DIY smear tests for women in England may be imminent, after a pilot scheme produced promising results. In London, 27,000 undertested or untested women were offered a DIY kit by their GP or were sent one by post; 56% of the first group did the test and 13% of the second, presumably picking up women who would otherwise not have been tested for all sorts of reasons, from trauma to lack of time. The researchers from King’s College London estimate that, if this was replicated throughout England, more than 1 million more people could be tested over a three-year cycle. That’s brilliant – rightly heralded a “gamechanger”.
I thought all the cervix-owners of my acquaintance would be overjoyed at this news, but there were a surprising number of reservations. One friend interrogated the practicalities: “How could you take a sample cleanly from the right place, jabbing blindly in the undergrowth? Maybe it’s a two-person job and you have to direct your significant other: ‘Fold flap A into slot B, Richard. No, not like that.’”
