Features - Lack Of Cervical Smear Testing Endangers Lives   

Mr Paul Carter, lead clinician at St Georges Hospital and other private London clinics, recently performed a life-saving hysterectomy on Shagufta Fayyaz, who had not had a smear test for over four years. What triggered her visit to her GP and subsequent smear test was out-of-cycle bleeding. The result was the discovery of a massive cancerous tumour and she was operated on within a week. All that was going through the head of the distressed woman at the time was, “Am I going to die?” “Who will care for my five girls when I’m gone?” However, this story has a happy ending and Shagufta is recovering and considers herself lucky to be alive. Shagufta is more than willing to share her story with the press to highlight the dangers of leaving cervical smear testing until it’s too late.

After television personality, Jade, died of cervical cancer last year, the amount of women coming forward for smear tests doubled but this has now levelled out, according to Mr Carter. He voices his concerns about women’s apparent lack of concern at not obtaining an up-to-date cervical smear test. He is also concerned that the new HPV vaccine will give women a false sense of security, and they will assume that they no longer need to have smear tests for cervical cancer. He goes on to say, “Of the women who present with cervical cancer, many have not had a smear for some years but, equally, it is well known that, of the women presenting with cancer, around half have had normal smears in the past. We are still seeing women on a weekly basis being diagnosed with advanced cancer, who have put off having their smears for nearly a decade and like everything else in life, time passes quickly and when they get reminders it's a case of “I'll get round to it soon” It’s important to get the message out there.”

Smear tests continue to be essential to detect cervical cancers and precancerous changes, even in women who have been vaccinated against HPVs. With the current statistics revealing that high incidents of cervical cancer are still present it is imperative that women are not lulled into a false sense of security and that cervical smear testing is forgotten about completely.

Mr Carter is available for further comments www.colposcopy-specialist.org.uk

Press release courtesy of www.health4media.com