:laugh2:

2 years overdue on my smear, as the nurse they always give me is a ****ing butcher. Leaves me bleeding and sore for DAYS afterwards and tells me to 'man up' (seriously! :laugh: )

The only tolerable smear I ever had was done by a male doctor. But I feel a bit iffy asking for a man specifically. In my experience though, men are better at female intimate exams, maybe as they worry about hurting us because they..well dont have the equipment themselves? I have found female staff to be very 'oh its nothing, dont be silly'..possibly because THEIRS is nothing, so they assume thats universal or something?

Obviously that wont go for all male/female HCPs. Just my experience.

That's not right, smears shouldn't hurt, they're just uncomfortable. Never had a male Doctor do one but any female nurse/doctor that's done them on me have been very gentle and I've never bled afterwards

I know its not meant to bleed or be sore. Uncomfortable of course due to the nature, but not to that extent.

Our surgery seems to have designated the one butcher all smears. But our surgery is pretty crap anyway, I am sure you know from my many rants about them!

Agree

Especially now with stand up to Cancer raising money and awareness of how it's just 1 in 2 of us that will get cancer , it's a horrible disease that affects most people.

correct it should be uncomfortable but not hurt you, I have had a male doctor do it with a nurse present, and a female doctor and all were miles better than the nurse with her road map

Mammograms are fine, like, it's a tiny bit uncomfortable but honestly it feels worse when my cat walks on my boob. I didn't find having a smear test that bad either but I trust my GP and she was the one who did it, so I guess it could definitely be uncomfortable if you didn't feel like you were in a good environment.

At least the unfunny original post spurred a productive and educational conversation,

**** until womans day.:shrug: