Voices: Why aren’t women having smear tests?

msn.com:

smear test. To give her credit, my nurse has made me comfortable throughout, but there needs to be a bit of chit chat to avoid any weird silences and she’s latched onto something she’s seen in my notes: I’m a journalist.

She asks what I write about, and I tell her that I often write about health issues. “You should write about cervical cancer,” she tells me. “The rates of women coming for a smear is dropping.

It’s hard to get anyone through the door. ”The test is free at the point of access and can prevent late diagnosis of what is a devastating disease.

In the UK, every person registered as female with their GP called for screening every three years from the age of 25 to 50, then every five years until 65 when the risk of cancer plummets.