Hi I had cervical cancer in 2019 and completed treatment and I’m been all clear since, I have check ups every 6 months with my consultant and had a check up yesterday, my consultant confirmed she was happy with my progress and had no signs of recurrence but today I got a reminder to say I’m overdue my smear, I thought that because I’m having check ups and I’m under care of my consultant I don’t need to have them but now I’m wondering if I’m wrong and I’m worried I’ve missed smears. Can anyone advise if I do still need to have them even though I’m checked regularly by my consultant?
Hello! I finished treatment last June, and in the August I received a reminder to go for a smear. It felt like a bit of slap in the face at the time so I called my doctors surgery to ask that they remove me from the list! I was told by the receptionist and nurse that as I still had my cervix they needed to do it for ‘test of cure’, or they would have to put me down as refusing to go. So I went, and I still have hpv, so was sent a colposcopy appt (back to the starting point!) and when I got there the lovely gynae doctor was very confused about why I was there. He checked his notes and did some asking around and has since written to my gp and my oncologist telling them off for not taking me off the list sooner! Apparently smears aren’t advised post treatment as there are so many changes after, and fingers crossed your team should be keeping a close eye on you and giving you regular check ups, so they’re very unreliable and unhelpful. Long winded answer, sorry🙈 xxx
Thanks so much for replying back! So sorry you had to go through that!
Yeah I am being closed monitored every 6 months as I’m 3 years post treatment now, they aren’t doing scans or anything but are doing internal check ups and have a feel round, each time I have gone they have said they are satisfied. I vaguely remember getting a reminder years ago and my consultant saying I didn’t need to go as my cervix will have changed and it can be tough to do a smear but then when I got the reminder last week I started doubting myself and wondering whether I should be going so thanks so much for confirming xx
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