Love Your Vaj!

Do you want to share your smear experience? Are you worried about having your first one? Have you had an abnormal smear result?

Talk to other Company readers here and join our campaign. If you do we will send you one of our limited edition 'Love Your Vaj' Badges – keep checking your company.co.uk inbox for details on how to claim yours!

I put it off for years, much to the disgust of my mother, sisters and friends. Then a friend got abnormal results and she had to have further tests done and a biopsy which was one of her worst experiences. She got the all clear and I still felt justified in my decisions that she had gone through all that for nothing. She made me wake up when she said that for all the unpleasantness, having the tests may have saved her life. DO IT.....Better the devil you know right?

Completely agree with the above comment! It may be unpleasant but I will definitely have one done if it is a life saver
xxxx

I had my 1st smear a yr ago after breaking up with my 1st serious boyfriend. Combined with going to the nurse and GUM clinic for all the necessary checks I could say it was intrusive.....embarrassing........but I'm glad I went and although it's not the best thing in the world.....it could save your life. My sis had to have cells lasered off so I know the risks and benefits of going for them. If you're nervous go with a friend/family member who has already had one or more done. they can reassure you (I hope!!) and make u feel less nervous. Knowing your life could've been saved just by taking them time for a small inconvenience is not a price worth paying. Xx

It's just so worth doing if it could save your life. Once I turn 25 I am doing it.

Don't be ashamed ladies!

I just read the arcticle in the magazine and think this is a great campaign; I hope it encourages more ladies to go for a smear.

I've grown up with a very healthy attitiude towards smear tests and other "ladies things" thanks to having an amazing mum who was always willing to talk to me openly about "embarrassing" subjects that my friends didn't always feel comfortable speaking to their mums about.

I also went through the upset of seeing my best frined lose her mum at a young age to ovarian cancer. My friend and I were 11 at the time and I didn't really understand what had been wrong, other than that it was cancer and she'd had it in her lady parts. When my own mum said she was going for something called a smear test to make sure she was healthy down there, I was very happy because I didn't want her to get sick like my friends mum had. Even though Sue died of ovarian cancer and not cervical, it still stood out to me that us ladies need to look after ourselves down there, and my mum being so open and relaxed about her smear test made me feel confident to book mine when the letter arrived not long after my 20th birthday (I turned 20 not long before the age for your first smear test was raised to 25).

I've had 3 smear tests now, and I always book right away when I get that letter. It's not the nicest way to spend 5 minutes and I'd rather NOT have a stranger poking around my lady garden, but it doesn't hurt and I've never had a bad experience and don't have any horror stories to share.

If anyone reading this is worried about a smear test I'd encourage them to please bite the bullet and book. Love your Vaj ladies!

PS: I call mine, "the badger." It's a long story

Being a younger person who hasn't experienced this yet, I think it's really good that it's being talked about rather than being avoided because it's an uncomfortable subject, we haven't been told much about it in school and anything we have been told is pretty negative but as something we all have to go through it's good to have some more information although It's probably not the best way to spend an afternoon in the long run it could save your life and surely that's worth more than a little awkwardness

I'm 21 years old and when my twentieth birthday came along I got THE letter through I was soo nervous and I didn't want to go. But my mum got her letter through a few months later saying she was due a check up so we booked an appointment to go the doctors together. This is such a good idea if you are scared of going even if you have a friend that would go with you. I kind of thought it was pointless and there was no way there was anything wrong with me. I do feel like you should be given more information when you get told you should go because I don't think I fully understood. So I waited for my results for a month which felt like a year because my mum had already had hers they finally came in and I got told I had abnormal cells they quickly booked me an appointment at the colposcopy clinic the women where lovely even though I cried whilst they did the biopsy not because of pain but because I was just a nervous wreck they kept my mind off things and really cheered me up they then explained everything I needed to know. I had a letter again a few weeks later saying they where going to do the treatment I had a loop excision it didn't hurt exept for some period pain feeling for a few days. I have to Say I was so relieved I had gone and have made sure I've told all girls my age my story. It hasn't even been 6 months and I've made an appointment at the clinic again because I'm having the symptons again like bleeding and abdominal pain. I am chuffed to see a brilliant campaign in my favourite magazine I'm joining the cause and hope many women everywhere realise ten minutes of there time could save their life

Definitely, definitely go. No need to be embarrassed; the doctors have seen 'em all before (and if they were really that interested in what ladybits looked like they'd have pictures of vajayjays all over their PC hard drives instead of the standard women with huge boobs.) Painful? Well... can be mildly uncomfortable, but nowhere near as fun-free as cervical cancer, and certainly doesn't take anywhere near as long to do. I don't exactly love having them myself; I tend to end up holding my breath because I worry that if I breathe out too hard I'll fire the thing out across the room and embed it in the opposite wall - "She's back - the Woman with the Super-Powered Vaj...!!"

(For god's sake don't think that while you're having it done - it might make you want to laugh, which won't help matters!)

...But after having to undergo laser treatment on my cervix for abnormal cells at the age of just 24 (way less 'fun' and takes longer than a smear test) it's an inconvenience I'll happily put up with. It's five minutes of your life, every few years or so. That's less intrusive than a Jeremy Kyle show!

Agree with everything said here - so important to go and get it done, and I hope eventually they lower the age too.

I remember hearing a discussion on the news about the possible introduction of home kits. Really not sure about this, as I would have thought it's quite a tricky thing to get right.

Anyone else heard about this?