IT might not be the usual Sunday lunch chit chat, and boys may decide to avert their attention, but I’m talking about cervixes! Yes the lady garden, the bits down there, items that half the population have, but nobody wants to mention, well it’s out there today for all to read!
I’m not just talking about cervixes to make the gentleman of the species uncomfortable - as fun as that always is! I’m talking about it because of the recent stats revealed by a cervical cancer charity, showing that attendance at cervical screenings is down - again!
In 2008 the reality TV star, Jade Goody, quite publicly faced the realities of not going to her appointed smear test (cervical screening) when she was diagnosed with cervical cancer.
Sadly for Jade it was too late and, at the age of 27 - five years ago this weekend - she lost her battle with the disease. Before she died, Jade took to every TV channel and magazine to spread the word to women all over the UK of how important it is to be screened regularly.
Her legacy was to increase attendance at cervical screenings by 400,000 that year, which had to be some small bit of comfort to her family. You would have hoped that this level of awareness would last more than five years. Apparently not, with levels of attendance dipping in the past year to less than it was before Jade died.
Had she been for her smear test at 25, Jade could have been one of the 5,000 women who’s lives are saved every year thanks to the cervical screening programme.
I’ve never missed a smear test, ever since I had my first appointment letter at 21 - which did used to be the age you first started screening. In 2009 - ironically the year Jade died - I noticed something wasn’t right, so went to the doctors to request a smear. I was referred straight to the colposcopy department at the QMC’s treatment centre, where I had a few biopsies taken from my cervix (I know, I used the word again!).
It was a pretty simple procedure, nothing particularly dignified about it, but you have to go with the belief that almost certainly every person in that room has seen worse. The nurses hold your hands if you want them to, the doctors are kind and far less brutal than a practice nurse with a speculum (another mortifying word I know!), and in ten minutes it’s done, sorted, over. The worst bit is the wait for results.
It turned out like thousands of other women every year, I had some pre-cancerous (abnormal) cells. Mine were mid-grade and needed removing. So that was another trip back to the Treatment Centre a couple of months later to have those bad boys taken out - even easier than the biopsy cause this time you get a little local anaesthetic.
Six months later my smear was clear as a bell and any worries I had were gone. I now have a test every year rather than every three, and up until this year they’ve all been fine. In fact my call back this year was another legs in stirrups, nervous laughter-filled, strangely comfortable lie down for another biopsy, but it was fine and I won’t be seeing my friends in colposcopy again for another year.
Shockingly five women who are eligible for screening do not take up their invitation and for young women aged 25-29 this rises to one in three.
I’m sure there’s many reasons women don’t go. I can understand the anxiety and the scaremongering that sometimes happens around these things, but it’s one ten-minute session out of your year, every three years. Surely it’s worth it? The chances are it will be absolutely fine, but if it’s not, it’s far better that you know, and can do something about it - the alternative doesn’t bear thinking about.
On behalf of myself, many of my friends who I know have been in similar positions, and for those who sadly can no longer speak for themselves, ladies get yourself booked in for that appointment!
As for the campaign to lower the age for regular cervical screening, I’m all for it, and have signed the petition. I have no idea what this means to the NHS in terms of funding, and I appreciate the pressures on services like this, but at least going back to what it used to be - minimum age of 21 - surely that’s a start?
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