Brief
Undignified. gif. Traumatic. Terrifying. Excruciating.
Smear tests can be traumatic. In fact, they're awful for the vast majority of women and especially so for survivors of sexual violence.
Nevertheless, early detection of cervical cancer vastly improves survival rates. So it's a worrying statistic that 1 in 3 women in the UK currently don't attend their smear test invitation, with this as high as 1 in 2 in some areas of the country.
The biggest barrier: lack of public conversation about smear tests, what they're for and why you should attend. In fact, when women are surveyed about how they...