My 34 year old sister has been suffering from chronic abdominal pain since October last year. She has had a 2cm cyst on one of her Fallopian tubes diagnosed. On Friday evening her consultant called and told her that her smear results are abnormal and an urgent referral has been made to colposcopy but that due to Covid urgent still comes with a waiting list.
By coincidence she has a follow up with her consultant on Tuesday next week.
What advice can you offer on what to do to prepare for this and what questions we should ask? We don’t have infinite funds but to accelerate this initial stage and avoid the impact of Covid delays we are considering private consultancy as an option.
My thoughts so far:
what grade of cells have been identified
does the grade of cells impact the priority of appointments within the “urgent” waiting list
is it possible that the pain and the abnormal cells could be related
what will happen at colposcopy ie will it just be investigation or could there be treatment too
what would private treatment look like compared to nhs and if something was wrong could you refer back to nhs if the cost became too much
Side note: my sister has been very anxious about this whole experience and has consistently “felt” there was something really wrong. While this smear result doesn’t necessarily mean there is something disinter going on it is reinforcing her anxiety. The consideration for accelerated private treatment is in response to her whole health / anxiety state and not just a means to “skip” the queue of other equally entitled woman who need the support of the colposcopy clinic.
Sorry to hear your sister is going through this. When I got the results to my smear in October I to looked into going private. My coloscopy appointment was booked for a week later, so I didn’t have too long to wait but my mind was in overdrive and I needed to know sooner. I rang a few clinics for prices etc and found that their procedures for doing things were different. You have three packages. The basic coloscopy were they just have a look, the next Coloscopy and biopsy and the third coloscopy, biopsy and treatment. The clinic wanted to know what package you wanted before they will book an appointment and payment has to be made first. I asked that how do you know if you will or won’t need treatment and will you get a refund if you book the treatment one and I was told no. Not only that they wouldn’t offer treatment there and then if it was needed, a second appointment was needed for that. I decided to wait for my nhs appointment a week later and there they took biopsies and they did the treatment there and then. It was a long and stressful week to wait for it but I rang the hospital everyday looking for a cancellation.
I totally get your sisters anxiety, as I was in the same position after having other gynae issues a few months before which resulted in surgery and them removing one of my ovaries. Anxiety takes over.
I would get your sister to talk to her GP and see what the results of the smear actually say and seek advice from them about going private. They may know waiting times etc or may be able to help in pushing the appointment forward.
All I can say is think positive and take one day at a time. My smear results stated severe dyskarosis and HPV positive. The coloscopy found no malignant cells but they did find CGIN, which are high graded pre canacerous cells. So left untreated May have turned into cancer. They removed all the cells and was happy for me to return in 6 months for another smear and coloscopy. I go back in 2 weeks and I’m praying the treatment worked and its all clear. Lots of love to your sister and fingers crossed this is all a worry over nothing x
