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Last month, a UK cancer charity warned that a lack of knowledge about options to make cervical screening tests easier and more comfortable is costing lives. In order to find out what having this test done is really like for first-timers, the BBC spoke to six people who have had their first cervical screenings in the past six months. The NHS offers cervical screenings to all women and people with a cervix, and tests for the presence of certain types of human papillomavirus (HPV), which causes 99% of cervical cancers. One nurse uses a speculum, a tool to open the vagina, and a brush to take a sample of cells from the cervix.
The interviewees had widely differing experiences. Erica Donnelly, who lives in Sunderland, waited about a year before booking her screening test, as she experienced PTSD relating to sexual trauma. Bianca Ionici, who lives in London, had delayed her cervical screening for at least two years because of concerns about pain. Eleanor Gratton had hers done at the end of last year at the age of 25, and said her friends feared it would be “uncomfortable and painful,” until they had their own tests and found this was untrue.
Some interviewees found the test uncomfortable or painful. Others said the test was over before they knew it or that the fact they’d
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