Cervical screening (smear test) what to expect
I had my cervical screening (smear test) recently so thought I’d share my experience and let you know what to expect.
A couple of weeks before Cervical Cancer Prevention Week (20th-26th January) I received my invitation letter to remind me to book my cervical screening appointment and I’ll admit I put the letter down and forgot about it!
Once I saw the posts on social media during Cervical Cancer Prevention Week I knew I had to book my appointment in.
I called my GP practice and was booked in for an appointment during one of their late evenings for 6:50pm which meant I had plenty of time to get home from work to freshen up and head over to the surgery.
Booking your cervical screening appointment
If you are registered with a GP, you will get a letter telling you it is time for your cervical screening appointment. You have to contact your GP to book an appointment. You can usually do this online or over the phone.
In some areas, sexual health clinics offer cervical screening. You may choose to contact your local clinic if you aren’t able to access, or don’t feel comfortable at, your GP surgery.
What is cervical screening (smear test) ?
Cervical screening (also known as a smear test) is a free health test available on the NHS as part of the national cervical screening programme.
It helps prevent cervical cancer by checking for a virus called high-risk HPV and cervical cell changes.
It is not a test for cancer.
It is your choice whether to go for cervical screening.
What should I expect during the cervical screening (smear) test itself?
The nurse performing the cervical screening will explain to you exactly what will happen when you arrive and answer any questions you have before the test.
Caroline was the nurse who did my screening and she was really lovely.
We went through my medical history and she chatted to be about checking my breasts too.
After our medical history chat she explained the screening – what to expect during the test and afterwards.
The screening itself:
- You’ll be invited to lay on an examination couch behind a screen and remove clothing from your lower half
- There will be a sheet or piece of clinical roll for you to cover your groin with, and you’re entitled to have a chaperone in the room with you if you’d prefer
- You should lie on your back with your feet together and knees apart
- The nurse will insert a lubricated plastic speculum into your vagina to enable good visualisation of your cervix (you can request a smaller one)
- A small ‘brush’ is then used to remove some cells from the cervix, which are deposited in a small pot and sent to the laboratory for analysis
The examination itself usually only takes a few minutes.
My cervix was tilted (I’ve had this before) and I had to sit up put my balled fists under my lower back and then lay back down and then Caroline was able to continue the screening.
It didn’t hurt, it was a little uncomfortable but Caroline chatted to me throughout and helped me to feel at ease. I had no bleeding afterwards either.
What happens after the screening?
After the test, the specimen is sent to a laboratory for analysis.
It usually takes around 2 weeks for the results to come back but it can take up to 6 weeks.
If your results are normal, no further action is required, and you’ll be invited for another routine smear 3 or 5 years later, depending on your age.
If abnormalities are found, however, you’ll usually be invited for a procedure called a colposcopy, to look at your cells in more detail.
A colposcopy is a procedure similar to a cervical smear, but it’s performed in hospital using a microscope and special dye to stain the cervix cells and make abnormalities easier to identify.
Having abnormalities in your cells usually doesn’t mean that you have cancer, but further tests or treatment are recommended to prevent cancer developing in future.
I received my letter in the post on Friday and everything was found to be normal no further action for me I’ll get another reminder in 2026.
Who is invited for cervical screening?
You should be invited for cervical screening if you have a cervix.
In the UK, you are automatically invited for cervical screening if you are:
- between the ages of 25 to 64
- registered as female with a GP surgery.
You may get your first invite up to 6 months before you turn 25 which is what happened when I first moved to Lincoln my first appointment at my new GP surgery was for my first smear test.
You can book an appointment as soon as you get the invite.
How often will I be invited for cervical screening?
Your cervical screening result will help decide when you are next invited for cervical screening.
You may be invited:
- every year
- every 3 years
- every 5 years
- straight to colposcopy for more tests
What are the benefits and risks of cervical screening?
You are invited for cervical screening because evidence shows that the benefits of the test outweigh any risks.
Along with the HPV vaccine, cervical screening is the best way to protect against cervical cancer and prevents over 7 in 10 diagnoses.
However, like any screening test, cervical screening is not perfect and there are some risks.
Benefits of cervical screening
- Cervical screening aims to identify whether you are at higher risk of developing cervical cell changes or cervical cancer. This means you can get any care or treatment you need early.
- England, Scotland and Wales now use HPV primary screening, which is even better as it is based on your individual risk. This means how frequently you are invited for cervical screening is based on your last result and within a timeframe that is safe for you.
Possible risks of cervical screening
- In a few cases, cervical screening will give an incorrect result. This means it may say someone does not have HPV or cell changes when they do (a false negative). Going for cervical screening when invited can help reduce this risk, as it is likely HPV or cell changes that were missed would be picked up by the next test. It also means a result may say someone does have HPV or cell changes when they don’t (a false positive), which could mean they are invited for tests or treatment they don’t need.
- Sometimes cell changes go back to normal without needing treatment. At the moment, we can’t tell which cell changes will go back to normal, so treating means we can be sure we are preventing them from developing into cervical cancer. This means some people may have unnecessary treatment, which is called overdiagnosis or overtreatment. Using HPV primary screening should help prevent this.
It is hard to know exactly how many people are affected by these risks. But we do know, for those aged 25 to 64, the benefits of cervical screening outweigh the risks and most results will be clear.
So now I wait to receive my results letter and take it from there.
I’ve had three smear tests now and my cervix was titled two times but it’s perfectly normal. I also had spotting after my very first cervical screening but not the two following.
There’s lots of useful information including videos on the Jo’s Cervical Cancer Trust website, and the NHS website too.
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