5 minutes that could save your life!

Believe me, the prostate test does save lives!!! My DH is an example.

I was going for my smear and told DH that, at 59, he ought to have a PSA for prostate cancer. He told me not to be so silly, that he had no symptoms, that he got up twice a night, but then so did I and I don't have a prostate, yadda, yadda, yadda. Neverthelss, I booked an appointment for his [blood] test at the same time as my [invasive] smear!

It cam back with a very high PSA, he was sent for all the tests, he had the invasive type. Since then he has had a radical prostatectomy, radiation, hormone treatment and is very well, although he will never be in remission.

Had I not insisted on the test, he would have been long dead.

Hurray for PSAs! and, bless him, he puts his survival on my insisting on him being tested at the same time as me.

having had a total hysterectomy at 47 because of ovarian cancer i had everything "taken out" [i'd had my tubes removed several years before because of an ectopic pregnancy in one and problems with the other] so i've not had a smear test since then [i'm now 68]. thankfully the cancer was completely removed and i didn't have to have any further treatment as it was caught in the very early stages.

it's all thanks to my gp and the hospital for getting everything sorted out - i don't think i'd be here now if my gp hadn't sent me to the hospital when he did!

but i would urge everyone to have a smear test for as long as you can - cancer is horrible and the repercussions from it can be devastating both on you and your family - the same goes for mammograms! i make sure i go to my appointments and will still book myself in when my "time limit" for them is reached.

although i've yet to do one of those bowel cancer tests - i'm not able to retrieve a sample several days running [won't go into too much detail] and so i'm waiting for a test which can be done at the hospital [i think it's being trialled at the moment].

The last time I went it was really uncomfortable. The nurse had trouble trying to find my cervix which had sort of slipped back and I was having problems with the Atrophic Vaginintis and was quite sore.
Horrible.

It must be a postcode thing because they nurse told me last week that as I will be over 65 when due in five years this would be the last time they called me.
Badenkate you've made up my mind. I've never had symptoms so at 62 I won't bother with a third attempt.

I've not had a smear test for over 20 years, since having a hysterectomy which removed everything, including the cervix . Mind you, I've often wished I hadn't had it, given the knock on effects of everything in that area - bladder, bowel etc, shifting and settling into different positions afterwards .

I had an appointment for my routine smear test this morning at 08.30. On Friday I was sent a text cancelling my appointment as the nurse had rung in sick for Monday (on Friday is she clairvoyant). I was not offered another appointment- I rang the surgery and rebooked myself but waited quite a long time on the phone no wonder women fall through the net.

I had my last one at 61 so thats 6yrs ago , I never had a worrying result and no symptoms of anything so I haven't bothered since. I believe you can request one if you want at your GP's surgery.

Hi nina. I've just done a google search on painful smear tests, and believe me, you're not alone. I had my last one done at 60 - 8 years ago. I was told that they didn't recall after that. I'd never had any negative results, and I've not noticed any problems since. It is up to you and how confident you'd feel if you didn't go again. Personally, it hasn't worried me in the slightest.

The cut off is 65.

Gosh , I had one 2 years ago and was told that next year's smear test would be my last one as they stop offering them at 60 years old !

I went for my smear in November. The nurse couldn't get a sample. I was prescribed hormone pessaries for 2 mths and went for a second try last week, she still couldn't get a sample and it was bloody painful and sore for a couple of days afterwards both times. I'm 62 tomorrow so she said it was up to me if I wanted to be referred to a hospital clinic. I can't decide.

BadenKate I am with you all the way. About 5 years ago, I went to my doctor with some worrying symptoms, she could find nothing obviously wrong but equally obviously felt she had to do something, not sure why. I had a battery of tests including a CT scan that produced no explanation for my original symptoms but discovered two minor physical problems, both of which dated back years. One was the internal 'scarring' from a childhood problem that had been sorted when I was 13. Both conditions symptomless, non-progressive and not requiring medication.

The result? I now have an annual medical check to check that they have not got 'worse', no they haven't, why should they? Plus having to explain to health insurance companies all about the tests, the symptoms and ending up with extra exclusions put on my health insurance.

I wish the doctor had been happy with the usual blood and urine tests and monitoring the symptoms, that disappeared of their own accord after a few months. the battery of tests revealed nothing useful and have just caused me problems.

There seems to be a wide-ranging debate at the moment about testing apparently healthy people for diseases for which they have no symptoms. The concern is that there are a significant number of people who undergo further, possibly invasive, tests which can have associated stress or even serious medical repercussions for what turn out to be false positives. I know that the test for prostate cancer, for example, was desgned for confirming a diagnosis, not detecting it, and that the scientist responsible is very unhappy about the way that it is now being used. The argument, I guess, is that tests should be used to confirm diagnosis from symptoms, not haphazardly search for possible problems. Of course, there is now a lot of money involved in persuading people to have a whole battery of tests.
Don't know how other people feel?

Woman's Hour this morning - a scientist talking about how smears should be phased out as the vast majority of cervical cancers arise from HPV (Human papilloma virus) - the idea is to test for this but I was not clear as to how this might be done. At present there are a lot of repeat smears and minor surgeries that could be avoided. She was of course encouraging parents to make sure their teenage girls had the free HPV immunisation at school.

Apparently the number of Cervical cancers that are not related to HPV are vanishingly small.