Smear

At my GP surgery, they carried out my smear test. The nurse was amazing and lovely. I started by removing my clothes from the waist down. The nurse closed the curtain, giving me privacy to undress and get comfortable on the bed.

First, she inserted a speculum into my vagina. Then she opened the speculum to see my cervix. This doesn’t hurt, it’s just uncomfortable more than anything. She then used like a soft toothbrush tool to take the sample. It was over within minutes. Once I was dressed, I hit the road. Happy days, pain free.

Around 2 years ago, when I was 25, I received my first ever letter inviting me for a smear test. In the UK, they invite individuals for a smear test between the ages of 25 and 65, unless they detect HPV or abnormal cells for some other reason. According to studies almost every sexually active person will get HPV at one point of their life if they don’t get vaccinated, although I got my vaccination when I was 11 years old and the vaccine is 97 percent effective according to The american college of obstetricians and gynecologist. The webpage link can be found at the bottom of the page.

HPV is so common. Health problems related to HPV include cervical cancer, At the time of my letter I was 25 years old and a busy mum to a 8,6,4- and 3-year-old boys and seeing the letter to go for my smear was off-putting enough never mind every other reason I had in mind not to go! Fast forward 2 years. I am now 27 and my sister Lisa’s smear came back abnormal, so myself, my mum and my other sister Sam went for our smears, me first on the 26th May 2023, then my mum and sister the week after me.

Mom and Sam got their results back, which were normal, a few weeks later. However, I was still waiting for mine, even though I had gone for the test a week before them. The anticipation was causing me great anxiety, and the wait felt like it would never end.

My smear result came in about 4 weeks later. It said high risk HPV and mild changes. This is the part I started Googling and researching, joined endless amounts of groups on Facebook and followed some stories on social media. 

They refer to it as low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) or cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN), which is a common abnormal result of a smear test. It’s also known as mild dysplasia. LSIL or CIN means that your cervical cells show some abnormalities. A LSIL/CIN, or abnormal smear result, doesn’t mean that you have cancer, but it could mean it too. My Smear results letter said they referred me for a colposcopy and I had to wait for a letter with my appointment details. I waited and waited googling everything about colposcopy, reading whatever stories I could online to put it all together in my head and finally, on the 15th of August, I had my colposcopy!

https://www.acog.org/womens-health/experts-and-stories/the-latest/what-i-tell-every-patient-about-the-hpv-vaccine#:~:text=If%20you%20are%20vaccinated%20before,in%20preventing%20external%20genital%20warts