Avoiding Smear Test
Posted , 23 users are following.
I am currently dodging my Doctors about my Smear Test- saying I keep forgetting or I will try to book one etc. At the end of every appointment I get the speech on Smear Tests - even having one doctor talk over me saying I didn't want one.
I have had previous examinations due to problems with bleeding and periods but they were uncomfortable, painful and traumatic bringing up a lot of horrible memories and feelings. I almost passed out after the last examination.
I'm not having any abnormal symptoms and am not sexually active for many of the same reasons.
I wish the Doctors would stop harrassing and try to empathise a bit more with their patients.
I didn't think I needed to have one if I'm not 'active' but again not something that I want to go over with my militant doctors! Just leave me alone please!
5 likes, 84 replies
ena50720 lauren1986
Posted
Now i don't know what to do.
eliz52 ena50720
Posted
I don't know your age, but you should not do HPV testing until you're 30. (under an evidence backed program there is no smear testing before age 30 either, it doesn't help, but leads to a LOT of excess biopsies and over-treatment)
So doing the test could lead to a dilemma if you don't want to have a pap test/smear test - some women might worry if they don't have a pap test and test HPV+
It's important to think about these tests and where they can lead BEFORE you do them. Best of luck...
ena50720 eliz52
Posted
Do you have any advise concerning HPV test by urine?
eliz52 ena50720
Posted
At 58 you're likely to be HPV-...under an evidence based program you'd be offered HPV primary testing or HPV self testing and if your result was HPV- you'd be sent away, no more testing. (HPV and smear testing stops at 60 in the Netherlands and Finland, evidence backed programs)
The urine test is not available as far as I know here in Australia, the women I know who've used a self testing device ordered it from Delphi Bioscience in Singapore. (Delphi Screener) If you're in the UK you could use Tampap or contact Delphi Bioscience in The Netherlands, their head office. If they can post the device from Singapore to Australia, they should be able to post it from Amsterdam to the UK.
Putting post menopausal women through smear testing is just cruel, almost all are HPV- and cannot benefit from the test. False positives are also, more likely in this age group. Yet they continue to block HPV self testing options or to release HPV- women, who are no longer sexually active or confidently monogamous, from further testing.
ena50720 eliz52
Posted
eliz52 ena50720
Posted
The Delphi Screener is not painful (so I'm told) one of my colleagues nearly passed out from the pain having her last pap test, she refused to have any more. She had no trouble using the Screener. (she was HPV-)
Now that she knows the evidence, she understands the pap testing was unnecessary, she was put through hell for years for nothing, at least she's informed now and can stand firm in the consult room.
I know some older women are given creams etc. to make the pap test less painful, some are even sedated, it's pure insanity when the woman can self test for HPV easily and reliably and in MOST cases the result will be HPV-
So I'd give the Screener a go, if you can't manage it, you could then try the urine test.
ena50720 eliz52
Posted
beauty1988 lauren1986
Posted
I would not avoid your Smear test as I have recently had one and it has come back with being on the Borderline of Cervical Cancer and HPV which has been caused by having an abnormal smer test this is with having regular Smear tests amd have to undergo treatment, so please get one done on a regular basis.
Hope you understand why I am saying this to you I am not judging you I am simply advising you.
j15773 lauren1986
Posted
PharmaSara j15773
Posted
eliz52 PharmaSara
Posted
Interesting too that so many women have "treatment" for CIN when the cancer itself is fairly rare, here in Australia the lifetime risk of referral for colposcopy and biopsy is a huge 77%, while the lifetime risk of cc is 0.65% - we also, "treat" more than 10 times the number of women than a country like Finland. Almost all of these procedures were avoidable if we'd followed the evidence and respected informed consent.
VERY few women benefit from smears, VERY few AND we can identify the fairly small number of women who might benefit from smears, but instead they choose to drag all or most women into testing.
Our program actually maximizes risk for no additional benefit to women, Finland has offered 7 smear tests since the 1960s, here women are still being told they must have 26 (or even more) smear tests...BAD medical advice.
It's an absolute disgrace...heads should roll.
j15773 lauren1986
Posted
finnuala82216 j15773
Posted
Informed j15773
Posted
This screening programme became an open door to assaults and rapes throughout the UK, as virgins and unwilling participants are routinely bullied into testing, without understanding the test at all.
This screening programme should be in the dock at the European Court of Human Rights for the abuses it has forced upon British women over the decades.
The shameful history of this abusive programme is now comi g to light thanks to the internet. Many women have been posting for years about assaults carried out on them, but all have ended up "deleted by the moderator" for fear of others finding out what goes on and not attending their appointments. The NHS and the charities which spread fear and confusion about this test cannot play King Canute for much longer. The truth will out.
j15773 finnuala82216
Posted
finnuala82216 j15773
Posted
eliz52 Informed
Posted
It's clear from the language they have zero respect for our right to choose. You even see the absurd statement, we want women to make an informed decision TO screen, wrong, informed means making an educated decision to screen or NOT to screen.
We haven't seen the same levels of abuse in the consult room, mainly because we don't yet have a UK style call and recall system, but I fear that's not far away. Many women still receive pressure in the consult room though, and some of our doctors are still "requiring" a pap test before they'll prescribe the Pill. IMO, the latter tactic negates all consent and is a very serious matter. It would be like telling a man he can't have Viagra until he has a colonoscopy and we know that would never happen, and we so often hear that informed consent is important in prostate screening, so why isn't it equally important in women's cancer screening? It says to me the profession and others still view women very differently...like second class citizens.
I have to add as an informed woman, I don't fear the consult room, doctors back off quickly when they realize you're informed. These dirty and unethical (and possibly) illegal tactics only work when women are ignorant of the evidence and their legal rights.
It amazes me though...when our program is so bad, how long they were able to keep the evidence hidden, censorship was very effective and the campaign of misinformation, but...all of that is changing fast, it might be easy to silence one woman, not so easy when there are lots of informed women.
finnuala82216 Informed
Posted
eliz52 finnuala82216
Posted
It's the same approach: give women a screening "story" and use all sorts of insulting, disrespectful and unethical tactics to get us in for screening. Of course, it's harder to force women into a breast screening centre. They'll never reach the target here, numbers are continuing to fall as more women get to the evidence. I've declined to screen...over-diagnosis is a serious risk. IMO, Breast Screen cherry pick research and dismiss anything critical of screening, their job is to protect the program, not women. It's inappropriate (close to culpable at this stage) to push screening using celebrity endorsement, screening could end up taking your life, over-treatment (surgery, chemo and radiation) carry a LOT of risk, including REAL cancer and heart attacks. About 50% of screen detected breast cancers are over-diagnosed, that's horrifying.
I've listened to them lie to women for decades, watched the manipulation, read the misinformation etc., I lost trust a LONG time ago.
finnuala82216 eliz52
Posted
eliz52 finnuala82216
Posted
I was lucky enough to hear Peter Gotzsche speak at the Evidence Live Conference in Oxford in 2013, I travelled all the way from Australia to hear him speak. He came to Australia this year but his visit was kept very quiet, obviously the screening program was not happy to have him in the country with his "controversial" views. He did give a lecture on screening but it seems it was only promoted to a small group of people, I heard about it after the event. I did hear him speak about over-diagnosis and over-medication in psychiatry and the risks posed by the influence of big pharma. I saw an article in one of our newspapers, "Danish Professor visits with controversial views on breast screening"...hardly, he's head of NCI and their report was released over a decade ago!
Censorship and mind control is alive and well right here in Australia.
It goes to show the power of these programs and their backers, supporters and beneficiaries....don't rock the boat when people are making millions from screening and harming women! (billions in the States)