My Smear Experience – #smearforsmear story

Last year, I had my first Smear Test and it didn’t go to plan. To raise awareness and to remind all of you to go for your smear. If you know someone who has smears then remind them to go. It could save their life!

Believe it or not, I had 3 children before I had my first smear. You have your first smear when you are 25 year old and seeing as I had my children when I was under 25, I didn’t have one until almost a year after my 3rd child. I had seen videos of other women having their smear and to be honest, I wasn’t that worried about it. I have had 3 children, 2 of which were a c-section and I think you care less about things like a smear after you have a baby but maybe that is just what I think.

As for my actually experience with having a smear. It went ok. It didn’t hurt and there was no bleeding afterwards. I know some people say that it hurts and that you can bleed but of course, everyone is different. One thing I do want to say is that you shouldn’t let the idea that it may hurt from stopping you having a smear. If you are seriously anxious about having this test done, whether that be about the possible pain involved or just the whole scenario, make sure to look into how to remedy this. For example, natural remedies such as CBD can help to both calm anxieties and suppress any pain you might experience – learn more about this via CFAH.org

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A smear can save your life as it can detect cancerous cells and abnormalities that could be cancer or turn in to cancer so it is important to have it whenever you GP calls you for it.

When I went for my smear, I thought that my result would come back normal.

I had symptoms. Nothing.

Yet my results came back with HPV present. The silver lining is that it hasn’t turn into cancer cells. HPV is common and about 8 out of 10 people will get it in their lifetime. There is low risk HPV and high risk HPV. I have high risk HPV. High risk is linked to cancer. .

Usually your body will get rid of HPV on its own. There are 13 types of HPV linked to cancer and they are known as high risk.

Due to having high risk HPV, I have to get another smear 12 months after my last so in around 6 months, I have to get another.

It was scary to receive that letter. I was expecting it to come back as normal so it took me a few days to get my head around it. It is ok though. I will get another smear in 6 months and hope for the best.

When I was at high school, I did have the HPV vaccine but it protects 7 out of 10 cases of cervical cancer. You should still have the vaccine though as it can help prevent cancer too and you want to try everything that you can to prevent it. We want to catch anything before it develops so it is easier to treat.

I will do an update blog post on my next smear test after I have had it. Fingers crossed that the HPV is gone!