Call to lower Cervical Check screening age: '25 is too long to wait to have your first smear'
Independent senator Eileen Flynn said she wants to 'empower women to get their smear tests and not to ignore them and not to be ashamed'. File picture: Shane O'Neill
The State should consider lowering the age for women to avail of Cervical Check screening, an independent senator has urged.
Currently, smear tests are not recommended for women aged under 25, but Senator Eileen Flynn said women who give birth younger than 25 or are sexually active should be able to access the Cervical Check service, regardless of age.
“We’ve got young women at 15 and 16 having children and I think everyone should be offered a smear after they have their first child regardless of their age,” she said. “I think 25 is too long a wait to have your first smear.”
Ms Flynn said greater awareness is needed around addressing the stigma associated with the human papillomavirus (HPV), revealing that she felt “dirty” after a recent diagnosis.
She is awaiting LLETZ treatment in January after a smear test showed she had an abnormal biopsy.
The senator is also awaiting further examination of the womb next month.
Her smear test and further tests in August confirmed she had HPV and cell changes, and was told her abnormal biopsy results were categorised as CIN2, a moderate chance the cells will become cancerous, according to the HSE.
On finding out she had tested positive for HPV, Ms Flynn said: “It makes you feel dirty. Well for me it did, and it made me feel like I was dirty. For the last few months I had been in a really negative place about it.
“HPV is very common but I wasn’t educated around it.
“When I found out I had HPV I was thinking, ‘how did I get it?’ and there is a stigma that comes with it.
“The shame of even telling anybody that I have it.
"I didn’t know how to speak to my husband about it.
“It’s not a nice thing to be told and I needed to be educated around it and it’s very common.
“Unfortunately for some women, it doesn’t go away.”
Ms Flynn said she felt compelled to speak about her situation as she knows many other women would feel the same way.
“I kept it private for a long time until I got my own head around it and then told my family members to get checked,” she added.
The 33-year-old mother of two said her message to women was not to put such an important procedure off, particularly Traveller women whose life expectancy is 12 years less than women in the general population.
“For women from the Travelling community, minority groups, and working-class women, they need to make time for getting their smear test and know the importance of having one,” she added.
“They’re uncomfortable to get one done and — for a lot of women — particularly Traveller women, they think it doesn’t impact them.”
She also criticised the Government and HSE for staffing issues that have delayed the resumption of processing Cervical Check tests at the Coombe Hospital.
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