Hi, can I please ask how your next smear went after the first one was so painful.  I had mine booked this week but it was so painful the nurse said she couldn't do it.  She has booked me in a couple of week time to try again and said I needed to learn to relax.  I'm 61 and post menopausal and never had difficulty with smears until my last one, the first one post menopause.  The nurse used a smaller instrument and like you got me to put my fists under my bum but it didn't help.  I wonder if I can ask next time to lubricate the instrument but it was so painful.  I also consider myself to have a hight threshold for pain and have been able to tolerate other medical precedures that have been painful but I couldn't continue with this one.  I'm anxious about my next one in 2wks time and just though you may be able to offer me some advice.  Many thanks

Hi! So sorry to hear you have similar problems to me, I fully understand where you're coming from. I actually had my yearly smear just 2 weeks ago. I made sure to advise the nurse that previously I was told my cervix was "hiding" - just to make it more helpful for her. She managed to get it quicker than I've ever experienced! Don't get me wrong, it was still painful BUT because she was able to do it in under a minute I could bare it a lot more. I did read (and believed it helped) that doing a few jumps before you lay down helps to jiggle your organs around a bit, so I think that helped? Also, this time I had zero shame, I lay there with my legs wide apart (my surgery don't have stirrups) and relaxed as much as possible, in fact, I was counting the ceiling tiles. 
I also talked away to the nurse while she was doing it just so I had something to focus on. I haven't yet got my results but I'm praying for good news! 
 

My best advice is to prep the nurse with any info you have (such as cervix hiding/tiled cervix etc) so they go in knowing what they are looking for. It's never pleasant but you got this! Remember, 5-6 big (silly) jumps before lying down, I believe that's what helped! Xx 

Hi, thanks for you reply.  I've been thinking about have a zero shame approach to and just tell the nurse I want to stick my legs in the air as I think that may be easier.  I have been inserting a vagirux pessery for the last month to make my vagina more moist and this is about 8inches long and I have no issue with this.  Granted it is only a single plastic inserter but I stand and put one leg up on the toilet seat and then bend forward and it slides up (sorry for the details :-)) so I'm thinking this may be the approach I take when lying down.  I am really wondering if they haven't changed the procedure somehow as I've never known them to be this painful.  Thanks for the big jumps suggestion, which I'll try.  Fingers crossed I'll get through it at the end of the month.  

The perks of being a woman!! For me the insertion of the speculum wasn't an issue, but because she couldn't find my cervix she had to move it side to side & up and down while inside of me. It felt like my body just wanted to force it out, a really difficult pain to describe :( 

i wish there was something available to relax women and to perhaps numb us a bit, but we're all just expected to "get on" with it unfortunately. I bet if it were men by now there would be some magical way of doing it to ensure it's pain free! Lol.

You'll be grand, and it sounds like you've had to do far worse to yourself! I think the fact the control isn't in our hands while it's being done etc is very off putting (physiologically)! Make sure they have all the info on what you've been having to do, and the your last smear was incredibly painful for you.. I find this helps to prepare them. Good luck, and I'd love to hear how you get on!x

Many thanks for your reply.  Yes, the joys of being a woman.  I agree, if mean had to go through this they would probably be admitted to hospital, put under a general anaestitic and kept overnight following it to ensure they suffered no lasting effect. :wink:

I can't see why they can't numb your pelvic area in some way for those that have difficulty.  

I'll keep my fingers crossed for the next time and will let you know if it is a success (if you know what I mean :-))

Hello everyone,

I am so so so happy to come across this thread. I had my very first smear yesterday morning, it was very painful and I am still in pain now.

a little bit of back story-

im 26, have a 2 year old girl. Following my birth I suffered a uterine inversion caused by a doctor(proven) which then lead to another uterine inversion a few months later, so yes I've had 2.. yay haha! 
following this my whole uterus had to be cut in half and put back in aswell as the whole of my cervix cut and re-stitched the whole way around, aswell as a prolapsed urethra but we will not go into that! So basically-  a lot of trauma and therefor the thought of anything going on down there or a smear, not really a big fan of.

i knew I desperately needed one anyway so I went, assuming it was a swab not a torture device stated to be 'a gentle brush' I asked for a doctor considering my history but was refused, alerted the nurse to my history which was all okay and she was happy to proceed or Atleast try(nurse was absolutely lovely by the way) 

needless to say, very painful considering my cervix is already severely scarred. 
she did say I bled a lot which means the test will probably come back inconclusive and I'll have to have it done again in 3 months but to be completely honest, will the same exact thing not happen again given my history? I'd assume so. 
i had cramping straight after to which she told me was not normal so queue me panicking my uterus is falling out again haha! 

even now, I'm lying here and as I'm sensitive to every single pain in that region since everything(I can feel ovulation and everything, I can literally pinpoint it if I'm honest) I can literally feel my cervix aching, it hurts even trying to go to the toilet(the back end sorry!) 

reading this whole thing has managed to calm me down in my Google rabbit hole this evening of thinking my whole uterus is falling out again! So thank you ladies for showing me that even though I probably am alone in the uterine inversion side of things, I am not alone in excruciating smear tests!! 
 

like all of you, I really haven't a single clue where to go from here! I suppose I will find out in a few weeks if I have to do this all over again, I'm just hoping given my history I might be able to snag a referral and GA to get it done but even then, I will probably bleed too much for a conclusive result. 
 

Wishing you all, all the luck in the world..

rebecca

So glad to see this thread. I've had a couple of very difficult attempts at a smear test where they've had to give up. Both times the nurses were very patient but I felt like it was just me who struggled with it. Helpful to know I'm not the only one! 

Hi I was wondering after the procdure was over did you feel any discomfort once the anesthetic had worn off?

Your stories all sound very familiar to me. I used to be ok with smears but through my 40s and 50s they've got more and more painful, especially as my cervix now does its best to hide away. However, there is hope.  I've just had a smear today, a year after my previous one revealed hpv. I was absolutely dreading this one because the last few have been excruciatingly painful but this one wasn't as bad.  So here's what helped:

I had vaginal oestrogen pesssaries for 2 weeks before the smear test to make the vagina less sensitive. 

I took paracetamol regularly, starting the morning of the day before the smear test, on the suggestion of a doctor. This builds up the amount of painkiller in the body and is way more effective than just taking a couple an hour before the test.

I had 2 x 5mg diazepam tablets prescribed and took one the day before and one an hour before the test. Again, it lingers in the body for a while and I felt much more relaxed.

I was VERY lucky to have an understanding, skilled and patient nurse. She let me insert the speculum, we tried different positions and I ended up on my side with one leg in the air! She also rotated the speculum so it opened differently which helped. The long, thin one was better than the shorter one as she didn't have to push it in so far and it found my reluctant cervix.

I know not everyone will be able to or want to take medication or have such a supportive practitioner but do insist on whatever can be done to help you and keep going to different doctors until you find one who will listen. The pain is real so don't let anyone tell you you're making a fuss about nothing.  

I wish you all well and hope we will soon have a less painful way of screening.