wish they'd leave me alone

In Scotland, where I live, they instruct every woman over 20 to go for

smear tests whether you are sexually active or not .Being a virgin and having no vaginal opening does not

exempt you. You have to fight to be

removed from the list and this is

difficult . They try all forms of

persuading , even telling you to visit a female doctor. I prefer male doctors

and nurses but you never get to see a male nurse.

wow that is completely wrong of them they should respect everyone's decision I'm so sorry you have to go thru all this struggles

Ally, the Scottish program is being changed very soon, your program calls for early screening and over-screening, neither is backed by the evidence. In fact, this sort of program provides no additional benefit to women, but produces a lot of false positives that can lead to excess biopsies and over-treatment. Australian referral rates are huge, we screen even earlier, from 18 on, a few are even younger, and women here are urged to have 26 (or even more) pap tests in total.

(evidence based programs going back to the 1960s have offered 6 or 7 pap tests, 5 yearly from 30 to 60 - the Finnish and the Dutch programs) So urging women into early screening and over-screening is BAD medical advice that ends up harming a lot of women.

Our program will finally be changed next year but we're staying with excess, too many benefit from excess, (but not women!) we'll move to 5 yearly HPV testing from 25 (the evidence says not before 30) and 5 yearly until around 70 (5 tests is enough, stopping at 60, some women could test just once, those HPV- and no longer sexually active or confidently monogamous)

Your Dr Margaret McCartney does not have smears at all, she's spoken out about the lack of respect for choice and informed consent in Scotland and elsewhere. She's calling for better information and some respect for individual women, the right to accept or decline as we see fit.

So it should be easy enough to send the clinic a letter asking to opt out of the program, you don't need to give a reason, if they fob you off or give you a hard time, drop Dr McCartney an email, I'm sure she'd assist you. Doctors are not used to women fighting back, many give in after years of debate and pressure. 

I can tell you though...when you stand firm, when you know the evidence, doctors back away quickly, it's no longer safe to treat you like a second class citizen, like a mere body or should I say, cervix!

If you can't find Dr McCartney's website, let me know and I'll PM it to you.

Ally,

Just contact the Clinic and tell them you want to opt out of cervical screening. If they give you a hard time just say Anne Mackie, Head of the screening programs, has made clear that screening is a choice, it's our decision and your decision is no screening, end of story.

Don't let them get to you...

It isn't that simple. You still get letters telling you that you can opt in and

should consider doing so .

I was a blood donor until recently - 69 donations - and the reminders for

that were polite and courteous. Blood

donation really can save lives took

I know UK women who've opted out and asked for no further letters and that has been respected. If you don't request that though, I understand you'll be invited every 4-5 years. Not really an invitation!