Cervical Screening awareness week 2021

I’m on a waiting list for the waiting list at our doctors for a smear test 

Hi Dizzy123,

Thank you for getting in touch. I hope it's not a long wait for your next smear test, i'm sure if there are any cancellations they will be in touch. Sometimes waiting for appointments can be hard so the Community is here to support you if you'd find it helpful to start a discussion in the group and talk about how your feeling. 

You may have seen already that the 'Overcoming smear fear' blog has ben published in the Community News blog.

We'd like to take a moment to say thank you to those who emailed their tips and suggestions to the team, I'm sure other members will find them useful. I hope you will too . 

Best wishes, 

Megan
Macmillan's Online Community Team

This is a worry for me. As a person that has gone through intense Radiotherapy on the pelvic area for anal cancer my vagina has been zapped so much that I'm now trying to even get the first step of dilator! Is it possible to still be investigated for cervical cancer without the usual way? 

Hi Mecca,

Thank you for replying to the post, I’m sorry to hear that you're coping with these worries just now so I’m glad you are posting on the forum to get some support.  

It’s a really good question that you ask about alternative screening options and this is something you may want to speak to our Nurses about as they will be able to provide information and guidance about this. They can also talk through your concerns and experience using a dilator to see if there is anything that can be done to help with this.  

It might also be worth talking to your GP or Nurse when booking your screening test to make them aware of how you're feeling and the concerns you have. There may be things they can do to help. 

There are conversations in our Community forums about using dilators and if you would like to have a read if you haven’t already.  If you go to the homepage and search ‘dilators’ in the search bar at the very top of the page in the green banner.

When you press enter after inputting your keyword, this will bring up all related content on the site relating to those words and you can filter them by using the options on the left-hand side.

Whilst I hope that the Overcoming smear fear with the Online Community blog can provide some reassurance to you, you’re welcome to speak to the Information Nurses on the Macmillan Support Line, or in our Ask a Nurse section on the Community.

If you wanted to post your question here, the Nurses will aim to get back to you within 3 days, or you can call them on the Support Line Number 0808 808 00 00 from 8am-8pm every day.

Please don’t hesitate to email the Community Team directly to Community@macmillan.org.uk if you need some further support.