Lap date and smear test

[awillems]

I have received my lap date. It will be on the 7th of June.

Till so far my nerves are ok. More busy with everything that needs to be done before this date. But i expect to be really nerveus on the actual day.

I really hope i will finally get some answers. My worst fear is that they won't find anything.

Last Friday i had a smear test done, as a normal check up.

It took 3 attempts to have it finally done and each time it was really painfull.

I had it done 2 times before, but it was never that bad.

Could this be related to endo?

[Cloudyrain]

Yes very likely endo related. If you tell them you have endo and have problems they will use a smaller speculum instead. The problem, according to my nice new nurse, is a lot of the staff can't be bothered to keep stocked up with a selection and resort to the "one size fits all" method, when in reality a speculum needs to be sized smaller or bigger depending on personal circumstances.

If it makes any difference I find that it's more or less painful at certain times of the month (always worse in the two weeks before I start).

Good luck with your lap x

[Londongirl1]

Hi

I agree with Cloudy rain, I have to have smear tests every year because I had abnormal cells but didn't know I had Endo at the time. Every time I had a test I would be in pain for the rest of the day. Last year I knew I had Endo and told the nurse. I was very lucky because the nurse had worked in the clinic where I was about to have the Endo removed so was fantastic. She used different equipment and she was so quick and it didn't hurt during or after which was great. Why not tell the receptionist when you book or ask them to get the nurse to call you before you actually go in to make sure they have everything there for you.

Good luck for 7th and take care of yourself post op. xx

[awillems]

Hi,

Thank you both for your answers and support.

I had told the doctor that endo is suspected and that i was waiting on my lap to get it diagnosed. Appearantly she didn't decide to go for a smaller one. But it is a good one to ask for next time.

I did call the doctor back, to ask if she knew why it was hurting that bad. She told me that i have a tilted womb, which could make the test more difficult to perform. but I should not worry about it - it was very common.

She also mentioned if there would be endo,it could also be more painfull.

I checked the web about more information about a tilted womb and i read that it could be related to endo. Does anyone know more about it?

Anyway hopefully on the 7th i will have more answers than the questions right now.

[Chrissie66]

Hi

I don't know why, but I think many if not most of us on here (with endometriosis) have tilted wombs (which my phone just autocorrected to wombles!!! Tilted Wombles!! :D)

I don't know if we're just born that way or the adhesions associated with endo pull it out of position, but it's extremely common and only a problem when it comes to things like smear tests. Nothing to worry about

C x

[awillems]

Hi,

Thank you for your information.

Because of the whole situation with the last smear test i was just wondering about it. My doctor also told me not to worry about it. It was just that my 2 previous smear test were not as bad as the last one.

[Impatient]

Painful smears are definitely part and parcel of endo.

You can take pain killers before having smear and that might help, but even with that, for some of us it is too painful.

What a pity you didn't get them to do the smear when you had the op, then you wouldn't have known anything about it.

That was how I managed to have my first one in 20 odd years. Tried many times before but always too painful to complete.

After the op smear was dodgy, I was recalled to the GP, again failed to complete, so the GP referred me to the hospital gynae deprtment to have entonox (gas and air given to women in labour) and a strong pain killer before hand..and yay I managed to get through it.

YEs it still hurt, I won't lie and say it was easy , but it was easier, and i kept topped up on pain killers for a couple of days afterwards.

You can ask to be referred to the hospital gynae dept. for smears with entonox if it is too painful. It is your right to ask for this, so remember that for next time.

Meanwhile blow me down if I have been recalled yet again 1 year later for another smear.

My chin hit the floor when I opened the letter. Arghhhh here we go again, and I am still waiting for a scan on an ovarian cyst too (since November).

Smear traumas the bain of my life.

[awillems]

Hi,

Thank you for your tips and support.

Next week I should get the results of my smear test. I hope that because of all the problems the test was done correctly, don't really want to go through that again so quickly.