Category: Life

I had my colposcopy on Monday. Petrified wasn’t quite the word I would have used to describe it. What’s worse than petrified? Well, I was that. Double scared. After the LLETZ last time, I wasn’t looking forward to having it a second time around and I’d convinced myself it was going to happen. Plus that whole HPV positive thing really puts a dampener on things, you know? In case you’re not all caught up, here’s a little bit of background. I had my second ever smear at 28, and it…

Well, it happened. I got some results. They weren’t good ones. HPV positive… plus some other stuff. For those of you who are new to the site I had my second ever smear just under a year ago, and it came back with high grade dyskaryosis. Following that I had a colposcopy and LLETZ to remove the cells with a follow-up in six months time. Well, I’ve just had that follow-up. This time – low grade dyskaryosis. The bad cell changes are back, only this time they are minor. OK,…

When I went for the smear, the nurse asked me what I had understood about my last lot of tests, examinations and procedures. My answer? Not very much. Everything I learned, I learned from Google and the women who had answered questions on my blog. At no point did anyone really explain to me what was going on. I wasn’t told what CIN meant. I definitely wasn’t told what CIN 3 meant. I read everything from “Stage 0 Cervical Cancer” to “It’s nothing to worry about”. She was shocked. Even…

Right, peeps, this post isn’t going to be a pretty one. It’s about life after LLETZ, and you’re not going to want to read it – but you should. I’m going to tell you my story of what happened once I was diagnosed with High-Grade Dyskaryosis, before then having a colposcopy, and requiring a procedure called LLETZ — Large Loop Excision of the Transformation Zone. Also known as LOOP, it is invasive and pretty painful even though they say it won’t be. You can read more about the actual procedure…

So, it’s taken me a little while to write about this, mostly because it’s actually a pretty terrifying thing for any woman to go through. After already broaching the topic of cervical cancer and some pretty suspect symptoms along the way with a doctor, and being laughed out of the GP’s office, I had put the thought of it all to the back of my mind. I went for my routine three-yearly smear and within six days I’d received a letter – “High grade dsykaryosis”. (See previous blog post) I…

So, I’d seen the #SmearForSmear campaign online, and I figured it was about time that I went and booked my smear test. Fast-forward a few weeks, I was sitting in the stirrups, trying not to fart with fear.  “Wait two weeks for the results,” the vagina-hunter told me. “If you’ve not been sent a letter in that time, give your GP a call.” Less than seven working days after I had my smear, I got a letter. “There were some changes to some of the cells in your cervix called…