Thank you for the timely reminder! I have not had cervical cancer myself but I did have a couple of precancerous readings back when I was about 20. I had to go through that painful freezing process (actually, it was the thawing that was painful) to kill the abnormal cells. I hope treatments are better now than they were 25+ years ago.

Minor digression but it is a feminist point. The doctor (male) that performed the procedure actually had the gall to tell me, "Oh, it doesn't hurt" when I started to cry from pain. Can you believe that someone who doesn't even have the same body parts would say that to a young woman in pain? He left the room and then the nurse (female) held my hand and said, "Don't listen to him, it hurts." Thank goodness for her.

Anyway, I'm happy to help raise awareness. I will be reminding my friends and family about screening and vaccination. Thanks!

Yep, yay for smears!

I'm in the UK and over here we have a cervical screening programme and every woman 25 or over is invited by the health service to have a smear test done every three years..it used to be 19 but they changed it a few years ago..I think they will go back to that age soon.

I put having my first one off for years (the age was 19 when I was that age) and didn't have my first one until I was 25..largely because of fear and embarrassment. I don't remember ever being told about it in school, and my only conscious memories about them were a very good but shouty comedian and his(!) routine about them which mainly revolved around cold speculums and his girlfriend saying it was like having a Ford Cortina up your fanny.

I eventually went and had one when my girlfriend of the time showed some symptoms which could have been an STI and I figured "while you're down there"...

I think some good solid education would definitely go a long way to dispelling the myths surrounding smears...I now work in a sexual health clinic and sometimes assist doctors and nurses with various procedures and I always try my best to put women at their ease as much as possible.

On a related note, I am disgusted by our government's recent decision to use the Cervarix HPV vaccine in the national vaccination programme, as are many of my medical colleagues. It seems nothing short of ridiculous that purely on the basis of cost (and probably to reduce the number of shouty Daily Mail headlines about encouraging under-age sex) to fail to protect young people from as many forms of HPV as possible, and provide immunity from genital warts. It is also similarly worrying that they are only vaccinating girls against HPV, without providing the extra safety that vaccinating boys would provide.

What is the situation regarding this in the US? Can people choose which one they want to get? Is it offered to everyone? Some schools in the UK (faith schools in the main) have refused to take part in the vaccination programme at all, and parents have the 'right' to refuse the vaccination on behalf of their daughters.

Bah, I'm a lot grumpier than I was when I started writing this! :(

There is no reason to advocate in-school vaccinations, in my opinion. I developed a rather horrible autoimmune illness in response to my vaccination, and wish I hadn't blindly accepted the recommendation to vaccinate.

I'm also not sure how 11% not getting a YEARLY pap smear is a 'blink'-worthy number. If this means 89% ARE getting a yearly test, I find that rather impressive.

And as for activism, telling a friend to get screened is not enough. I tried to get a pap smear a few years ago and could not get it covered by my insurance, could not afford to pay for it myself, and a free clinic was not available to me.

There's more to be done than to throw out some numbers without source or context, or blink and pause before chatting some more with your friends.

i refuse to have pap smears. they are painful and traumatic for me, thanks to a sexually abusive boyfriend. i hate being pushed to have these damn tests when it should be a personal decision. and the doctor (male or female) always says the same thing to me--"it can't hurt, it's smaller than a penis." yes it can hurt, it does hurt, why else would i be sobbing and telling you to stop and take the goddamn speculum out so i can leave?

and please do not respond to be my saying that i should just find the right doctor and talk about it. i have tried that and no matter who i have told about the trauma and pain that results, i get a shrug and the biggest damn speculum they can find. not only that, i have had doctors try to force me to have the breast exam and the bimanual exam, and those are ten times worse. i will never have another exam unless something is obviously wrong with me down there and i can be sedated or something. but just to go in every year and allow some random person hurt me and obviously not care that she/he is hurting me when there's nothing wrong with me? i absolutely will not.

also, about gardasil and whatnot, they're really not researched all that well and long-term effects are not known. a lot of people have had a terrible time with that shot.

I totally agree with Beth. I'm a virgin and people still tell me I need to get a pap smear after age 21 (not happening until I become sexually active). However, I was wondering, can you get birth control (like IUDs) without a pap smear if you're a virgin? I would like to prevent pregnancy right away and I don't need the damn smear test! BTW Planned Parenthood says virgins or nulliparious women can get IUDs too. End rant :) I hate being pushed around too, when I know it's unnecessary.