but going to Mosque still ok. It’s ok for liquor stores to be open, they’re deemed necessary, but other jobs aren’t? An RN in this same state (See Pamela Geller Report) filmed a video of what’s really going on inside hospital ICU wards. People aren’t being cared for; they aren’t getting their medications. Resources horribly managed–and in fact held back by some Liberal state governments. Same state’s are also claiming we need to be locked at home for months yet.
You can say same for meds. Why is it that Conservative leaders have advocated for the treatments that work? While the Liberal ones do opposite? Including using legal muscle to prohibit access to proven treatments? This is politics deliberately being preferred to equal for all government.
Is this “already” De-Facto Martial Law?
Phase 3 in CA is scary. Governor Gavin “Happy” Newsom says first we’ll need ways of tracking, then active tracking before we can return to church, school, work, in other “worse” (instead of words) we won’t be able to fart, sneeze, wheeze, or make love unless Uncle Governor Newsom’s system ok’s it. If we violate, expect the phone to sound an alarm. And instantly notify Big Bro Newsom that we’ve violated the law. Then the “helpful” government can track us and everybody else down for “evaluation” and “care.”
Imagine the effects on inter office sex trysts, drug dealing, stealing, cheating on lunch hour or breaks…
In AL, a Liberal mayor there attempted to record every church goer’s license plate so the County Health Dept could instantly serve them with 2-week quarantine notices. Violate those? Monetary penalties and jail. Enough to make me soil my panties. Then VA governor and Democrat state legislature rushing through anti gun legislation. What’s the rush? They know something we didn’t? And still don’t?
Right now in US, there’s an Entitlist mentality within the Democrat Party. This goes back at least to 2016. They see themselves as Ruling Class. They truly believe they’re beyond reproach. This is Communism.
To me, all this connects together. You cannot have a disease so destructive. Which attacks quickly, from multiple areas, disabling and killing so fast. Sometimes intubation is a direct death causation. I can’t imagine the evil people think that create these monsters.
Obama’s regime sent that lab money. Why? So did the WHO. Whatever the beginning goal, the end result is something that can easily terminate those legally mandated as unwanted. For whatever reason. And in US there must be a crises to get citizens to voluntarily implement unpleasant legislation. As has occurred in UK, Australia, and NZ.
Now locally, in less than a year, we got “smart streetlights”, a Fed program for Real Id’s including registration of a photo for facial recognition, and 5G. The government suddenly has the hardware and software capability to track us. The last remaining obstacle is a human disaster where the populace will willingly give up Liberty for Security. Or where the government will gently wrestle it from US.
Hope and pray that indeed there’s justice in store for the attempted coup of a pre-elected sitting president. And that these changes don’t come to pass. If they do, the US and the world will never go back. Just imagine “next time.”
I’ve just read a story recently that someone was found to have hpv after having had no sexual contact for 9 years. To me that must mean that it can lie dormant and can be reactivated. I find that really concerning as I haven’t had a smear in 12 years and have been with my partner for 20 years. I thought it couldn’t lie dormant from what I’ve read on here.
Sorry but I’m just feeling panicky, I have bad health anxiety.
Or the first test was false. Or it was from the speculum…
Everything I read says it can lie dormant, is there any proof that it doesn’t? I’m just really worried that I’ve made the wrong decision in not having smears and that I have been risking my life through false information.
If you think you have made the wrong decision, the simplest solution is to get a smear test and find out for yourself if it will put your mind at rest. If you don’t want to do this, you can self-test for HPV, but you’d have to pay for this online if you are in the UK. Some of the cheaper tests only tell you if HPV16 or 18 is present, whereas the more expensive ones like GynaeCheck give you the full range of HPV types found, but these cost about £100. It’s up to you to decide.
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/254101
Tracey, this feature offers an interesting insight, and suggests that HPV may always linger, a bit like the chicken pox virus, and flare up in later life when the immune system is low. This may not have any clinical significance. If your HPV is not one of the cancer causing types (eg type 16, 18 and a few others) it may not mean you are destined to get this cancer in old age. May just mean you get the return of some warts or verruchas. I’m not a medical person, so not giving medical advice, but that’s just my take on it.
Tracey like Ada I’m not sure myself on this but way I see it is this; the risk of this cancer is so low just 0.65% that personally I’m happy to forego any testing either self test or the conventional smear test,taking into account my sexual history too!
Modern science has no hard evidence that HPV can stay dormant. It is only a theory, often dressed as a fact by pro-screening propaganda to scare women into testing.
Likening HPV to chickenpox is a double-edged sword. Because it could mean that HPV vaccines may either not work, work ineffectively, or themselves cause HPV reactivation. The difference is of course that chickenpox vaccine is a real living virus, just weakened, so it can (and does) cause chickenpox in rare cases, and more commonly the later reactivation of the virus – shingles; while HPV vaccine is supposed to contain no virus, only particles that mimic most common types of the virus. But there is no sufficient data yet on HPV, HPV transmission, HPV detection and HPV vaccines to promise or guarantee anything.
One thing is clear: HPV is very common, but cervical cancer is very rare.
This means that wast majority of women clear this virus without any consequences. While screening certainly has very serious consequences. Whether the virus goes into dormancy or completely disappears from the body is irrelevant.
The only way HPV can come back if it truly can go “dormant” is if the immune system is compromised. Such as leukemia/lymphoma, HIV, or certain types of chemo/radiation and a high dose.
Same way HIV depletes immune system allowing certain cancers or otherwise easily controlled microbes to run amok and cause disease.
Tracey, there’s no hard evidence that it lies dormant – it’s just a theory, and I firmly believe this theory is being pushed as ‘fact’ to scare women who are celibate or in a long term relationship to keep coming back for more tests & exams. Women’s health ‘care’ is a billion dollar industry, even here in the UK there are many who profit from fear mongering.
If your immune system can’t eliminate the virus, then the vaccine is a scam.
Second, if this woman you read about lives in the UK, then it’s possible she’s had an active infection for years and it simply wasn’t picked up before. Until very recently, smear samples were checked for ‘abnormal’ cells first and only the samples which showed very minor changes were checked for HPV. So if she’s been having regular tests it could well be that they failed to detect previous abnormalities – the smear test is NOT accurate – and thus she was not tested for HPV.
These stories are designed to scare you. They rely on simple soundbites and misleading statistics, and miss out on vitally important facts – such as the lifetime risk of developing the cancer.
Whether the virus lies dormant or not, the fact remains that while the virus is extremely common, cervical cancer is not, and by attending regular testing you are far more likely to be harmed – especially considering your health anxiety – than ever benefit from testing.
As others have pointed out, self-testing kits are available. Don’t believe the NHS’s guff about these testing kits needing more trials – self-testing has been thoroughly trialled and are offered in other countries through their screening programmes. The NHS is only delaying their introduction because the system’s in chaos, not because of safety/efficacy concerns. The programme has now changed so that smear samples are tested for HPV first – so why endure an invasive procedure when you can check for the virus in the comfort and privacy of your own home?
Someone on here definitely said that they didn’t think hpv could lie dormant. I have had 5 children and have had about 6 partners, my present relationship has been almost 20 years now, I don’t smoke and haven’t used contraceptive medication for about 30 years. Not sure if that makes any difference to my risks or not.
So, do you think if some women have a number of partners then they should have a smear test? I don’t really . You can pick hpv up from one sexual encounter so the only way you can be low risk is if you have never had any sexual contact. Don’t know if that makes sense.
I’m not meaning to be argue mental but I don’t understand what this site is advising regards to smear testing.
The site, and those on it, are not advising anything regarding smear testing. We’re suggesting that women understand the risks and benefits and make their own choices in regards to themselves. Some of the information used to make these decisions is very subjective.
To see your actual risk, you can look at https://knowyourchances.cancer.gov/special_cancer_tables.php It’s the risk of various cancers based on your sex, age and your race, and over how long a period – over the next 5, 10, or 20 years – or eventually. Cervical cancer is most definitely not the leading cause of death as it’s frequently advertised to be.
You can read the US statistics about CC at https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/cervix.html That shows that about 4200 women die per year in the US.
As you say you have generalized health anxiety, you can look at https://knowyourchances.cancer.gov/custom_charts.php and see what your chances are for various things to cause your death, at various ages. You can use this to put it in perspective. Worry about what is most likely, work to decrease those risks/odds, and don’t worry excessively about things with a low chance of causing your death. Accidents are the highest risk of death for most age groups, and you may be able to do something to reduce that risk. Coronary heart disease is a higher risk even for 25 year old women than CC, according to https://knowyourchances.cancer.gov/your_chances.php
OTOH, don’t worry! That same chart gives the risk of the “worry” diseases too, including high blood pressure, stroke, heart disease, ulcers and suicide. Note too that healthcare related deaths are in there too – receiving health care is not risk-free, nor does it always lengthen life expectancy. Sometimes, the results are just the opposite.
These are all statistics for the US, but it would be similar in most/all industrialized western countries. The situation is very different in poor countries with social upheaval for various reasons, including access to hygiene, the prevalence of rape, the prevalence of very early sexual experiences/childbirth, and access to health care.
The site does not advise women not to have smear tests.
This site provides information regarding the benefits and disadvantages of screening, which allows each and every one of us to make an informed decision regarding screening.
Moreover, this site provides a safe space for women to discuss – and critique – the screening programme.
Science is constantly evolving, and so is our understanding of it, however there is no clear evidence as to whether HPV can lie dormant and “reactivate” or not.
There is no consensus on this, even within the medical profession, however many medical professionals will tell women that it does lie dormant, perhaps in an effort to get them to screen.
I have personally not read any evidence to suggest that it does lie dormant.
The HPV virus that causes cervical cancer is specifically types 16 and 18, and even then, there is no guarantee that it will always lead to the development of cervical cancer.
In cases where women have tested negative in the first test and have then gone on to develop HPV; the virus might have lingered, the first test might have been inaccurate (the NHS has only recently started introducing primary HPV screening).
The point is that most women here have assessed their individual risk profiles and have decided that screening is not for them.
Many of us regularly self-test for HPV every five years or so, using a self-sampling method, and I think you’ll find that this is our biggest criticism of the screening programme to date – the fact that it refuses to allow us the option to self-test when such a method is available.
Mankind just doesn’t know much about HPV, yet, at least. But, based on what we do know about HPV and other viruses, and using logic, we can conclude the following.
If HPV can become latent (lie dormant), then:
1. either the body does not develop immunity to it.
Then the subsequent “reactivation” of the virus can potentially cause same harm again (cell changes/cancer/etc). But this also means that HPV vaccine can’t work and is therefore a hoax.
2. or the body does develop immunity to the virus.
The vaccine would work in this case, but this also means that the subsequent “reactivation” of HPV cannot cause same cell changes that may lead to cancer. Just like a person who had chickenpox cannot (with extremely rare exceptions) get chickenpox again, even though varicella-zoster virus stays dormant in the body forever. It can cause shingles upon reactivation later, but that is a different(!) ailment.
TLDR: either HPV cannot become dormant, or HPV vaccines are a sham, or HPV cannot cause cancer upon initial infection before it goes dormant, or dormant HPV cannot cause cancer later in life.
This is a personal conclusion based on current knowledge and logic. In the absence of true facts from the medical establishment, everyone has to either do their own research and make their own decisions, or blindly believe the skewed hype and just do as they are told by the doctors. Both options have risks. I choose the former, as this poses a much lesser risk of ending up with a mutilated body for zero benefit. But your choice can only be made by you.
I have a new doctor. She says once dealt with you’re free until exposed again.
Tracey, this site aims to enable informed choice. You should weigh up the pros and cons and decide what’s best for you.
Everything in medicine has risks/side effects. Screening is no exception. Testing could help you, or it could harm you.
The problem is, screening aimed at the masses means that vast numbers have to be screened to find a few cases. And a huge industry grows around these tests and procedures that needs a steady supply of bodies to survive.
When the tests are unpleasant or painful then people naturally will not be too keen to attend. So in order to ensure they get bums on seats, the people who are supposed to be providing balanced information do not do so. They simply act like salesmen, inflating the benefits, not mentioning harms, telling scare stories… making people afraid to say no. They force people to test by spreading fear and misinformation.
This site provides the information that those who are supposed to be acting in our best interests have chosen to keep secret.
If you decide to screen, that test is far more likely to lead to surgery to a condition which may never have harmed you than save your life.
This surgery can cause complications – nerve damage & scarring – and is certainly not the ‘minor and harmless’ procedure we’ve been led to believe. Many women experience pain or sexual problems after treatment only to be told ‘it’s all in their head’ because doctors are taught the cervix has no nerve endings – not true – and do not believe their surgery could cause nerve damage.
If you do not screen, there is a very slim chance that you could develop cancer, but a mugh higher chance that you will avoid unecessary surgery and futher physical and mental anguish. Also, the smear is very unreliable and there’s no guarantee that it would save you from cancer or death even if you had regular testing.
Women who choose not to screen are often portrayed as silly girls who don’t know what’s good for them. But. anyone who says screening is a ‘no brainer’ is either ignorant or has a snout in the trough (looking at you, Robert Music. Oh hey, your little ‘charity’ needs more money for support services? Take a pay cut. Stop spending so much cash on PR. Problem solved.)
Anyway, I digress. You posted here before some time ago and it would seem that your health anxiety will still be sky-high whether you test or not. Again, if you’re worried about your HPV status then buy a self-testing kit. There is NO need for a smear. Your GP/ NP would likely discourage you from self-testing if you discussed it with them, but that’s because the pratice earns extra money and brownie points for ‘encouraging’ as many women to undergo smears as possible.
The NHS is planning on introducing self testing (for certain groups of women, not for all) but it may be a long time coming. The narrative is that our ‘world leading programme’ (ha ha) needs to evaluate these tests for safety/efficacy etc. The reality is that these tests have been thoroughly evaluated and the only reason they’re not available on the NHS is the programme can’t keep up with progress.
Many of us here decline smears, or have even opted out, not because we think we’re immune to the disease but because we are well aware that cancer screening can do far more harm than good. And some of us have been harmed by healthcare professionals and are extremely sceptical of anything that’s supposedly ‘for our own good’.
Screen. Don’t screen. Self-test. If you think any of these options wil reduce your anxiety, then go for it. But quite frankly, the high levels of anxiety you feel over cervical screening is undoubtedly far more of a threat to your health than HPV.
There are a few recent studies that show Vitamin B12, folic acid and others are helping clear HPV infections.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4711818/
My grandmother did not have cervical screening. She lived.
My great grandmother did not have cervical screening. She lived.
My great great grandmother did not have cervical screening. She lived.
My great great great grandmother did not have cervical screening. She lived.
My great great great great grandmother did not have cervical screening. She lived. And so on, ad nauseum.
I will not have cervical screening. I will live.
Hiya ladies in uk have just seen Bradford is about to start issuing ‘ invitations “ to smears again and women are being told it’s perfectly safe to attend if invited for something as important as a smear”
Not surprised. My surgery called last week to ‘request’ I book a test. Same old lines about being overdue, making it sounds like an obligation… all this talk about informed choice really is just lip service, isn’t it.
It’s ridiculous. We’re told that urgent cancer referrals have plummeted, and that’s being attributed to people being afraid to visit the surgery. Yet getting the asymptomatic through the doors is vitally important.
I read on a forum the other day that some women are worried about a huge increase in cervical cancer with so many women overdue for screening, with resources going into COVID 19
Of course, if they understood the evidence, they’d know cc has always been rare, even before screening…there’s no huge increase on the way
The issue with “huge increase” will probably happen as an artifact of how statistics works. In the US, we have about 4,200 cases per year, out of about 160 million women (female population). Granted, some of them are children, and some of them have already had a hysterectomy. Nonetheless, that’s a 0.0026% chance of someone dying of CC.
Now, with paps and follow-ons put-off until after the pandemic, there will likely be more cases identified, and more people dying of identified CC in coming years. If it goes up to 6,000 cases in a future year, that’ll put it up to a 0.0036% chance of someone dying of identified CC. Oh dear! There’s almost a 50% increase in CC because women put off their smears! We’d better raise awareness! Herd all women in to get poked and prodded, and some to be mutilated! We cannot have this rate of increase! And, get those slutty women to stop sleeping with multiple partners! Get morality, ladies!
Now, this “increase” is just a statistical artifact of identifying cases of CC, and a fallacy of small numbers.
It makes for hype and resulting hysteria!
Also ladies daily fail back in full voice now women are too scared of catching the virus to attend their smear test no mind that most places aren’t “ inviting “ women for the procedure….
Ladies this is Cervical Screening Awareness week! Enjoy !!
https://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(20)30161-X/fulltext#.Xswgd7ZqDw8.twitter
Interesting new paper from Angela Raffle & Muir Gray on the incident at National Women’s in Auckland from 1980s.
Ada, an interesting article, I’ve read a fair bit about the watch and wait approach that was adopted in NZ by Dr Green.
Dr Green was very concerned about over-treatment, he could see it was a huge concern with women having conizations and hysterectomies for CIN 3, including many younger women who may have wanted children.
He was certainly right about over-treatment – I was astounded when I finally found some research showing the lifetime risk of colposcopy (and usually a biopsy) under our program was a huge 77%
It explained why so many women were being referred with “abnormal” results. I’d like to know the lifetime risk of having abnormal cells removed, that must have been high too because it’s just so common – so many women have had “bad cells off”…
I note they talk about ignoring informed consent back then, I’m not sure there’s more respect for informed consent these days, I think the profession has been very slow to view cervical screening as elective and one that requires our informed consent.
I still see Clinics mention on their websites that women on the Pill “need” cervical screening…quite clearly, that’s completely incorrect, the two are unrelated and no one “needs” screening.
There’s still a lot of resistance here, controlling women and their bodies is still firmly in place here, that’s why self testing is only for women who decline the invasive test, the so-called hard to reach groups, and the self test has to be carried out in the doctor’s rooms or in their toilet.
It’s also why the Delphi Screener (last I heard) can’t be purchased by Australian women, if you want to self test, you have to self test within the program. I noticed the site was blocked shortly after the new program started, think it had been possible to order the Delphi Screener online for about 4 years – but (from memory) your result was sent to your GP. (so they could still control the woman)
I do wonder how many women have actually been helped by all this testing, the cancer was always rare here and in natural decline – seems to me an awful lot of grief could have been avoided.
When we’re considering tests to screen for a rare cancer, it’s important to weigh up the impact it might have on the vast majority who’ll never have an issue with the cancer – that certainly wasn’t done in cervical screening, harm was maximised with far too much testing and early testing.
Yet most simply say the program is a success story – if you save some women, and the numbers would be low, rare is rare – how can you justify the damage this program caused to so many women, those who would never have had an issue with cc?
I don’t think you can…it can only be justified if the health and well being of the majority of women is considered unimportant.
I’m 32 years old i live in the US and I have never had a Pap smear or any of those procedures . I received a call from the clinic reminding of an appointment that I never made for a Pap . Since then I haven’t slept ate or maintain focus I’ve been stressing it I ended up in a depression because of that stupid call !!!! Ughhh pls ladies I need your support!!!!
First off, Esther, calm down. I’ve worked myself up into a sleepless anxiety-fueled depression over these too. Your body, your choice. No means NO. Cancel that appointment which they made without your knowledge or consent. You have a legal right to refuse any medical procedure, test, or treatment – and that’s much easier to enforce if you don’t go into the clinic, and don’t take your clothes off.
Yes I can’t sleep I wake up every hour I’m trying to be my old self but, the call got me really depressed! And not to mention anxiety . Thanks for hearing me out
Hi there Esther, I know how you feel, I’ve had pap smears since I was 19, luckily they have always come back normal, my last one was just over 3 years ago and I’ve decided not to have anymore, I’m 47 and have had enough of trotting of to the drs every 3 years, getting myself into such a state of anxiety, and then being anxious for 2 more weeks waiting for the results, I would feel quite liberated at my decision, but because I have health anxiety and have had some bleeding issues for 4 plus years, i worry that I’m doing the wrong thing, I hope I can put it behind me, but it’s now made me phobic about having sex because of a incident of bleeding after sex 7 months ago, unfortunately that’s the last time I had sex with my husband of 30 years poor man as it scared me, also i recently had a 7 week period, anyway sorry for going on to long, if there is anyone who can tell me about there issues and how they dealt with it, also I do not smoke, only ever had one other partner before him, but the drs and media make you feel like cervical cancer is rife, and theres also the conflicting issue, does hpv reactivate as you get older, all these thing just add fuel to my anxiety, I’m convinced i must have cc, as this is what we are being told all the time, i just need help to get over this.
Thanks ladies
The way to get beyond health anxiety is with real information – such as from a reputable medical journal, and actual statistics. In the US, it’s slightly more likely that you will die of CC than die of being hit by lightening!
A 7 week period, missed or skipped periods, very light or very heavy, is part of normal perimenopause, which I would expect at 47. I dealt with it by just “dealing with it” – always wearing a pad since I could not predict.
If HPV “reactivated” after years of dormancy, that would fly in the face of the whole field of immunology or virology. Pathogens run their course. Sometimes, their course is a lifetime. If things could go away and reactivate, no one who had mumps, measles, chicken pox, etc would have immunity, nor could vaccines possibly work at all. Yet, at the same time they claim that HPV (uniquely) “reactivates”, they give people Guardasil vaccines. No, you might become re-infected, as immunity tends to fade with time, but does not reactivate.
The more you look for CC, the more likely you are to find it. There are “incidentalomas”, which are cancer, but so slow-growing they will never bother you (but the treatment sure can!!!), or false positives. Do enough tests, even with low odds, and you’ll have a false positive. If a woman follows the current US guidelines on screening, even with a “low” false positive rate, she’s got a whopping 77% chance of having a “follow on test” over her lifetime – biopsy, LEEP, even hysterectomy – all with inherent risks and pain. Well, that’s better than the 95% it was with the schedule of “annual” from puberty to grave.
Thanks for making me feel a little bit less anxious and less scared about the situation. I just hope I can get through this !!!! And be me again !!!!
Make it clear to them that penetrating your vagina is not something open for debate. Your refusal is final, and not open for discussion or debate. If they try to coerce you by refusing you some other medical care because you refuse a pap (an optional screening test!), that could be considered rape by coercion. It’s just as coercive if a doctor refuses to treat your real medical issue if you will not allow him to penetrate your vagina (by instrumentation) as it is if another professional will not provide their professional service if you will not allow them to penetrate your vagina, if an employer makes it a condition of your continued employment and paycheck that (he) will penetrate your vagina, or a firefighter will not extinguish the fire or rescue your children and pets if you do not allow (him) to penetrate your vagina.
Get them on record. If it’s legal in your jurisdiction, record the conversation.
I’m going to do the no call no show and blocked them this is stressful for me . I want to smile again and all this got me sooooo depressed 😭
Thank you
I will do the no call no show better all of this is to stressful for me to deal with . Thank you for your kind and empowering words . Life in the US is very stressful and difficult. I can’t keep feeling like this !!!!
I was just researching anti-fungal creams, and it brought back unpleasant memories of being absolutely grilled and interogated by a chemist/pharmacist as to WHY I wanted a vaginal anti-fungal cream.
I used to battle ear infections a lot, and whenever I was prescribed antibiotics I always ended up with vaginal thrush afterwards, which scientifically was to be expected. I absolutely hated going to the chemist to get thrush cream because I was never allowed to just buy the vaginal cream. As soon as I said the words, ‘vaginal thrush cream’ the chemist’s ears would perk up and the grilling would begin –
‘How did I know I had thrush?’,
‘Have I seen a doctor?’,
‘What are the symptoms?’,
‘How long have you had the symptoms?’,
‘Have I had more than a few thrush inffections that year?’,
‘How do I know its not a STD?’,
Blah, blah, blah blah.
This always infuriated me no end. It’s a level of surveillance of my vagina (or any womans vagina) which is so unnecessary. Because the stupid creams are kept behind he counter, there was no way to avoid the ‘interview’ to see if I was a stupid, clueless woman who didn’t know what I was talking about.
I always fought back with my own questions.
‘Why does what my vagina is doing matter to you so much?’.
‘Why do you presume I’m stupid?’.
‘Do you think I’m going to stick it up my nose instead of my vagina?’.
‘Do you think I’m going to stick it up someone else’s nose?’
‘Why do you think I don’t know what thrush is?’.
‘I’m a biologist and know a hell of a lot more about candida albicans than you do, so cut the crap!’.
‘Of course I’ll see a doctor if this dioesn’t clear up or I develop more serious symptoms, why do you think women can’t think for themselves and need to be told?’.
‘What is it about being female that you think means we’re all empty-headed?’.
I used to send regular emails to the pharmacists guild here in Australia saying that treating women like stupid little children over thrush is quite offensive and not based on reality. I was always told the same thing – this is a controlled medication, you might have something more serious, we reserve the right to question you, what if you have diabetes, blah, blah, blah. So nice to know that the bad treatement of women coems from the top! Which is just a repeat of being treated like a stupid woman! As if anti-fungal cream is dangerous…. (big clue here – it isn’t!!!!!)
I did used to try buying it on-line but when I did, I was either called or emailed the same stupid questions. Of course, sometimes I just lied and answered the questions like a good little girl with the ‘expected’ correct answers, using a bored robotic voice. And then say thank you for allowing me to have this precious gift of anti-fungal cream, and I promise to use it as instructed and not kill myself or anyone else, with it!
Since I had several operations on my ears I haven’t had to deal with getting the cream, but I’ve just had a quick research of comparing vaginal and foot anti-fungal creams, and guess what? They both contain the same amount of active ingredient – Clotrimazole 10g/g. There is no difference between the two. The vaginal one, of course, is more expensive than the foot one. And the vaginal one comes with an applicator.
So if you, like me, resent being treated like a moron, then just buy the foot anti-fungal cream instead. No questions, no problems. You might need to buy the vaginal one ONCE to get the applicator stick, but after that make sure you clean and dry the plastic applicator (some are paper, some are plastic).
I think all of this is just an extension of the same old medical treatment of women. Men get respect and asked what they prefer or want. Women get TOLD what we’re having, and not allowed much say in it (especially when it comes to our reproductive parts).
Anyone else had this done to them when they tried to get the cream?
YES! I only get the cream occasionally but the last time I did, it was so embarrassing. I asked for the vaginal cream (like you, kept behind the counter and brought out by the male pharmacist) and was asked if I would be applying it to the external skin, internally or both! What business of his is that!!??
Thanks for the info about the foot cream similarities, that will make it much easier in future!
You’e welcome Bec! It’s so ridiculous. And asking if you were using internally or externally?! Holy cow. I have no words. Should have said, ‘Oh, did I say vagina? Silly me, I meant my big toe!’. LOL
Oz this is shocking, it’s also juse another big con by big pharma to rake in the profits, I remember over here I think it was Nurofen being told off for marketing Nurofen specially formulated to attack period or headache pain faster when the active ingredient was still ibuprofen, which can be bought even more cheaply as the generic ibuprofen! Obviously the “targetted” Nurofen was wayyy more expensive. ….
We love you.
Thank you for making our day.
Usually my hubby is the wise ass but you inspire me.
I’ve never had a pap either, and I’m in my forties. After researching all the facts (which doctors never tell you) and finding out the payments which doctors get for performing a pap, I’ve always declined them. It’s a battle sometimes, and I get the disapproving looks/speech, but I will not jump on the pap merry-go-round for anyone. If I have symptoms, I might have one, but otherwise, no way. The risk of getting cervical cancer is so damn small, I’m very happy to forgo a pap test.
Same for mammograms. I will not get routine ones and I wil certainly refuse to participate in the screening programs. And I look forward to the day I turn 50 and start getting the automatic appointments and demanding letters, because I’ll give them hell!! My body, my choices.
I believe that as long as you research the pros and cons, know what the symptoms are, know what the diagnostic tests are, and make careful choices about how you will procede, this is the best thing to do with paps or mammos. Don’t let yourself get thrown under a truck with painful testing or demands for this-or-that. Be informed and tread carefully, and stop seeing a doctor that demands your compliance!
Oz, no one ever gave me a hard time over mammos, at 51 I got my first “invitation” , pre booked summons actually, with a request to please cancel if I wasn’t going, which I did purely so someone who actually wanted it could go, opted straight out, never a word even though at first I was still hassled about smears after opting out.
The topic came up incidentally when I sought help for menopausal sweats and flushes and was emphatic, no HRT. The doc asked why no HRT and I said: not convicts safe and anyway I de idea no cancer screening and there’s a link btween HRT and breast cancer? She asked from curiosity why I didn’t have any screening and I explained my reasons for both smears and mammos. She couldn’t actually disagree with anything I said and I left with clonidine. There’s less pressure here for mammos and the one off bowel scope, and after covid I think they’ll strugg9to get smear uptake back to even before it was pre lockdown!
Sorry for many typos, can’t type on my tablet!
Thank you OZ for replying what you wrote made me feel a little more comfort. I’ve never had a Pap neither and I thought I was the only one !
Thank you OZ I thought I was alone yes I’ve never had a Pap reading a lot of testimony of all the lady’s that have never gotten a Pap is making me feel better about myself !! And less anxious
I have to say, when I had very serious bleeding problems with heavy periods, no doctor was ever concerned with that. I was refused help over and over again. Its amazing what ‘things’ the doctors treat as serious and what they don’t, because theire doesn’t seem to be a lot of logic in it, and they’re still guided by out-of-date ways of treating women.
My heavy periods started in my teens and I would regularly miss school because I could not leave the classroom often enough to change a tampon and pad every 15 minutes (teachers would get abusive and derisive and say I was ducking out of work and should go to the toilet before or after class! And these were female teachers). I was abusively told by doctors that I was whinging whenever I asked for help with the heavy bleeding. I was even denied blood tests to see if I was low on iron when I was becoming absolutely exhausted! And that is ridiculous.
I had a nervous breakdown and became suicidal when I couldn’t finish my university degree and graduate because my periods were so heavy, I physically could not sit through exams (which were 3 hours long) if I had my periods. A super tampon and super pad would last 15 minutes – if I was lucky. Sometimes as soon as I changed myself and stood up, the blood would flow straight out and I had to start over again.
I did end up getting my degree, by appealing and obtaining special permission to have exams re-sceduled whenever I had my period. It was a battle though. The admin staff always gave me disapproving looks. I felt like a bad student for causing a fuss. I should never have had to go through that but I have no doubt some women at uni still have problems like I had and they struggle to get help.
Becase of what I went through, I now treat doctors and the medical profession as more than a bit useless, and I carefully pick and chose what I will or will not do.
Oz horrific, did you get it sorted??
Hi Kat, yes, I was seeing a lovely psychiatrist and she put her foot down, saying this is ridiculous that you can’t get help. She found a gyno who would perform a MEA (microwave endometrial ablation). Then it was fixed! I now have very light periods and one mini tampon will last for 6 hours.
The whole point was that no one would help me because ‘help’ consisted of making me infertile (which the MEA does, up to a point). I’m childfree and have never wanted kids, and we all know what doctors are like about THAT when women say they don’t want kids. Women are still not allowed to decide that they won’t have kids. Your reproductive rights are not yours.
The gyno that did my MEA told me I must not mention her name to anyone as she could get in trouble for doing it on a woman in her thirties with no kids.
It’s the same problem that women have when they want their tubes tied. Oh, we can’t do that, you must first have X number of kids, and X of each gender, and you must be over X age and your husband must give you permission! It’s just insane.
Oz just glad you got it sorted it’s disgusting what we have to put up with! I’ve always said if men had periods they’d be given free period products on the NHS or at the very least wouldn’t pay tax on them as they’re classed as a “luxury “ item apparently!!
Oz your one of a gal!!!!
Reading all your blogs made me feel better pls keep posting !!!
Hello Esther. I have been reading some of your comments with regards to screening and the hassle you seem to be getting from your healthcare provider.
I couldn’t agree with BethKZ that the most potent weapon in your arsenal may be reputable medical journals.
Thinking of ways to dodge medical professionals’ inquisitions has been a feature of all my surgery visits during my reproductive lifetime (a sad reality, really).
What has helped me the most is refusing to engage with them in a firm, but polite manner.
Whenever the point has been raised, I have found ways to shut down the conversation as soon as I have been able to do so.
Telling them, “I have made an informed decision not to screen” has usually worked.
Medical professionals – particularly nurses – often whittle on and on. They sometimes don’t take no for an answer and will try to keep the conversation going as long as possible in order to get the answer that they want.
They often lull women into a false sense of security, who may divulge sensitive non-health related information during their consultations.
For example, they might discuss their current relationship, how long they have been sexually active and how many sexual partners they’ve had. Many women are naive to the fact that this information is often recorded. They are not friends and they are not to be trusted.
Be mindful that some of them may try to discredit any sources that you provide them with.
When I was once asked why I didn’t screen, I told them that I had researched the evidence and had made an informed decision not to screen. She accepted it. Another doc tried pushing further but backed down when I politely repeated the fact that I had made my decision.
I give them no excuses, no reasons and no justifications because they don’t need to know.
If you do choose to confront the situation, perhaps a short telephone call or brief letter would be sufficient.
It isn’t easy to confront this of course. I avoided docs throughout my late teens and twenties but felt confident enough to say, “no” when I reached 30.
I thought what is the worst that can happen? What can they realistically do if I refuse screening?
I readied myself for the foot-stamping and the toy-throwing that might ensue, but being firm worked for me. I use the approach during my work settings too if I’m dealing with representatives from partner organisations who try to bend the rules or blame me for things that do not go their way. I find it largely works and it can feel empowering once I’ve gotten over the daunting feeling of having to challenge them.
Back to screening, if they were to get tetchy, threatening or abusive, you could always politely remind them you have a right to decline under the law, and if they persist, you will consider legal options.
Deal with the situation in the way that best works and feels most comfortable for you. I just thought I’d share my experiences and what has worked best for me.
Good luck and keep us updated as to how the situation is going for you x
EDIT: I meant to say that I couldn’t agree *more* with BethKZ’s comment in my 2nd para. So sorry 😲
You read the actual science and medical journals for yourself – to help you decide that screening (or any other medical test or procedure) is not worthwhile – or you might decide that something IS something you want and would help you.
When you’re in the room talking to them, you will lose if you start debating the research and science. They have spent years reading it, and looking at it, and siding with that which will make them the most money or sides with the medical status-quo. They don’t want to rock the boat.
When you’re actually IN the office, you give them a firm “NO”. Penetration of your vagina is not open for debate.
Thank you Apocalyptic Queen
I’m glad I’m not the only one who hasn’t had a Pap smear I’m 32yrs old and I’m petrified of just thinking about it I needed up gettin ptsd because of that stupid call !!!! I’ve been searching for ppl like me one lady said that Pap smear is slavery shit and that she refuse screening !!! But still they shouldn’t be scaring women to getting this scary painful test !!!!!
Ah, the “Pap smear is slavery”. There’s something to it. Look at the background of how the pelvic exam was developed, and how the speculum was developed, and who the test subjects were. They were literal black slaves in the southern US. The speculum exam was used to effectively torture (poor) sex workers in the UK before 1900… many of them chose to forgo this “exam” and just spend the time in Old Bailey. If you look at how the speculum was developed, it’s got its origins in The Pear – a torture device used in the Middle Ages when looking for witches/heretics – They expanded the orifice (mouth, vagina, or anus) painfully, and caused tears.
The similarities to slavery are striking in that they feel entitled to your body – as if THEY own your body. I’ve mentioned that back to the 16th century, one fundamental right of a free person is bodily integrity and bodily autonomy. The medical field has a strange idea of what constitutes consent – different than in any other situation.
Reverting back to the issue of Covid-19. As you are probably all aware, there seems to be a lot of people challenging what they perceive to be, as “excessive” control by the authorities in an attempt to reduce incidence and transmission of late.
I do not personally agree with all their arguments especially given the prevalence of Covid, put the point being put forward is a familiar one (to us).
“Why should medical and governmental bodies have the right to store sensive information about us, and monitor our data, when the risk of dying of Covid is in the region of 0.6%”?
They say, that as it is a disease which primarily affects the older population and those with co-morbidities, then the level of monitoring is excessive.
80% are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms of the disease.
Given the fact that around 40k deaths have already been partially or fully attributed to this illness since the pandemic started here in the UK alone, including around 2,000 people under the age of 65 who apparently had no underlying health conditions, then it is difficult to fathom how virtually no one has asked similar questions of cervical screening.
When you consider the lifetime risk of contracting cervical cancer is 0.58%, the risks posed by further treatment, that only 5% of CIN I and no more than around 31.3% if CIN III ever progresses into cancer within a 20-23 year timeframe, the invasive nature of the test, lack of informed consent, that NHS Trusts stores data on our health profiles including sexual health etc, and that they need our addresses, contact numbers etc to mount a successful screening programme, this programme is excessive by anyone’s standards.
While I don’t necessarily agree about the arguments concerning Covid, I do wonder how a programme that is far more excessive and intrusive than track and trace, seems to have escaped scrutiny, and even wonder whether people might see screening in a new light or whether they will predictably, plod on as usual, and fail to recognise that the screening programmes and the surveillance that comes with it, are far more intrusive than track and trace.
Hi ladies I’m still trying to overcome this anxiety I sign up to the website women against stirrups !!!! I just want to be me again and forget about the Pap test or cc but it’s hard !!!! You guys words id wisdom help a lot pls keep giving words of wisdom thank you
Beth
Thank you for the information
I’m still a little anxious trying not to think about it !!!! I hope I overcome this depression…. pls give me words of wisdom!!!! I’m tired of thinking about paps and crap like that !!!!
Pls ladies where are you guys !!!!!
Esther sometimes there are lapses here where no one seems to be posting- that is partially due to the fact that many of us live in different time zones in the US as well as the UK amd Australia. Just know that we are all here for you, supporting you. You’re stronger than you think and by sharing your experience with us you have also helped others with similar thoughts know they are not alone.
Awww thank Judy
I really need every ones support and words of encouraging I never thought this was going to affect me sooo much i hate the feeling of not being able to control my mind! The system is corrupted and is harsh !!!
Are mammograms really necessary in a healthy over 55 women? I am healthy had no mamos since 2000 , my body my choice, but my sister is a chain smoker and now has lung & breast cancer because of this, I have been getting pressured by my family Dr and as well my Insurance company and the mammogram place.
They all said because my sister has stage 3 breast cancer , I need to come in right away and have a breast exam and mammogram because I have breast cancer as well, does this seem right are they trying to scare me? There is NO history in our family of cancer of any sort, my sister got cancer because she is smoker and didnt take of herself,what are the chance of me having breast cancer being related ?What should I do? I dont do paps or mamo’s as it is my body and my choice.
You don’t “have” breast cancer just because your sister does, unless YOU have been diagnosed, using such things as exams and biopsies. Yes, they are trying to scare you – the #1 product that medicine has to sell healthy people is fear. “Health scare” is a better term for this.
It is likely that your sister got breast cancer from smoking – possibly mestasticized from lung cancer. It is possible that it went the other way, possibly caused by genetics that remained recessive in your family for generations.
Yes, it’s your body and your choice. You don’t need to be hounded in the name of “health care” to be sold some tests and treatments.
Hi Kathleen! There is some evidence to say breast cancer runs in families because of a certain gene, but it’s not absolutely certain, and breast cancer can happen for many reasons, not just a faulty gene. It is entirely up to you if you want to have a mammogram or not, it is YOUR choice, not theirs.
I would skip the manual breast exam entirely as it is incredibly unreliable. Mammograms are not good at screening either. I would sit down, go through the evidence for and against screening and make an informed decision. Don’t be swayed or bullied by doctors or other women who say you MUST get tested. Make a decision that seems fair to you (test or don’t test) and stick to it.
If you decide to have a mammogram, you will also have to decide what to do if something is found. Breast biopsies are pretty barbaric and often not necessary.
You can decide not to test and instead be aware of anything that changes with your breasts like an inverting nipple, rashes, orange peel skin, breast shape/size change, nipple discharge, things like that.
Treat doctors like used car salesmen – don’t believe everything they tell you and do your research so you don’t get conned into something you don’t want or need. That’s what I do.
What I dont get why do they think I have breast cancer ? because my sister does? Are the chances really that high that I have breast cancer because of my sister ? I do my own breast exam every month, there is no lumps bumps anywhere. Confused by all this but, I do not want to be dictated or bullied by the medical community into getting a unnecessary mammogram.
What I don’t get what if my sister did not smoke and yet she still had cancer in her lungs and breast but no family history ,does that mean that I have a higher percentage of having breast cancer? how do they base this ?
Statistically you are indeed more at risk of breast cancer since your sister has it. However that does not mean you will get it too and you should still study the harms vs. benefits of mammography and make your own decision without being pressured. Google “harms of mammography” and it should show articles with more balanced info instead of the usual cherry picked stats put forth by radiologists and others with vested interests. Stage 3 breast cancer is still considered early stage that hasn’t spread to other parts of the body so therefore your sister likely has two primary cancers, breast and lung.
Off topic flippant and irreverent but I can’t stop laughing! I’ve been binge watching a show called Tattoo Fixers where dodgy and offensive tattoos get covered, this woman came in wanting the letters TOLO covered up! I had no clue why it’s offensive, apparently it means, TITS OUT LEGS OPEN!!
That’s offensive? It’s what is victims of bikini medicine are expected to do, it’s a vital part of our “ healthcare” we’re told!!!
Perhaps she’s seen the light? Lol!
Great show! Love it.
Some women are extroverts and don’t mind exposing their private parts to anyone. Be it for tattoos, jewellery or any other reason they feel is viable. TOLO is just a big laugh.
Many of us are not like that. I was a young woman of 22 who had just got married looking to refill my pill prescription.
The doctor insisted on giving me a smear test that I didn’t want and was unready both mentally and physically for it.
The repercussions to my life have been enormous. That is why I post here often. And I’m sure you’ve all read my comments filled with anger over what happened to me.
I was made to feel I had no control over my body. The doctor, his practice nurse backed by the NHS could do whatever they wanted to me. I was made to feel I shared my vagina with these people.
No man would ever be made to feel as though he shares his penis with the medical establishment.
When most of Britain was out clapping for our so called heroes I did not. I would not clap these people. They are not my heroes Carona virus or not. The hurt, anger, hatred runs too deep.
Their mantra is very much ‘Tits out – legs open’ At the moment they have been shut up because of the virus but as soon as the virus is under control they will very quickly return to this modus of operand i.
My love to everyone who comes to this site.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40062614.html?type=amp&__twitter_impression=true
This has made my day.
Made my day too! No mention that cc is rare and the test is inaccurate. COVID is a killer, it is stupid to say women should not let it stop them coming into a healthcare setting. The nonsense about smears just keeps rolling on…
If they would just tell it like it is:
CC has always been a rare cancer, and it presents symptoms before death. We have a very inaccurate and uncomfortable test for this – and because of its inaccuracy, you’ve got to be re-tested frequently. We understand that going into a healthcare setting these days poses a significant risk of COVID-19, a disease which is deadly to a measurable percentage of the population. Nonetheless, we urge you to come into our clinics if you are well and have been taking prudent social distancing, masking, and hand washing steps to avoid COVID-19, so we can be sure that you do not die of CC, but take an unnecessary risk of a pandemic which has killed over a million people.
Note that if you die of COVID, you will not die of CC! Moreover, if you are in the US, you will have the opportunity to spend an additional $100K for COVID treatment, in addition to the $30B which the healthcare industry spends to evaluate this one rare cancer.
We understand that you may be apprehensive. Don’t be. Just have a cigarette or three before coming in, as lung cancer is by far the biggest cancer killer of women, as well as men. We won’t evaluate that one. Thank you for understanding.
Ada made my day too, what next? Health bosses having Zoom meetings to discuss how to increase uptake, and a socially distanced awareness campaign??
What flabbergasts me is that nurses are doing smears at all! In between each patient her room would have to be completely wiped down and aired out; it means she sees less patients include in the asthma clinics diabetes clinics etc….. ppl who REALLY need her time!
I’ve been unable to get the results for the UK, even though the new Key Performance Indicators for up to April have been published. They are usually about 6 months behind in cervical screening so will be out in November. Prepare to be inundated with propaganda campaigns to get the punters through the doors in November, although we may be into a whole new lockdown by then!
Figures for up to April 2020 are available for breast screening, however. Overall uptake for England is 55%, with regional variations but no place even reaches 60% uptake.
I think they are concerned about being overwhelmed with uptake in the periods when COVID figures are low, but I think they flatter themselves. I don’t think the breast screeners were overwhelmed with uptake when they had a cockup with the letters last year. I think it’s more a case of women realising it may not be that vital after all, and prefer to leave it.
I do sometimes wonder if nurses like the power that comes with something like being a “cervical screening champion” or similar. Many have made it their mission to bully and push patients so they wouldn’t want their “thing” taken away from them…especially after years of saying how important it is.
I completely agree though, time and resources should be moved to those that actually need them. Focus on the sick, not the worried and paranoid well.
I have been lurking on this website for a while now without posting. I just wanted to say how refreshing it is to find a community where I would not be considered irrational and some kind of dangerous extremist for having misgivings about screening. I’ve decided to post here because my eyes were opened recently to the fresh hell that is young girls being indoctrinated in school PSHE (personal, social and health education) lessons in Year 10 (age 14-15), to sign up unthinkingly for the smear test. I came across two lesson plans, designed by Jo’s trust and the Teenage Cancer Trust, to be delivered in school to Year 8 and Year 10. The lesson for Year 8s (12-13), focusses around the vaccination, and does state as part of the learning objective that girls should understand it is their choice. The lesson for Year 10s around cervical screening, though, is solely focused around helping girls ‘understand how important screening is’ and ‘increasing uptake’. No discussion of informed consent and bodily autonomy, no information about risks and benefits, no information about the true prevalence of cervical cancer. There is even a section for boys, where they are taken to a separate room to discuss how to encourage girls to go for the test. One of the most disturbing things about the lesson is the ‘what’s stopping you from going?’ resource, pink-washed of course, complete with pictures of handbags and speech bubbles with “I just don’t have time” and “it might be embarrassing”. It’s just priming young girls to have unkind and shaming conversations with their peers as they get older.
I would always support someone to access screening if they have made an informed decision and decided it is what they want. I would even go with them and hold their hand. However, I am horrified by the way women are coerced, bullied and fed disingenuous information by GP’s, PHE and cancer charities and now our young people are being brainwashed in school. The worst part of it is that if I were to even mention this to the women I know, I would get the same horrified, quizzical expression I do when I say that I don’t believe screening is as simple a choice as it’s made out to be. It seems I can only watch from the side lines as more young women are herded unthinkingly towards screening and the potential complications that can arise.
Gem, that is absolutely horrifying. Oh my god. Teaching boys how to bully their girlfriends into having the test? That is truly pathetic. Talk about brainwashing the young into obeying the system!
HONESTLY! Teaching boys how to pressure their girlfriends to open their legs for TESTS? The line, “‘what’s stopping you from going?’ (to bed with me/down on me)” is as old as time, but this shows them more effective ways to get a “yes” or at least “okay” from the girl.
Gem, I saw one of these teachers who appeared to have used one of these “lesson plans” in class, boast on twitter about it. Another male teacher appeared to have passed by at the time of this lesson and told the class how his partner had been identified with “abnormal cells”, which teacher said made a big impact on the class. I had to challenge her, and said if my daughter had been in that class I would have made a complaint to the headteacher. The test is a choice, and school teachers have no business terrifying girls into seeking medical overtreatment they likely don’t need. Uppity teacher got back to me in a patronising way. I replied with the truthful medical statistics they don’t want women to know. Never heard from her again.
Yes, I saw a similar thread on twitter recently. It was full of teachers talking about their PSHE lessons and how they are ‘normalising’ screening and trying to make sure the girls all comply when it’s time. I lost track of the “I wouldn’t be here today if they hadn’t found my pre-cancerous cells, I would be dead and wouldn’t have my wonderful husband and children”, the “I just don’t understand why it’s such a big deal”, “having a smear is much better than cancer” and one teacher who said “I tell my Year 10s if they are ready for sex, then they are ready for a smear”. When it was pointed out how comparing sex with a medical procedure was inappropriate for numerous reasons, the teacher recanted it and said that the point they were making was about being “responsible for your own body”. When they were challenged about implying that women who don’t go for screening are irresponsible, they disengaged from the conversation, although at least they did say they had taken the points on board. Having a screening is a personal choice and a nuanced decision that carries risks of overtreatment and associated side effects, as we all know. If I had a daughter who was told what to do with her own body in that way, I would also be writing a strongly worded letter of complaint to the head teacher.
@ Gem:
Heck, at least they backed off and said they were taking the points on board. Maybe it was deflection,maybe they were honestly understanding that it’s not a binary good/bad issue, but time was there just dogpile any dissenters with near-hysterical accusations of being a diseased, irresponsible whore whose very refusal to screen is callously costing other women their lives, as if your lack of a pap test can physically cause other women to develop cc or as if cc is some kind of toxic pixie dust that unscreened women literally emit from their very pores at all times.
Gem: Yes, the saying, “If you’re mature enough to have sex, you’re mature enough for a smear” is a real set of bovine excrement. One thing has nothing to do with the other, although I do feel for women who have the first other-person penetrate their vagina being a doctor. As others have said many times, consent is lacking for this test. The saying is much like, “If you could have sex with Person X, you must be willing to have sex with me too!” It’s a line and both coercive and abusive.
Demonhype, I literally laughed outloud with the notion of CC being caused by a cosmic pixie dust that comes from the pores of unscreened women, and threatening the lives of others because of our choice not to screen. It seems to be the notion though that the pro-screening hysterics have though. How are WE costing THEM their lives?
As I’ve said before, if someone wants to avoid contact with any pathogens or abnormal cells which may be present in my vagina, they are invited to stay OUT of my vagina!
Actually, they do mention the risk of cervical cancer. This is how they frame it:
In the UK, the lifetime risk of developing cervical cancer is:
• More than 1 in 100 (1.65%) without taking cervical screening (smear test) or the HPV vaccine into account
• 1 in 142 (less than 1%) for women who go to cervical screening1.
Oh dear ladies looks like a colleague of mine could be the next victim of the Cervical screening programme! 59 and found a lump down below (Bartolin cyst?) by time she saw doc it’s gone but doc referred her to hospital, that doc couldn’t find it, but of course did a smear! It came back HPV_ but abnormal cells! She is confident monogamous and has been for years and has one letter saying , your negative at no risk of cancer and then another “ inviting “ her to colposcopy on Monday! She doesn’t know what to think!!
This is the very problem with screening. It puts you on a conveyor belt of harm and they won’t stop investigating her until they can find nothing over a period of years. The GP doesn’t want to be the next evil doc in the Daily Fail who missed a cancer, the hospital doesn’t want to be the next in the news for missing a cancer either or there will be an investigation, so even if they find nothing there are likely to be follow ups until they can cross everything off their lists. All this, and we have COVID escalating and putting more wait times onto those who have already been diagnosed with a disorder. Screening creates patients and women who no longer trust their own bodies.
Ada I think she’ll go, I was very careful what I said , and reminded her abnormal isn’t cancer, and that most abnormal cells go back to normal on their own, suggested she looked at CRUK for stats and left it at that. She knows I don’t do the screening thing….
Update, my colleague talked to her GP who advised her to have the colposcopy as apparently they might need to go further up as they saw something. So tomorrow she has to have a covid test, then isolate for 3 days , then have her colpo!!
First Dr says couldn’t find anything, but now they think they might have seen something! They always seem to see something. However, I hope it goes well for her. I hope it doesn’t lead to a hysteroscopy. This is where they put a long narrow camera through the cervix into the womb, and can take biopsies with this. I follow the UK hysteroscopy group and they are strong advocates of women being given full information about this procedure which UK hospitals are financially incentivised to do with no anaesthetic. About 25% of women suffer severe and traumatic pain. Women are supposed to be fully informed and know that they can stop the procedure at any time and request a GA, but women are rarely informed of their rights, and the procedures have been nicknamed Trick and Treat procedures.
Wel update on my colleague ladies!! After all that, they didn’t do the colposcopy! As she’s HPV – and then they decided the cells were ok after all, they just checked for any more lumps and bumps of which there were none! Bikini medicine at its best
Glad your friend is OK, but how much did it cost your friend in time and worry, how many NHS staff were involved? There have been a few petitions set up by women demanding to have cell testing brought back as they don’t think a HPV test is enough to confirm no chance of abnormality. Just goes to show how unreliable the whole thing is and how they make up this abnormal cell rubbish as they go alomg..
Would you please tell me how they’re testing for HPV? Off a pap?
Ada thank you, I was wracking my brain trying to remember what hysteroscopy was called of that makes sense! She talks to me, and I’m her Union Rep too, so if further tests are mentioned I’ll bring up the cons of hysteroscopy…:
Does anyone follow lalalaletmeexplain on Instagram? She has an absolutely massive following of women who hang on her every word. She has just done a whole story about smear tests, as well as a podcast with Eve Appeal. She does acknowledge that screening can be difficult for survivors of sexual violence but says that survivors just needs to find a way to make it more tolerable because a smear is “still better than having cancer” due to missing a smear. It also contains such gems as “if you can have your vag waxed, you can have a smear” and how sad it is that women will tolerate painful sex but will miss a ‘vital and life-saving test’ just because it might be painful. I just don’t understand the constant conflation of smear tests with sex and can’t bear the patronising comparisons to cosmetic (non-penetrative!) procedures. The inference that anyone who ‘misses’ a screening is doomed to be struck down is so misleading and manipulative too. At no point is there any discussion of risks vs benefits, prevalence, nor any respect for the right to bodily autonomy. The fearmongering and incomplete information make me so angry.
I think they’re really working on the younger women right now, and finding screening champions who can get a following. I think a lot of them are planted. It’s all screen or you’ll die messages, no evidence to allow young women to think for themselves. I don’t do instagram, but I do twitter, and is full of women boasting how they’ve gone for their first test and it was fine. Everyone else must go because they’ve suffered this shit, so other women should too. I really dislike the way it’s made into a rite of passage that all women have to go through, almost like a religious experience that washes your sins away. What good girls they are!
There is still a lot of argument in the UK about the propaganda leaflet referring to people with a cervix rather than using the word women, because they don’t want to exclude women who’ve changed sex. I can’t understand the anger this has generated. Most of them saying they’re concerned other women who don’t understand won’t realise it’s for them. Absolute tosh! This screening test sets women against women, shames and degrades them with misinformation to coerce and bully. I’m always glad to see the take up rate go down and down. The silly middle aged women who’ve been brainwashed since the 1990s are gradually falling off the age window and it’s a joy the see young women being not nearly so fooled by it all.
The erasure of the word “woman” from health literature is more about the advance of Queer Theory. Breaking down the boundaries of what is male and female. This is also happening in any literature to do with menstruation and birth. Naturally, because it is a misogynistic movement, you will still find plenty of references to “men” in anything to do with prostate cancer or anything else male.
It does make it more difficult to discuss and weigh up risks and benefits when one of the key words has been taken away or has been altered in meaning. This helps obscure the truth, especially for more vulnerable groups.
The screening leaflets are designed to give us the information, whilst at the same time encouraging us to draw the approved conclusion, so it only matters to screening authorities if it discourages many attending. They work on a one size fits all policy, so they probably will not notice if the women not attending are those more at risk. Too busy rounding up the refusniks.
Ada may the programme wither and die
It’s emotional manipulation, control, policing of women’s bodies and misogyny at it’s finest.
The message is basically that you cannot have sex without agreeing to a lifetime of smears (policing of your sexual organs). The medical community tries to argue that the two go hand-in-hand.
It’s a form of abusive gaslighting.
I read some of your posts on Jo’s Trust lesson plans with school-age children in schools and was absolutely disgusted.
Teaching girls that not only do doctors have vestiges over their bodies, so do men they may enter into a relationship with, who are told that it is perfectly justifiable to pressure them into having a smear without making an informed choice.
This is morally and unethically dubious.
I will be writing to them.
Interesting that they are not pulling these stunts at workplaces and are focusing on the young and naïve.
I also wonder whether they’ll be out touting for more business seeing as we are in the grip of a second wave of the pandemic, and less resources will inevitably be available for their screening obsession – every cloud and that!
I agree, it is disgusting. I’ve had a member of my family try to force me to have smears, because ‘thats what women do’!!! Not this woman.
I can’t imagine the pressure you’d feel if it was your brainwashed boyfriend, husband or partner. Ugh.
Odd how these people never have a problem turning to the concept of patriarchy when it suits.
If a man can force a woman to have a smear, then what else can he force her to do? Logically, it follows that if he can manipulate her like this with one issue, he’s capable of manipulating her on other issues.
Are we led to believe now that a woman’s body belongs to her EXCEPT when it comes to pap smears?
Do these people ever question the ethics of their principles?
Ozphoenix, My brainwashed husband has done everything to try to convince me to have a pap smear, and all that goes along with it. He’s convinced his aunt, who died of ovarian cancer in her early 80s, after having a controlling husband 35 years ago who would not allow her doctor visits. He’s convinced that she had “cervical cancer” and a pap smear would have saved her life, and that they could have found it when it went to her ovaries (no).
I will not put up with it! I could deal with the pap, but not with the increased-pressure of a follow-on test, where they pull pieces off of my cervix without anesthesia, or cut chunks off of it, or remove my uterus…. for a cancer that is very rare – misdiagnosis is far more likely. Or, when I would not abide by a fill-in male doctor who felt that he was somehow entitled to penetrate my sexual organs without consent – but used coercion.
Hi ladies it’s Kat, minus her WordPress blog and cat avatar, this is the new me! And Ada you’re right how can even a woman transitioning not know she’s a woman?
Kat, all this talk from the “concerned” super-screeners really gets me. They keep claiming they are sooooooo concerned that a transitioning person may miss their smears, and even women who struggle with English won’t be able to grasp that “those with a cervix” means them. As if anybody could escape the bombardment of letters and GP/nurse harassment. I don’t believe it is a case of concern here at all, more they don’t want to end up being the only mugs to go for this test, and think if they’ve got to put up with it, so should everyone else. As Elizabeth has said:they are terrified of women breaking away from the herd.
Well, well….
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-8893651/Lisa-Maffia-diagnosed-cervical-cancer.html
They really are desperate to find the next Jade Goody aren’t they?
Trouble is they can’t find one, so have to make do with women “suffering” with abnormal cells. Just how does a person suffer with abnormal cells, by the way, I thought they were symptomless? The only women with this disease now are older women, and they really don’t want those on their pink advertising campaigns do they? The girlies would just scoff at smears as it would be an old ladies disease. Good to see them trying so hard and getting nowhere.
AQ pink ribbon month started early groan! Tried to comment but they’re moderated so I’m guessing anything other than smears are amazing you must go won’t get through…….
Just read a long thread about colposcopy on twitter. Some talking about how intrusive and difficult the biopsy procedure was and I think a couple referring to LLETZ. Some talking about the long stretches of stress and worry, but the relief when they ‘finally knew everything was ok’. All saying how it had only reinforced the necessity of smears and how important it is to test for ‘every tiny change’. I personally know a HUGE number of women who have had a colposcopy and further testing (seems like every other person!), and one friend who had to endure smear after smear after being told she had abnormal cells, which she found horribly traumatic because she is a survivor of sexual violence. She was convinced she was going to be diagnosed with cancer and no one ever said anything about the relative rarity of cervical cancer, or the tendency for the majority of such changes to revert to normal. Again, she talks about her gratitude to the amazing screening programme and how she might not be here today without it, even though it traumatised her.
Some were even saying it had happened to them several times over – “so this just shows how important it is because they can come back at any time”.
And this – “Those cells could turn at any minute.”, says the “laser treatment woman” campaigning to lower the age limit. https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/leicester-news/urgent-message-one-thing-smear-4642329?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=sharebar
These articles always have the same formula: she wanted a smear test when she was 24 but it was denied because of her age. She said she had no symptoms at all, but said the reason for her earlier appointment had been irregular bleeding. Someone in the comments picked this up. She also knew all about Jade Goody when she can only have been 14 when Goody died.
I’m sure Jo’s Tosh have a list of these points so that journalists can fit them into every story they make up.
Where is the real information women need to make an informed choice: about this cancer being rare and needing 15 years to develop: what are the other symptoms, and that symtoms like irregular bleeding need a diagnostic test not a screening test. The usual completely disrespectful, patronising, dogma to keep women in rhe dark.
Exactly. I do feel like Jo’s Trust, in spite of the good they do in supporting people living with cervical cancer, is a pernicious, dishonest charity that also knowingly causes harm. Knowingly, because they are told again and again to provide all of the relevant facts and to consider people who face barriers to screening in their comms. But nothing every changes.
“They can turn at any minute…” The hype never goes away eh?
What ever happened to the 10yr rule–that it takes 10 yrs for cancer to develop?
Re calling these people.
Everyone of us at one time didn’t know the facts. Until we got burned and had to learn, for our own survival, what’s really going on. What BS we’re told compared to facts being deliberately withheld.
You’ve all heard of murdering the messenger. Why not convert the messenger?
So we call these operators with “questions” as we’re curious…Then once hooked we begin educating the rep with facts. Now, towards the end, we ask, “…So why are you doing this, carrying their propaganda water, when you now know all the real facts…?”
What happens if you schedule appts and don’t show up? That’s another way to interrupt their flow.
So this lady had the HPV vaccine and was then told she had HPV, her doctor said HPV is quite common so why then do we have a vaccine?? Dod she query that??
Or maybe the vaccines effects had been worn off by the time she was 24 , something else women and girls probably aren’t told…
Jo’s have always led these campaigns against women who choose not to attend. They’ve been at the forefront of the bullying, threats and coercion, justifying that they do it out of concern for women’s health, but it’s all about keeping themselves afloat. They thrive off it. If all women went along there’d be no need for their existence. I thought Macmillan was the go to cancer charity for help and advice, and yet we have 3: Jo’s, Eve Appeal and Macmillan providing helplines and support for this one rare cancer. These cancer charities often have a part-time nurse but no other people with even a smattering of medical training. They are a business. The public deserves better than to be referred to these charlatans for health information. They are only there to make money, and hoping that you will die publicly for them, like Jade Goody did. I think a lot of them should be wound up.
Here’s one way to screw with them.
Call as much as you can. Clog their lines. Ask questions you know will funnel them into areas where the operator or rep will choke. You know facts they do not. You can re-brainwash them to the correct knowledge path. Do this weekly. It will drive them nuts. Make them spend money on calls that lead nowhere. Sooner or later the phone operators will begin questioning their motives.
The rah-rah BS that these operators have, the thought line that they are saving lives will finally appear to them that they are doing more harm than good.
COVID has certainly made them tone down their act. Their pathetic “awareness campaigns” have not run at all this year in UK (at least I haven’t been aware of them) and their obvious appearances on social media are regularly challenged by a regular group of us from here and also some support from others too. They were begging for funds during the summer to keep going. I think their campaigns are trying something different: they approach newspapers with these pre-arranged stories, which always include the same points. Trouble is, they can’t find anyone under 40 with cervical cancer. They don’t want older women as not good for advertising. So all these newspaper stories feature women who’ve been diagnosed with “abnormal or precancerous cells”, and they’ve always just caught the cancer in time. Just hope that the uptake never returns after COVID and women wake up to the lies.
It’s really hard to convince someone of something when their livelihood depends upon them NOT understanding it.The operators and the businesses that employ them have vested interests in staying “brainwashed”.
I recently spotted comments from a training day in cervical screening in the UK. Because the test now just requires a swab for HPV, less skills are required compared to the old test, where the cervix had to be visualised, and the transformation zone given a 360 degree sweep. Now that they don’t need to do this anymore, they can get a much less skilled person to do the job, and pay much less than a qualified nurse. Anyway, there were comments from some how they just didn’t get how it works. My feelings were that they were realising how it just doesn’t make a lot of sense, and that women have been misled about this for years. If they don’t get it themselves, what hope is there for the woman who gets a summons letter and wants to know more. I feel that these associate semi-skilled people are not able to provide women with the real information they need to make an informed decision, but maybe that’s the whole idea…
Tell me about this new(?) test? You mean a speculum isn’t needed? Just a long swab lovingly shoved up the who-haw? Does it actually test for HPV or the same old abnormal cells? Or if you have abnormal cells then it goes for actual virus testing? And is the swab fat or skinny? Kept sterile or loose like before?
NO scrape that draws blood?
Any better accuracy?
Here it’s still the same old same old.
I agree with you. That doesn’t mean however, that it must go easy for them.
Every time you’re talking to them, they can’t be calling another. Sooner or later the seeds of knowledge you plant will germinate. They will get off the phone and ask questions. It effects morale.
I don’t know how many people we’ve converted. But there’s many we did educate. There will be somebody like us who hears the good news and looks into things independently.
Also, please tell me if paps done where you live are done with a “swab” as somebody commented or if still with the wooden spatula. I haven’t had a pap since 2010. The Trovagene result I have seems to be my passport out of that nightmare.
Cat n mouse I think in UK the smears are done with a brush but I’ve not had one in 20 years so I’m not sure, I just remember reading the smear is taken with a “ small soft brush” which I also remember reading has wire in the bristles…
I’ll pass thanks!!
Beth that is so true as far as people’s livelihoods depending on their staying in the dark about the harms of these cancer screenings (pap smears as well as mammograms) and it doesn’t only apply to the bean counters. It also applies to the medical professionals themselves – doctors, nurses, mammographers, radiologists, etc.. It is a major reason, along with the many women who are convinced their lives have been saved by these screenings, that women’s healthcare remains so incredibly oppressive with its paternalism, coercion, lies, distortions and half-truths.
Judy, of course it’s not just the bean-counters who work for healthcare firms. It’s not just the clinicians who spout the bean-counter’s line. It’s those who work for the companies distributing the kits, the labs providing results, the manufacturers of equipment used in the follow-on procedures, the medical schools who need middle-aged women to give student ob/gyn’s practice participating in their hysterectomies, and on and on.
It’s a corrupt system, all around, and needs the myth to be propped up. Fortunately, real data is available now, and slowly women are saying, “What is this nonsense, of hijacking all of our healthcare and many of our thoughts for something a little more likely than dying in a lightening strike?”
Looking up those pap collection kits, the old wooden scraper is still around. The new deal is a plastic “brush”. It has a long spiked spindle in the center for going up the whole cervix opening and the bristles around it sweep along the concave surface of the outer cervix. Good for ensuring that any HPV gets spread around to infect every area. The spiked brush now comes with instructions for doctors to be sure not to use it during pregnancy. Of course that is if they ever bother to read the pamphlet insert AND how is a women every sure when she comes in for that first visit when she is “late”? Of course she is not pregnant until a test confirmed it or the doctor received the test report. Of course all these devices are non-sterile.
New HPV home test.
https://www.letsgetchecked.com/ca/en/home-hpv-test/?imp=cpc&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIxb6v5ub77AIVh4bACh0g2QRaEAAYASAAEgJ43PD_BwE
This seems to be available in many countries including Canada. I am surprised that it claims complete privacy. It does have a panel of doctors available to give advice about treatments. I wonder if results are reported to government screening programmes. If they are, then personally I would not use it.
I have used it in Germany, the results are completely confidential.
Hi Moo; it’s been awhile…
Looked at that test. So how is this supposed to be better? Other, than that it’s done at home w/o stirrups. It appears by the applicator that you still skewer yourself however.
And that means, like I’d said before, you disturb the HPV if indeed it’s residing on your cervix. The user disturbs, redistributes, and reinfects other parts (or deeper) of cervix and vagina.
What does the manufacturer do? Because none of what I saw was clear. Are they afraid to tell us in advance on this ad? Or do they wrap the thing in gift paper so we have a surprise coming on how to use it? Or if they say so in advance will men possibly read it and be motivated to masturbate?
So stupid.
This looks like the same old pap but in a friendlier fashion.
And accuracy compared to regular pap or the Trovagene Urine Test?
Unless I missed it that was also lacking.
Is this the same home test for Australia?
Noted price comparable to Trovagene. Frankly, the price is a rip off to me. The Trovagene test took two weeks to run. PCR duplication plus antibody pickup. This test appears just as a regular smear after you impale yourself on it. It cannot take long to prep and cannot be so expensive. Dough is being made off this to pay for papping elsewhere. F’ing bureaucrats…and F’ing doctors.
Not sure about the rest of the world, but in Australia it is highly unlikely we will ever get any tests that do not involve patient’s data to be collected and retained in some form. Our medical system is obsessed with surveillance and control. It harvests personal data at every turn and opportunity.
And when it comes to data privacy and value of service directly to the patient, Australian pathology laboratories are the worst. The system operates like this:
1. The doctor takes a specimen from the patient and sends it to the lab for analysis.
2. The lab also gets a ton of patient’s personal data, such as the full name, address, date of birth, contact details, Medicare card number (even if the test is not covered by medicare), etc, without any consent of the patient, as the patient has no choice of which lab the doctor uses, and has no say in what the lab does with that data.
3. The lab analyses the sample, then sends the results to the doctor and the bill to the patient.
4. The lab may also pass the test results along with the patient’s personal details to various government agencies, screening registers, third party databases and other medical surveillance entities, even when the patient is against it.
5. The patient must pay the bill, but can’t get the test results he/she paid for. The lab won’t give the results to the patient, only to the doctor.
6. To get the results, the patient has to make another appointment with the doctor and pay for that appointment to get the damned results.
7. The lab gets the patient’s money and personal information, but provides bugger all in return, stating that their service is for doctors, not for patients. Though, if “their service is for doctors”, why don’t they send the bills to the doctors? Or leave our personal data alone, at the doctors’, and identify the test samples by some codes that only the doctor can link to the patient instead of grabbing all our personal data?
Right on the money, Brie. The system serves itself, the patient is just a ‘thing’ with no rights.
I really hate the whole medical system. I only visit the doctor for scripts and avoid the whole screening regime. No paps, no mammos, no cholesterol or any of the other crap they try to shove you into.
I’m lucky to have a nice doctor who asks only once about screening and age-related stuff, then smoothly drops it and doesn’t make a fuss when I say ‘no thank you’.
Perfectly said, Brie!
I avoid doctors and the rest of the medical establishment like a plague, but from family and friends experience it is exactly as you describe. At least, Melbourne Pathology, Douglass Hanly Moir Pathology, QML Pathology, Sullivan Nicolaides Pathology and Mater Pathology are all like that, acting like text book parasites: take as much as they can, and give nothing. The patient is just an object of business.
They will grab your personal data and the money (either directly from your wallet, or indirectly via Medicare), but won’t sent/give the results to you even if the pathology request form says “copy to patient”. And to add insult to injury, they often send personal details and results to screening registers even if the form says “not for PSR” or any other register.
The situation is ridiculous: the government has your test results immediately, but you have go through hoops and hurdles and wait til the next doctor appointment to get the same info!
Sometimes they say that the person must sign up for eHealth or some other online account to get the results faster, but in reality it is just another way to grab even more personal data and control the person even further. These accounts can easily be used to pester the person about screening and bombard with unwanted “reminders” and “you are now due” messages.
Where is the test listed?
Just seen a piece in Take a Break magazine today, asking why we are dying of embarrassment and not attending our smears, citing Ms Goody. It states this cancer has increased 50% in young women… the vaccine sure is working well then! No mention of self testing and trots out the same story of a very busy 29!yr old working mum of 2 who skipped her test then when finally she went had stage 1 cancer….
Jesus wept. An article conflating ‘pre-cancerous cells’ with a cancer diagnosis and advocating for ‘mandatory smear tests’, where ‘there should be no choice’. https://twitter.com/SamofLeeds/status/1326125715482357760/photo/1
Gem I don’t usually do social media but I’ve posted a few replies!! How dare she say none of us should have a choice about this test????
I’ve seen numerous journalists mindlessly repeating “It’s so important, I think it should be mandatory” in these types of articles. It never ceases to amaze me how they don’t stop and think “Hang on a minute, that would mean a medical examination without consent, an invasive one at that..”. Is your reading of the article the same as mine, that she thinks the test should be mandatory, as opposed to GPs being obliged to keep carrying them out during covid? It’s worded a bit confusingly, but that is what it seems like to me. I just had a look, and wasn’t able to see your comments though.
Yep my understanding was it should be mandatory and no choice allowed from the woman ! They may have taken down my comments as they have done in the past, and they asked me to go through the whole prove your not a robot malarkey again and I didn’t bother!!
What a b*tch!!
I’m sorry for the bad language but this jumped up little troll has no right advocating for these tests to be made mandatory. How dare she??!!!
What is it about women’s nether regions snd reproductive rights that makes men and women alike, not only think that they are public property but almost celebrate and promote the idea??
Whether it’s abortion rights or mandated reproductive health checks, there seems to be a prevailing belief within many in society that women’s bodies must be regulated.
It’s almost as if this belief is culturally or socially endemic. What is driving this mindset??
If smears were made mandatory, what else would be made mandatory? It wouldn’t stop there!
This article – and tweet – has made my blood boil.
I also note that the author of the article is a “law graduate” – yeah, right.
These mindless numbskulls have not thought through the implications of what they are advocating.
How would they enforce it? And hoe do they propose to penalise “defaulters”? Fines, unemployment, social ostracisation, prison?
Real “Handmaid’s Tale” stuff.
Didn’t a certain 1930s government penalise certain members of society in the same way?
Real women’s “empowerment” stuff isn’t it. Well done. Lol.
Even if smears WERE mandatory I would still refuse and go to prison if necessary though I doubt it would come to that! Then I’d shout from the rooftops and to the press about the injustice and abuse it really is!
Ah yes, I can see your comments now, which I second. Honestly, such a damaging, regressive narrative. I bet these are the same people who would condemn the horrific actions by Qatar Airways in the same breath. However, there is really no difference between that and what they are advocating.
I think the prisons would be too full, Kat. That’s 4 million summons letters sent every year and uptake 70% so that’s over 1 million of us they’d need to put away!
Ada I’d go down screaming lol!! As I work in a school I’d have to declare my criminal record! Can you imagine?? Murder? Theft?? No refusing a smear test!!
Ada here we go, daily fail today, asking why over 64s not smeared as they account for half the deaths of CC they trot out an older woman who had 2 treatments then LLETS and she’s worried sick she could now die as she won’t be smeared any more…..
I’m surprised the Daily Mail has actually admitted that the over 64s account for half of CC deaths. I bet Jo’s To$$ers and the NHS won’t like that…
On another note, perhaps they’re failing to snare the younger women and have decided to go for the hardcore loyalists in the long-shot hope that the screening age will increase as will the rates 🤔
I mean, it’s not ideal as it won’t pull in the younger crowd but hey ho, those rates won’t increase themselves will they, so what can you do!
I can continually find studies that show certain vitamins and nutrients are associated in prevention of cervical cancer. A more recent study. 2019.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6787610/
A good diet of fruit and vegetables, avoiding excess sugar intact, green tea extract. Maybe taking a good daily vitamin is what most women need. Hardly too costly for someone in America. I buy a bottle of vitamins from Costco that lasts me a whole year.
Kat, I can’t find the article right now. Perhaps it will come out tomorrow? Just been reading that normal GP services are to be paused yet again, while GP staff are to be used for massive roll out of COVID vaccine. Looks like smear tests will be put on hold again at some point. Maybe that’s why they’ve changed tack to the older ladies?
Another interesting thing I ‘ve noticed is that Scotland has reduced smear tests to every 5 years over all ages. That slipped in very quietly. I don’t seem to remember seeing anything in the news about it. I wonder if they will change England and Wales to 5 yearly too, while everyone is distracted with COVID? Strange times.
It amazes me how many women are anti-woman and just downright dangerous to the rest of us.
If reproductive health checks were mandarory, what was to potentially prevent a future right-wing government from taking that further by mandating other checks relating to pregnancy, for example?
And it would all originate from the actions of a few dumb, musguided feminazis who thought they knew better but knew sod all and had ZERO foresight!
Apocalyptic Queen, very true and if you need further proof of some women being anti-women, just look in the U.S. at the State of Alabama. Their governor, a woman, has tried to implement a draconian anti-abortion law, one of the strictest in the U.S. which essentially makes it illegal. Its noteworthy that this state is one of the poorest in the nation and ranks consistently near the bottom health-wise and education wise. They can’t even take care of the people who are already there!
Judy – I do feel that women’s screening has been hijacked to some extent by the right-wing brigade (although it’s also the domain of liberal feminazis as well).
On many such articles, there’s a stream of comments from male pro-screening advocates (who shouldn’t be having an input into this discussion), echoing how irresponsible women are.
Often, the rhetoric is very similar to that used with regards to abortion rights, childbirth and breastfeeding choices.
The theme is one of, “it’s what women are supposed to do”.
In the eyes of these people, women are vassals and women’s bodies and sexual behaviour should be regularly monitored.
I do believe that it’s the same principles and views of women that underpin current beliefs on screening, particularly within the healthcare system.
Too bad, the feminazis are too dumb to see it and are more than happy to collude with them!
Don’t know how to break this wonderful news to all you lovely people on here:
MR ROB MUSIC IS LEAVING JO’S TOSH IN JANUARY!
How will women cope in life without being told that silliness and embarrassment cause cancer.
Oh dear. Not been a good year for him then?? 🤔😂🤣
Where’s the cake??? 👏 🎂 🎈🎈🎊🎉🎁 🍾 🥂 😁😁😁😃
Party party party 🎉 iparty YAYYYYY
Good riddance, Although I expect whoever replaces him will carry on spewing out the same old tripe.
I notice he’s joining yet another healthcare charity – The Migraine Trust. Wonder how long he’ll last there.
Yes, good riddance. I remember when I came across him for the first time in an article mansplaining how ’embarrassment’ and ‘ignorance’ were costing women their lives. Hated him ever since.
The old Charity sector musical chairs. So many moving from one to the other, promulgating the latest corporate concepts and keeping themselves in a job. More functions, more awards evenings. But what of the needs they are set up to serve. It has kept Music in a job, with his feet under the consultation table representing …who.?
I wish people would investigate charities before giving to them! Too many of them mostly have the function of supporting their chief executives, with some money given to pay their office and fundraising staff, and very very little given to research the issue or help those afflicted with the problem. Part of the fundraising though is to convince people to give to them without any sort of knowledge as to where their money is going, or for what.
At least migraines are real, and debilitating for those who have them. My (male) partner has them, and it took decades for him to get a proper diagnosis and treatment – from a Veterans Administration Nurse Practitioner of all things! This is even though he has EEG tests every few years, and they had decades of data! But, he’s a man, so “can’t have migraines”.
I wonder how he’ll get along with having men as the object of his charity?
He won’t be able to talk down to them, telling them how to run their lives, how it’s all their own fault, how silly they are for not getting tested. Be interesting to see the push back he might get from that.
I thought it was a bit odd, latest newspaper articles we’ve seen on here have not featured Mr Music with his customary advice for women to do as they’re told. I thought he might have got COVID. He mentions in his twitter feed that MigraineUK is a charity serving some 10 million migraine sufferers. Jo’s Tosh clearly having an ever dwindling customer base and no-one like Jade Goody happy to die on TV to the delight of the media and Jo’s. I’d be very glad to see it shut down.
The saying about rats leaving a sinking ship springs to mind….
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jan/20/women-not-undergoing-cervical-screening-cancer-risk-lives-campaigners-research His patronising and condescending comment here makes me so angry. I hate the tone that he and Jo’s have set for discussions around screening. No surprise the comments below the article are disgusting when that narrative has been set by a ‘leading cancer charity’.
I’m beginning to wonder if they’ve realised he’s bad for business. There’s been quite a lot of women now going against his patronising dogma. His charity’s views go challenged now wherever they appear, thanks to many on this site, and I’ve seen others joining in too. They’ve had to tone down their advertising in a big way. Now, if you challenge these women who say all women must attend, they back down quite easily. They often don’t realise what they’re saying, and they get quite humble when you point out, they’re actually speaking against women’s rights and not for them by saying offensive nonsense like that. Quite a lot have accepted that although they would still go themselves, they now accept others do not. I think a tipping point will be reached in the UK programme. Uptake was 70% before COVID, and it will much lower this year, but the seed of doubt has been sown, and confidence in the programme is much less than it used to be.
Ada – I definitely think something has happened.
From a male perspective, I can’t think why he’d give up a cushy, well-paid job with perks that include lecturing women about what they should be doing with their bodies.
Covid has gatecrashed the party.
Those screening rates must be plummeting faster than a burst balloon.
They were “touting” for business during the first lockdown so I seriously doubt they’ve had a major cash injection since then.
Seems to me that the penny has dropped.
There’s surely no future in this charity.
I bet screening rates will continue to fall off the proverbial cliff, snd not a minute too soon. Covid is good for some things.
As much as the NHS loves controlling and patronising women, if they had to make major cutbacks to their services, I think they’d find it hard to justify this bloated screening programme.
Reckon the cost element might be one factor that Scotland are moving to 5-yearly tests?
Now that’s the best news I’ve heard in a while – but I suspect his replacement will be equally annoying and patronising, that seems to be part of the job description – “don’t be silly, this could save your life”
Or, “this could save my job”…. 😂
A lot of these cancer charities require a closer look, IMO, the old pink juggernaut is a commercial operation, it’s been discovered in a few cases that products that display the pink ribbon often give very little to the “charity”. Also, a lot of charities put funds into awareness programs, not research into treatments, better screening options etc.
Some of the non-profit charities are worth a look too, executives on high salaries with a nice car.
Charlie Teo is a neurosurgeon here, he often operates when others won’t so naturally he attracts a fair bit of criticism, especially from his fellow neurosurgeons. Charlie established a charity a few years back and was horrified to discover that a lot of money was spent on administration, salaries etc.
He set up another brain cancer charity, volunteers and professionals working pro bono run the charity and Charlie has promised no more than 10% of donations will ever be spent on administration.
I take a careful look before I donate money, a lot of people donated to bushfire relief – but a lot of money didn’t get to the people and communities devastated by bushfire, some charities decided to hang onto some of the money for other projects or to save for the next disaster.
People did not donate on that basis…
I also heard a local charity was buying bales of hay at huge prices for farmers struggling with drought – just because you have lots of money thanks to generous people, doesn’t mean you can throw money around like water – spend the money wisely, as if it were your own money, that’s what I expect…
Charities are very often not what they seem…I’d hate to sponsor one of these dishonest and insulting awareness campaigns.
Regarding the pink ribbon breast cancer charities, a shockingly small percentage of the funds goes to researching better treatments for metastatic breast cancer, that is when it has spread to other parts of the body. With all the hype about early detection, what’s often overlooked is some breast cancer is so aggressive its bound to be deadly no matter when it is found. Also, 25-30% of breast cancers will go on to become metastatic, including those found in the early stages. These facts are usually glossed over with these feel-good breast cancer charities.
I’m amazed the powers that be haven’t realised their “!don’t be embarrassed “ campaigns don’t work! We have had so many now and women aren’t “seeing the light”! If embarrassment is such a major hurdle, instead of blaming women or telling them off, why not address this barrier to screening differently and offer self testing? I’m not surprised on any level the “don’t” strategy isn’t working, I’m terrified of gales and high winds, whether it’s anyone on here, or a doctor, or anyone else telling me don’t be scared of gales and high winds, I’m not suddenly going to get over my fear! Same with screening which for many women is even more traumatic and stressful! Hope that covid is another nail in the screening coffin…..
Somehow though, I can’t see them changing tack.
What else can they say in their promotional campaigns?
Saying that women are making informed choices does not adhere to their traditional views of women, and moreover, it doesn’t suit their agendas either!
They know what they need to do – stop patronising women and offer them the self HPV test but I can’t see it ever happening unless Covid forces their hand!
Just want to say to everyone on this site: you are such a great lot, and it is wonderful that you are all here!
We had a crazy year, with covid all over the world, plus many natural disasters in some parts of it. But it looks like there is a silver lining: the covid pandemic meant that women miraculously stopped dropping like flies from cervical and breast cancers, screening crusades had to be put on hold, and many doctors were forced to shift their focus away from female breasts and genitalia to other things. For once, medical establishment had to deal with a disease instead of manufacturing dis-ease; it had to actually work to save some lives instead of patronising and scaremongering.
Let’s hope this improvement continues beyond the pandemic. And once again: huge thanks to all of you for being here!
Alice, I hope these changes will be long lasting. There is a plan in the UK to roll out vaccinations next year and hopefully this will further take up GP practice time away from manufacturing disease. I’m sure there will be a resurgence in getting women to screen once it is all over, as I know they’re terrified of women getting ideas that it’s not really that important after all. There are still some areas where free choice is a non-concept. I don’t think nurses have any training in accepting that not everyone wants to be screened, and all their training seems based on the idea that everyone must have it, there’s no choice. This practice below is a case in point. They claim to have got 87% uptake, but even in the severe bullying of the 1990s practices struggled to get over 80%, so goodness only knows what they are doing to get this figure. Still a way to go, but the wind is behind us. For now!
https://www.neessexccg.nhs.uk/ccg-explores-new-ways-to-promote-cervical-screening-awareness
I would like to call you all friends as that is how I feel I find comfort and reassurance on this site and because of the information off here I would like to contribute with this suggestion would it be possible using the freedom of information act to source the actual number of females who have opted out of cervical screening. Might work to reinforce our stance on the subject
I’ll give that a go.
Significant? They call this a significant breakthrough!
https://phescreening.blog.gov.uk/2020/12/21/significant-breakthrough-towards-cervical-screening-self-sampling/
Too bad they aren’t putting urine based vs this plug on a stick self sampler.
Still physically disturbing the cervix.
An improvement however.
While self-sampling is definitely better than having a stranger shoving hands and tools into woman’s reproductive organs, not much else will change. If the test was 100% anonymous (i.e. the woman could learn her HPV status without giving out any of her personal information, and then make a 100% independent decision what to do next), then there would be something to talk about.
As things are, the system will still demand to have all the personal data with the self-taken sample, so woman will still be entered into the screening programme, added to registers, pestered with reminders and “you are now due” letters, and pressured into further investigations, appointments, colposcopies, painful biopsies and barbaric treatments.
So no, of course there is no “significant breakthrough”, and never will be in female health care until it learns to respect woman’s choice, independence and privacy.
I really hope some numbnut tries to introduce mandatory screening I would for one like to challenge this in the human rights court the information about its accuracy would be broadcast the world over I would like to see the screening uptake after that
Corona virus has been with us for over a year now and it will probably be here for another year before it becomes controlled this has dramatically affected cancer screening at the end of this terrible virus and things get back to normal it would be useful to know exactly how many cervical cancer deaths were recorded over this time with the absence or limitation of screening
With all the screening restrictions in place because of corona virus now would be a good time to push hard for self testing we could use the old eurythmics song sisters are doin it for themselves. Sorry to much red. going to bed now
If you feel you are being pushed into a pap turn the tables on your doc and say I’m not aware that they had become mandatory I always thought they were optional if you don’t mind I would like to check this when I get home and if you are correct I will book one for next week
Another tact is to mention a “friend”, who specialises in medical negligence or human rights.. Say you will ask him/ her for “advice” and get back to the doctor, all the while sounding completely nonplussed 😆
I have recently moved into my sisters flat and I am loving it It’s my first time away from home Her first flat mate had moved into her uni campus and sis asked if I wanted to move in We get on famously she has always looked out for me and I for her. We have a great time here even though we are stuck indoors because of corona we talk loads about everything. Usually with a bottle handy her name is Juliet and she is 28 it was her who told me about this site one night we decided to post comments because we love this place she started posting under anon but now uses her nickname jules I am younger at 24 and have posted as helper because I was always mommy’s little helper and it stuck at the moment she works from home and I am on furlough the reason we are here is because we were talking the one night and she asked if I had been yet she said she would go with me if I decided to it was this talk that I found out I had a choice I was always under the impression I had to go she has been 3 times but has said never again she then showed me this site and since then I have been hooked I feel saved even though I have not ever had an invite and if I do it’s straight in the bin I have noticed the same ladies post again and again with valuable info about all this and I would like to thank you it must take up a lot of your free time I for one appreciate your effort.
Welcome to you both on this website. I was 52 before I found out about it and was invited to join after posting about a bad experience many years before, but in those pre-internet days it was very difficult to find out much about anything, and all the books on women’s health presented screening as essential. I’d always had a gut feeling women were being brainwashed. Neither my mother nor grandmother seemed to suffer it, so I couldn’t see why it was a matter of life or death for me. I was amazed to read of other women’s accounts and find they shared my views on screening. It has been wonderful to have had so much support from this website.
Hi Helper, thank you for your comments and it pleases me that you have found this site and that it has been of help to you and your sister – welcome and happy new year 😁
I’m 38, never been screened. Avoided doctors like the plague during my teens and twenties. On the occasions I did need to go, I was lucky in the sense that I was rarely asked. Have only been asked twice about them during my lifetime and twice I stressed I’d made an informed decision and was sticking to it – no further discussion required.
I think times are changing. I certainly feel more confident in articulating my choices now than I would have been back then and I think it’s becoming apparent to the powers that be that women are feeling increasingly more confident in rejecting these outdated practices. Hopefully, things such as budget constraints and Covid-19 may inadvertently play into our hands!
Thanks Adawells we love the support we see on here so many posts from so many women who have been hurt and everyone else trying to help them it’s terrific but I don’t know if we can contribute much to be honest I would not even know where to start
I. for one, am excited to see that younger women are learning early that this is not some sort of a requirement, but rather a misogynistic and outdated ritual, based on unwarranted fear of a cancer which has always been rare.
I have gotten a lot of support here, especially to refuse/reject pressure from healthcare professionals to examine my vagina when I’m seeing them for other issues.
Apocalyptic queen Thanks for your welcome the site is great but I’m reading too much at the minute and getting a few sleepless nights some of the posts are very disturbing These ops they do without any aneasthetic are barbaric for gods sake they give you pain relief for a tooth filling what the hell are they thinking the more I read the more I will try to avoid them
Ladies thanks for all the positive posts but I may have to ease up a bit jules has been cross with me this morning because I have been so upset by the sites posts I have read hundreds by now the last was about procedures they do without aneasthetic Jesus Christ dentists give pain relief to put a filling in what the hell is wrong with these bast. I will come back but I need a day or two to recover bye for now
talking to a friend from work on the phone last night she appears to have her own way of dealing with pressure from the screening zealots when it is mentioned she just says no thank you if they continue she says again no thank only louder if it mentioned again she says again no thank you really loud she says this has served her well so far
Hi ladies It seems to me it will take many months before screening gets back into gear but when they do I expect them to push really hard and try to maximise uptake proberly to the extent of the bad old days I have noticed many women on this site suffer from anxiety over testing and being constantly badgered for it which brings me to the point is this classed as harassment which is a criminal offence because in its definition if it causes distress by intimidation it could be legal grounds for a case I know they have covered their asses for sending invites by introducing section 251 in appendix 1 but if you have made a clear decision to opt out which they know of because of your medical records and then try to get you to reconsider they could be skating on very thin ice as they would be moving from coercion to harassment I believe you would need 2 examples for this to be the case so remember to make a complaint at the time so there is documented evidence of it do any of you ladies have any legal knowledge or training to look at this Hugs to all
Hi Jules, it has crossed my mind that coercion could be amplified once the pandemic is over. My fear is that they may take the same attitude with screening as they now do with the vaccine for instance.
I know that they had considered making the vaccine mandatory, not a la Denmark, but by imposing restrictions on admissions to certain premises, retail businesses and even employment etc.
However, I think we also need to consider that such moves are unlikely, and if they are unlikely to be introduced during a genuine pandemic, I’m not sure how realistic it would be to introduce those sorts of measures with respect to a disease that isn’t contagious. Even those who are HPV+ rarely go on to develop squamous cell carcinoma.
In terms of pressure tactics, I do think it is important to document your refusal for screening.
The reason being is that the common law position in medicine is that every competent adult has the right to accept or refuse medical treatment and by extension, medical procedures.
This even applies to controversial life or death cases where the lives of more than one individual may be at stake.
Wilfully operating in any way on you and against your consent could be deemed battery in civil law, and assault in criminal law.
If they were to wilfully pin someone down and screen them against their consent, then they could potentially be prosecuted for assault by penetration.
What medical practitioners try to do in order to get around this awkward requirement is to pressurise you to consent.
I once read that medical practitioners are advised that a patient turning up for screening after having received a letter, is said to have given “implied consent”.
In other medical settings, doctors will try to get informed consent but screening was designed with a view to getting around this.
It has always however been subject to consent, even if this has not occurred in practice.
If you are being badgered to screen, I think it is definitely worth documenting this on paper.
Follow their complaint procedures,
write to the GP surgery, cc the “screening authorities”.
Take this up a notch and write another and cc in the GMC or a lawyer if they don’t get this message and see where this gets you.
A while ago, someone on here mentioned that GDPR changes to the Data Protection Act 2018 could support you, because their right to store information on you and badger you with “invitations” may be contrary to GDPR if you have withdrawn consent to be part of the screening programme. I think a lady on here mentioned that she had threatened her surgery and screening authority with a complaint to the Data Protection Commissioner.
Certainly, the case should be made in writing that a patient having considered the available evidence on screening, has made an informed decision not to screen, and any response ignoring this should also be documented.
This way, perhaps evidence can be shown to suggest that the patient is being subjected to coercion, which could give rise to further action.
Many women proberly attend their surgery for appointments on their own if they show any weakness or seem vulnerable they will be deemed prey it would be wise to have a friend or family member with you for support and backup don’t make it too easy for them please remember it’s your choice
I agree that it’s wise to have a friend or family member – as a witness, if nothing else. In these COVID days, that’s being used as a reason to deny anyone but the patient into the facility or examining room.
Women, ourselves, need to be strong and firm in our refusals, and document any coercion and report it to all relevant authorities.
I’ve just seen the latest news from PHE that they are going to stop sending out the leaflets later this year and only first time invitees will be sent a leaflet. I can appreciate they want to put as much online as possible and many people don’t read the leaflet anyway, but it’s concerning that as the leaflets are updated, people may not be as informed as before. On the other hand, it may work the other way, with many not bothering if they didn’t read the leaflet first time around.
Also, tax on tampons and other sanitary products has been lifted in the UK, so that’s going to hit poor Jo’s Tosh hard if they don’t get their money!
Meta study looking at HPV self-sampling finds sensitivity and specificity is high around ~90%, there’s absolutely no reason to deny women this arguing “Oh but only a professional can take an accurate sample!!!”. Results also show a vast majority of women prefers self-sampling. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33407355/
They seem to only consider self-sampling as an option for remote, under-resourced locations or for absolute non-attenders in first world countries. Never as an option in its own right as a replacement to the smear test. I am certain that many women would opt for self-sampling over the conventional test if it were offered -something they are afraid of, so it’s always presented only as an option for those who choose not to attend. In the UK, HPV self-sampling trials have only been done on the very hard to reach non-attenders, and they have been shown to be the only thing that increased uptake in this group.
With COVID now, it would have been an ideal opportunity to offer self-testing, but they won’t. I noticed that Jo’s Tosh plans on running a screening awareness week at the end of this month, when GP surgeries will be over-run with COVID vaccinations. Can they really be serious about doing it and what will it be like without Mr Music if he’s off saving the world from migraines?
It is such a lame reasoning that it is painfully obvious that they really don’t want to introduce self-sampling. Clearly, this is about monitoring of, and access to women’s intimate “habits”. No doubt about it.
But the position that only “hard to reach” groups should be offered this option is outrageous. How do they think they can justify this favourable, and quite frankly, discriminatory behaviour? Basically, one set of patients will receive more favourable treatment than another set, based on nothing more than ideology.
When the old faithful get wind of this, I hope most of them would clamour for the self-sampling option as well!