Don’t put off your cervical smear test – it can save your life

NINE of us are diagnosed with cervical cancer every day, and two die from the disease. 

But fewer than one in two in parts of England are attending free life-saving cervical smear tests.

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To mark Cervical Cancer Prevention Week, the charity Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust is urging women to attend their NHS screening to save lives.

Kate Sanger, head of policy at the charity, said: “We would urge all those who can attend to go and get tested.

“Numbers have never picked up since Covid, when screening stopped in parts of the UK and people found it harder to go out and get tested.

“There are many reasons women are still not going.

“Some are scared or embarrassed, some are juggling work and other commitments. 

“But these tests are vital. They can prevent cancer.” 

HPV virus

Cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer in women globally and around 3,000 cases are diagnosed each year in Britain.

If it is spotted early, 95 per cent of people diagnosed with stage one cervical cancer survive at least five years.

This falls to 15 per cent for those diagnosed at stage four.

But with the correct screening, world health chiefs say it is possible to end cervical cancer completely within a century.

Women aged 25 to 64 are invited for smear tests at their GP surgery every three to five years.

But just 69.9 per cent were screened last year — a drop from 75.1 per cent a decade ago.

And take-up is lowest among women in their twenties, highest in their forties.

The number of vaccines given to protect against the cancer-causing Human Papilloma Virus has also fallen off.

The vaccines are offered in a two-dose course to 12 and 13-year-olds, between years eight and ten of school.

Five years ago, 87 per cent were double-vaccinated in England by year ten of school. Now that is just 70 per cent. In Wales last year, it was only 55 per cent.

Policy chief Kate added: “It’s really important that the drop in uptake is addressed.

“Otherwise, there are groups of girls and women at greater risk of cervical cancer.”

Covid also had a huge impact on HPV as schools were locked down.

Now school nurses are still under pressure from the backlog.

To help eliminate the disease, the World Health Organisation wants to see 90 per cent of girls fully vaccinated by age 15, and 70 per cent of women under 35 screened by 2030. 

Vaccination can slash the chances of contracting the HPV virus by 90 per cent, according to academics. 

Those who miss it at school can ask, at their GP, any time up until their 25th birthday.

Karen Hobbs, of charity The Eve Appeal, said: “The fewer children getting the HPV vaccine now, the fewer adults there will be who have protection against HPV-related cancers in future.”

But an Eve Appeal and YouGov survey found three in ten adults had never heard of HPV and fewer than half of 18 to 24-year-olds knew it could raise their risk of cervical cancer. 

The charity also found that only half of women would encourage friends to attend their smear test and almost a fifth said a bad past experience had put them off going again. 

Fifteen per cent said it was too hard to get there, 13 per cent didn’t see it as a priority and 13 per cent were too embarrassed to go.

At-home swabs, like Covid tests, have been piloted in parts of the UK as an alternative to surgery smear tests.

Kate said: “There’s demand for at-home screening among medics, and other countries have introduced this with positive results.”

A ‘monumentally poor choice’ to skip screening

GERALDINE WALSH had never attended a smear test before she started experiencing cervical cancer symptoms in her early thirties.

Now 37, the HR specialist, from Hampshire, who was diagnosed with the disease in January 2017, said it was a “monumentally poor choice” to skip the life-saving screenings.

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Geraldine said: “I was healthy, nobody I knew had cervical cancer and I wrongly thought I wasn’t at risk.

“I should have gone.”

She was diagnosed with stage one cancer and required two operations after experiencing pain as well as bleeding, particularly during and after sex.

She booked in for a smear test where her cancer was detected and she was referred for tests and treated. 

Geraldine said: “I was exactly the person that all the campaigns are aimed at but I ignored the advice. 

“Now I tell anyone, go for your smear and if you’re eligible get your HPV vaccine.

“This cancer is preventable and you should take any opportunity given to take your health into your own hands.”