Smear test worries.

[NewYorkgirl]

So my health anxiety has followed me into 2018 with a vengeance. I'm booked in for a routine smear test on Monday and I'm absolutely convinced it's going to cone back with a terrible diagnosis. I'm not having a symptoms ( that I know of). I have a friend who had her smear test last year, all previous tests had been fine and no symptoms and she had stage 3 cervical cancer. It seems everywhere I look at the moment it's a warning about it. How the Jade Goody affect has worn off on women getting tested. I'm even dreaming about my smear and getting the the terrible result. Then I convince myself it's a premonition!.i go away on the 3 Feb to New York and I can see it so clearly me getting the results back and it's terrible news. I'm close to cancelling the appt until after my holiday but I know I would them be thinking about it the whole time. I'm going round in a terrible circle and I'm getting more and more anxious with each day.

[O_O]

That sucks about your friend. It's really pretty uncommon for something like that to happen though.

In all likelihood, your smear will be absolutely clear. Even if there are changes, it's much more likely to be CIN than cancer, which is easily fixed and often reverses by itself.

How old are you? Have you had the HPV vaccine?

[NewYorkgirl]

I'm 41 and no I haven't had the vaccine. I'm really trying to think rationally about this but I'm struggling with it all at the moment. My irrational mind is saying all the prompts and thoughts are a premonition and warning for me..i feel crazy!!

[O_O]

I'm 41 and no I haven't had the vaccine. I'm really trying to think rationally about this but I'm struggling with it all at the moment. My irrational mind is saying all the prompts and thoughts are a premonition and warning for me..i feel crazy!!

I assume all your smears have been clear thus far and you've had them on time? It really is very unlikely there's anything wrong with you.

I have a bunch of symptoms... pain, increased discharge, red patch on cervix, and I'm still being told I don't have anything. So if I really am ok, I'm sure you are.

I visualise things very strongly too, until it seems impossible that they aren't true. When you can picture a scene so clearly, and hear every word of a conversation, and believe in your bones that it's true. But I've been wrong about most things so far.

[poppy77]

I am very sorry about what happened to your friend, that type of situation is so rare.

Like 0_0 has said, you have clear smears previously and no symptoms, I'm sure you have absolutely nothing to worry about at all. Put it out of your mind. As for the premonition aspect to this situation, this is a very typical health anxiety sufferer reaction. Also, reading 'signs into things like adverts and billboards etc.

0_0, it's great to see you offering reassurance, maybe you can take some of this rationality over to your own thread!

[NewYorkgirl]

The whole premonition thing and seeing it everywhere is really bothering me. I have never put that as a health anxiety sypmtom. And of course the more that I think about it, the more I can feel symptoms appearing.

[poppy77]

It's a very typical health anxiety characteristic. You've seen a billboard advertising a charity that supports a particular condition, one that you've been worried about and you convince yourself that it is s message warning you!

[Cusper]

Please don't worry. I am sure I have posted on here before but I have been through this before and I had the bad kind of hpv which is hpv 16. I got tested and had CIN III which is a stage or so before it gets to cancer. I had an operation where they took a portion out of my cervix and I have had clear paps since. Now I had maybe 5 years before I had that pap. Also I had other mild symptoms as well. I was terrified when I went through this whole process and I get it. It's scary and really whenever I asked questions no one was really helpful at all. I suppose because everyone is different but still not even a doctor could really tell me anything. Personally, I also find that everything I read on the internet to be really terrifying as well. Even if you have any bad cells it is so treatable. They just remove the cells and monitor you.

[O_O]

The whole premonition thing and seeing it everywhere is really bothering me. I have never put that as a health anxiety sypmtom. And of course the more that I think about it, the more I can feel symptoms appearing.

You haven't had a premonition though. I've had plenty of the sorts of 'premonition' that you're talking about, and it's just anxiety and catastrophising.

I've also had one premonition which I think is real, and it's completely different.

[Annaboodle]

It's your anxiety making you think that you're getting messages and warnings from stuff you see and read. Ask yourself, do you honestly believe that there is something so special about you that the Universe or God or whatever it is you personally believe in, has picked you out to send warning messages about a particular health issue and everyone else is just left in ignorance? I started thinking the way you are recently because I had missed my smear test by about a year and so convinced myself that in some way because of this it was bound to come back abnormal as like a punishment (I know - it's totally daft when you see someone else do it). My smear was fine. I was being ridiculous.