They called me ‘stupid’, ‘vain’ and ‘ridiculous’ for not having smear tests

I experienced stigma around cervical smears, from a local group of women who thought anyone who didn’t have the smear test was stupid, vain, and ridiculous.

For me, the smear experience is so painful the nurses told me not to proceed. It caused a lot of bleeding last time, as well as flaring up my bladder. The nurses eventually said they couldn’t do it.

I would “have to go to hospital,” they said, “or give it a miss and ask to be removed from the register”. I’m not going into hospital for that. By trying to force it, they might do more harm than good.

My risk of cervical cancer is now incredibly low — it’s been almost 20 years since I had sex. But when I sat in a WI Meeting last year, the ladies were discussing a campaign called ‘Don’t Fear the Smear’ and it riled me.

They sat in fierce judgement of women who don’t have smears calling them, ‘stupid’, ‘vain’ and ‘ridiculous’. I kept my gob shut and didn’t renew my membership.