It’s Cervical Cancer Prevention week in the UK at the moment, however Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust campaign, #SmearForSmear, doesn’t seem to have taken off in quite the same way as other cancer awareness campaigns.
The idea behind the hashtag is to smear your lipstick across your face, post a picture, add the tag and share. The thing is, smearing lipstick across your face is a step beyond posting a picture of yourself with no makeup. It feels a lot like an organisation jumping on the social media bandwagon, trying too hard and not succeeding.
Then there are the statistics. In the past 10 years the numbers of women being diagnosed with cervical cancer has risen by almost 60%. That is a scary number, but anyone with half a brain will look at the information and say ‘OK, but is that because cases have increased, or because the number of people being tested has gone up?’ If it is the latter surely it’s not entirely bad, plus those statistics don’t tell us how many people survive after diagnosis.
The other big numbers statistic being bandied around is that the number of women getting tested has dropped by just over 10%. Dig a little deeper though and you find that both this and the previous statistic relates to women aged 25–29, if we’re talking numbers that’s 1.6% of those invited to be screened. The rate of decline in women getting tested, across the eligible age range over the past 10 years, is actually 2.9%.
In 2003 the age at which a woman becomes eligible for a cervical smear rose from 20 to 25. Another development was the introduction of the HPV vaccination for 11– to 12-year-olds, which protects against some types of cervical cancer. Add those factors together and it isn’t hard to see why young women might not rush to attend the first cervical screen they are invited to. Analytically, the numbers suggest that just over 10 % of women are simply failing to attend their first smear, that isn’t bad, considering.
Considering what? Considering a smear test is an intrusive, internal examination which isn’t so much painful as bloody uncomfortable. You lie down, legs akimbo while someone, usually a nurse your mother’s age, lubes you up, shines a floodlight up your fanny, and then has a good poke around scraping up some cells for testing, a feeling which reverberates around your body unlike anything else you are likely to experience.
I’m not trying to put anyone off having a smear test, nor do I advocate not having one. It’s a few moments of your life, if you can face it you should, because it’s definitely better than cancer.
However, attending a smear test is still a big deal for a lot of women and I appreciate that. The medical services it seems, do not. I cannot count the amount of times women get told it’s “no big deal” that they should basically suck it up and deal with it. That is wrong, that is what needs addressing by the organisations campaigning for women to attend screenings. How is it acceptable in 2015 for women to just be told to just get on with something so unbelievably intrusive?
I was 18 when I had my first smear test; it took place shortly after I started my first physical relationship. The whole thing was frankly still a bit scary. Having only just experienced what can be the enormity of a first sexual experience, I was asked to go through that process of the unknown again, this time with cold, metal, medical equipment and an unsmiling, rushed healthcare professional who didn’t ask me how I was but simply instructed me to “try and relax”. This was not my idea of “no big deal”. If I found it traumatic, imagine how it is for women who’ve had more negative experiences, for whom it is a trigger. Sadly, something far from uncommon.
I know the NHS is over-burdened, but if it wants to spot cervical cancer sooner, and minimise the more expensive treatment costs (and save lives), then it needs to change its attitude.
Women should have some kind of history taken before being asked to lie semi-naked on an examination table. Some effort should be made to establish the mental state of the woman who you are about to penetrate. Does that sound a little strong? Think about it this way, in any other situation doing that to a woman who really doesn’t want it to happen but feels she should, would be classed as violation. I’m not going to use that word, but it should be sitting on the edge of your thoughts.
Women going for a cervical screen are treated like cattle. No woman’s feelings should be marginalised because “everyone has to go through it”. They don’t, it is a choice, a choice that has potentially significant health costs if they choose not to go through with it, but a choice nevertheless. As a society we’re pushing towards global recognition that what a woman does with her body is her choice, yet the medical profession seem to think that they’re above that. It’s simply not good enough.
We don’t need another campaign pushing women to go for their smear test. 78% of women attend their cervical screen, when it comes to breast cancer only 55% of women regularly check their breasts. The number of women undergoing cervical cancer screening is relatively high. If charities pushing for women to get checked truly want to succeed, then they need more than a contrived hashtag. We desperately need greater understanding and support, we need women to feel involved and empowered in the process, otherwise the relatively small decline over the past 10 years will turn into a landslide as women start putting their collective foot down about their bodies.
#SmearFor Smear? No I will not. I will ask loudly that we stop smearing cervical screening with unreasonable expectations of women, and a lack of basic respect.
If you have a story about a difficult experience with the cervical smear, share it with the hashtag #StopTheSmearFear and let’s change the way we do this, it’s about people not numbers.
