smear

[alison6399]

Hi

My friend has attempted to have her first cervical smear twice. The first time was unsuccessful, agony and she bled. The second time, the nurse was also painful and the nurse was unable to find her cervix!!!

Is this normal? My friend is getting reaaly concerned now and starting is starting to feel like a freak.

[ummmm]

How old is she?

Maybe she needs to relax.

[Sqad]

"Not being able to find the cervix" is a distinct disadvantage when taking a cervical smear. ;-)

Is it normal? Not in my experience unless your friend has had a total hysterectomy in which case she will not have a cervix.

Quite often, the uterus is retroverted (pointing backwards) and this pulls the cervix backwards as well......but it is still there.

Find another nurse.

[wolf63]

I had this problem a couple of years ago - the nurse said that she was having problems finding my cervix, then a doctor came in to have a try - by this time I was really tense and the doctor managed to cut/nick me (peeing hurt for a couple of days) they said that they would refer me to the gynae clinic.

I ended up going to the hospital to the colposcopy clinic. They managed to get the smear done first time with no pain or discomfort. However they did take time to help me relax.

Since then I have had no problems. Good luck to your pal.

[China Doll]

I've had the same problem for years, does your friend have polycystic ovarys by any chance? Apparently if you're a sufferer (like me) then you do experience more pain/discomfort during a smear test and it can be a little more difficult to find ourcervixs (God knows if this is medical fact but the nurse I use has said it's something she's noticed over the years and I suspect she's done it a few times now) I know that my wonderful nurse has written down how to do a smear test on me after years of me being nipped and prodded unneccessarily... SHe's pretty much the reason why my GP is in Dulwich and I live in Central London.