Why are women avoiding the Pap smear?

THE mere thought of it can be enough to make you squeeze your legs shut. But the only thing scarier than opening your legs with the lights on is what could happen if you don’t.

Thing every woman hates talking about

WHY are women avoiding the Pap smear? Well for starters the word ‘smear’ is involved. Gross. Let’s get one thing straight — the only thing that should ever be ‘smeared’ is excessive amounts of peanut butter on your toast.

But it’s not just the horribly vivid terminology, the process itself can be pretty nerve wracking. The mere thought of a Pap smear can be enough to bring on sudden anxiety, especially the first time around.

When you’re a first-timer, the scariest part of all is not knowing exactly what you have to be scared about. Will it hurt? How big is the stick? They put it where? Exactly when does the whole ‘smear’ part occur?

I first found out about Pap tests when I was about eight. I vaguely remember asking my mum why she went to the doctor’s and her sheepishly replying ‘for something yucky that only mummy’s have to do’. As a child this both intrigued and terrified me but now as an adult, I realise my mum was only half right. She was bang on about the ‘yucky’ part but it’s not just ‘mummys’ that need to count themselves in. In fact the Cancer Council recommends that every woman have regular Pap tests once they’re sexually active for two years or when they hit 18.

I guess I had an inkling what this weird ‘yucky’ thing my mum had told me about as a kid was. I figured even back then that it must have something to do with the place babies came from, judging by the awkwardness in her voice (not the cabbage patch apparently).

Even as a young adult in my first few years of high school, Pap tests were never something I could openly discuss with my friends. I had lots of questions (is it really a Paddle Pop stick they use?) but nobody to ask them to. Although I was pretty open with my friends about everything else, weirdly this mysterious topic seemed inappropriate to talk about, like it was something that didn’t really concern us.

I even remember a male teacher at my school leaving the classroom while we were informed that the HPV vaccine was available to us for free in a few weeks time. I guess it made him uncomfortable to talk about or he decided to allow ‘secret women’s business’ to remain exactly that.

The National HPV Vaccination Program was introduced in 2007 for girls after being proven to significantly reduce cervical cancer diagnoses and abnormal Pap test results and I count myself lucky to have scraped in (oh the irony) to be included during my final year at school.

The uneasy answer my mum gave me all those years ago warned me to shut up and stop asking questions. And in a lot of ways, society has taught us the same. Pap smears are too confronting to talk about in public, even though the majority of women are having them. Instead, we’ve been taught to whisper quietly among our lady friends for fear of making those around us uncomfortable.

There’s such an unnecessary stigma that I decided to have an entire camera crew follow me onto the doctor’s table and filmed every moment of my latest Pap smear. Was it confronting? At first yes, but it didn’t take long to feel really calm about the whole two minutes a Pap test usually takes.

What’s way more confronting is the fact cervical cancer is more than 10 times more common in countries without cervical cancer screening programs than in Australia. Cervical cancer can be effectively treated when it is found early. Most women with early cervical cancer will be cured.

The only thing scarier than opening your legs with the lights on is what could happen if you don’t.

Kristie Mercer is one half of The Thinkergirls — who love to chat about all the thoughts you’re thinking but not saying. This topic was discussed in Thinkergirl: The Podcast and you can see the girls live for one night only in Melbourne — Friday Sept 4. Or find the girls on Facebook or Youtube.