A recent study has announced that 1.12 million women did not take their smear test screening last year and now attendance is at the lowest it has been in 19 years. Jo’s Trust says this means 1 in 4 women may potentially at risk of a life threatening cervical cancer diagnosis.
Young women are the main contenders for not attending, over one in three 25-29 year olds are not attending this 5-minute appointment that could quite literally save their life. Robert Music, of Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust, acknowledges that health inequality could play a part in these figures, 'as black, Asian and minority ethnic groups & communities of lower socio-economic status' are among the non-attendees. The trust is calling for urgent action to explore other options such as self-testing and allowing women to attend another practice other than their own in order to boost the numbers.
I think fear plays a factor in attendance. Whenever a smear test is mentioned there is an inevitable cringe after it as if it’s something to be squeamish about. However, it is anything but, we’ve reported on our smear tests here and evenlive blogged oneto reassure you all about them. We are all guilty of letting life get in the way, just discussing this topic in the office has reminded quite a few of us we need to book in for ours – but this should be top of the list.
A smear test is a preventive procedure, and maybe it’s just me being dumb on my own, but I’ve always thought it was to check if you had Cervical Cancer or not because as of 25 you become vulnerable to it. Kind of, but not really. It checks for pre-cancerous cells that may have changed, this does not mean you have cancer, as some cells revert back to normal without treatment. Still confused? We have answered all the questions you’ve been too scared to ask in case you sound stupid.
If you need even more encouragement to book your test, research by Jo’s Trust states that if all women regularly attended screenings it would save our beloved NHS 10 million pounds (as well as possibly saving your life). So go on, book yourself in and afterwards you can buy yourself something new and shiny to reward yourself for doing something so important.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.