It's finally happening, after decades of knowing self-sampling HPV tests are just as effective at helping to prevent cervical cancer as smear tests, and perhaps even longer of communities who face barriers to attending traditional cervical screening begging the NHS for self-sampling the UK is finally getting a pilot programme that will give women and people with vagians' access to cervical cancer screening that was previously inaccessible to them.
This is a good thing, this is brilliant, this has the potential to change the lives of millions of disabled and chronically ill people, sexual violence survivors, people with PTSD, people with vaginismus, FGM survivors, trans people, and other LGBTQ+ folks.
1 in 3 people don't attend their smear test, and barriers like being a survivor of sexual violence or being disabled are huge barriers, barriers that can be impossible to overcome and lead to smear tests becoming traumatic experiences for those individuals. This is why thousands of people like me have been advocating for HPV self-sampling to be implemented.
HPV self-sampling is a proven effective method of screening for cervical cancer that has already been implemented in other countries as a primary method of screening with great success, that also reduces barriers so more people who want to screen can do so.
Self-sampling is an easy self swab test that you can do in the privacy, comfort, and safety of your own home, or alone in an exam room at your doctor's surgery. All you have to do is insert a small swab into your vagina and collect some cells to be tested for the HPV virus which is known to be the cause of 99% of cervical cancer cases. The test is quite easy and if you can use a tampon successfully you would be able to use the self-sampling kit successfully as well.
While self-sampling definitely doesn't eliminate all barriers and issues with the cervical screening programme it is for sure a huge step in the right direction towards making screening accessible to all who want it.
So why is the announcement of the pilot programme facing so much backlash and criticism?
Long story short, it's not because the test is difficult to do or ineffective, it's because health secretary Matt Hancock is ignorant and poor at writing, and spread blatant misinformation which he refuses to correct on Twitter.
Hancock tweeted about the self-sampling programme saying
“over 31,000 women will be offered kits to carry out smear tests in the privacy & convenience of their own homes in a trial”
This statement was poorly written, confusing, and misleading. HPV self-sampling is *NOT* a smear test, and nobody who understands it in the slightest or has two brain cells to rub together is trying to claim that it is. It would be difficult if not physically impossible to perform a traditional smear test on yourself, even if you were somehow flexible enough to get into the correct position to do so it's unlikely you would be able to collect cells from your own cervix correctly. Traditional smear tests involve a speculum, stirrups, and visualizing the cervix.
HPV self-sampling does not require any of those things, it's just a fancy q-tip that you insert into your vagina and swirl around to collect cells, because the test is looking for the presence of HPV and not cervical cancer you don't actually have to reach your cervix. If HPV is present on your cervix is also present in the rest of your vagina and can be identified by this test.
However, because of Hancock's poor understanding of the test, and poor wording he's left thousands of women thinking they are going to be asked to perform their own smear tests at home. An extremely ignorant and misleading statement that he is refusing to d acknowledges and correct, leaving advocates like me and organizations like Jo's cervical cancer trust to clean up his mess and try to salvage the self-sampling programme before his stupidity tanks the whole thing.
I am not going to sugarcoat this and coddle a grown-ass adult man who should have known better and been more responsible... Hancock screwed up years of work and dedication from patient advocates, orgaintzions, and communities like the disabled and chronic illness community, the LGBTQ+ community, and survivors of sexual violence. If this programme fails and millions of people don't have access to screening because of his tweet that is 1000% his fault and any deaths or suffering that come from it is on him.
He was stupid, irresponsible, and didn't think before he tweeted that.
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