Hi everyone. I’m 34 and never had a screening before. My tarot reader and healer have said there may be some abnormal cells so I should get tested, and I went along today.
Id spoken to other women about the test and they reassured me it was easy and fine. In the past I have been sexually assaulted so going to have my foof poked about never really appealed to me! I’ve been best constant bleeding for many many months so on a day when I finally want bleeding I could go for the screening.
My husband came with me to the appointment this afternoon. The nurse was lovely but it was SO PAINFUL. I felt like I was being abused (I wasn’t - the nurse was great and my husband was holding my hand! But it felt like she was thrusting upand down with the speculum and it wouldn’t go in properly. I couldn’t help but yelp, swear and start crying! I then changed position and she got a larger speculum and then everything worked fine. But for about a minute I was in so much passion and have been crying all afternoon.
Has anyone else had an experience like this?
Hi
Sorry that your smear caused so much upset for you; I hope by the time you read this you are feeling better. Since my diagnosis for cervical cancer, nearly 3 years ago, I've done a lot of awareness raising about the importance of smear tests (I'm afraid I learnt the hard way - see my back story). I've had many conversations about smear tests and quite a few women have described the experience as a kind if abuse/assault, so you're not alone in this. Most women get through smear tests with no problems, but a significant minority of us (which includes me) have a grim time and I feel very strongly that the NHS should be doing more to facilitate screening especially for those who are not attending.
Well done you, for heeding advice to get your smear test. It's very encouraging to hear that the change of position and speculum made it doable. The smear test is essentially a very simple and safe procedure and, I promise you, so worth it. Unfortunately, for some, anticipating it and sometimes the aftermath has quite a psychological impact. Given your history of assault it might worth taking a look at the following link:
https://www.jostrust.org.uk/information/cervical-screening/cervical-screening-after-sexual-violence
Take care
x
