Does a cervical smear hurt? Authoritative experts are here to answer!

In order to fully check the health of the cervix, there are many medical measures now, including cervical smear test. Women are reminded to pay attention to relevant matters before doing a cervical smear test, such as not doing the test during menstruation, not excessively cleaning the vagina before the test, and not inserting suppositories in the vagina, etc. These practices will affect the normal examination. So, will it be painful to do a cervical smear test?

Does a cervical smear hurt?

Cervical smear is painless. It collects secretions from the external opening of the cervix, so this examination method will not cause cervical damage or pain. A cervical smear test requires your vagina to be stretched open, which can be uncomfortable.

Experts talk about cervical disease

Cervical smear, also known as PapSmear, is often called "Pap smear". This involves taking a small sample of cells from the cervix, placing them on a glass slide, and studying them under a microscope to see if they are abnormal. Since the introduction of this test, the mortality rate from cervical cancer has been reduced by at least 70%. Through a simple cervical smear, doctors can detect tiny, very early changes in cervical cells, which allows the deadly cancer to be sniped before it even actually occurs. Therefore, medical experts believe that cervical cancer is a completely preventable disease.

"It is important for every woman of childbearing age to have regular cervical smear tests." Yes: That's right. In most cases, cervical cancer develops gradually over about 6 to 8 years based on chronic inflammation of the cervix. Regular cervical smear tests can detect abnormal changes in the cervix early and prevent cervical cancer.

"Even if a smear test is done every one to two years, it may not be able to effectively prevent cervical cancer, right? It may happen that the location where the smear sample is collected happens to miss the site where tiny lesions on the cervix occur and thus the cancer is missed." Wrong, such worries are unnecessary. The epithelium of the cervix is ​​composed of internal columnar cells and external squamous cells. The adjacent part is called the transition zone. This transition zone changes frequently under the influence of various internal and external factors, and it is precisely the high-incidence site of cervical cancer. The most important thing about the cervical smear test is to ensure that enough cells are collected from this area for evaluation. The traditional Papanicolaou staining method does have a slightly higher missed detection rate, but today's new technologies such as computer-assisted cell detection system (CCT) and liquid-based thin-layer cytology, as well as updated cell classification methods, are highly sensitive to detecting abnormal cervical cells, with an accuracy of over 97%.

"Doing a cervical smear test is really troublesome, embarrassing, and sometimes painful." Wrong, the cervical smear test is actually very simple and the whole process only takes 3 to 6 minutes. The doctor first uses an instrument called a vaginal speculum to expand the inner wall of the vagina so that the cervical opening can be seen. Then the doctor will use a cotton swab, wooden scraper, or cervical brush to collect the exfoliated cells from the cervical opening. These cells are then smeared onto glass slides and/or stored directly in special chemical solutions. When the doctor is scraping the cells, if you are very sensitive, you may feel a slight contraction of the cervix, but it is not painful because there are no pain nerve endings in the cervix.