Lauren - Interview 31
Lauren was diagnosed with CIN3 in 2009, aged 25, and treated by LLETZ. She was happy with the care she received but would have liked more information about recommended websites on CIN 3 before going for colpsocopy.
Lauren is a conference organiser and single Ethnic background / nationality' White British
More about me...
After having a routine smear test, Lauren was told by letter that there had been an abnormality and she would need another test in six months. A smear test six months later detected an abnormality yet again, and Lauren was told she would need another smear, this time in three months. The next smear test also detected an abnormality. Lauren went to see her GP and was referred to a colposcopy clinic.
Lauren had a colposcopy and biopsy and, two weeks later, was told that she had CIN3 and would need treatment. Four or five weeks later, she had a LLETZ and, shortly afterwards, was told she had clear margins. She attended a follow-up appointment six months after treatment and had normal results.
Lauren said she was happy with the care she received but would have liked more information about useful websites on CIN3 before going to the colpsocopy clinic.
Lauren went for repeat tests for about eighteen months. She wasn't worried until her doctor told...
Lauren went for repeat tests for about eighteen months. She wasn't worried until her doctor told...
It was near enough a year and a half ago that I went to the first clinic just for a routine smear, and just because I’d got a letter. So I went there and had that done. And then shortly after that I got a letter. There was, I think they just said there was some abnormality, so that I should go back in six months and have another one done.
So I went back in six months and had another smear test done. And after that happened they sent me another letter saying that my smear test was abnormal and that I should go back and have another one done in six months. So I went back. It might have been three months actually when it got to the third one. I think it was three months after, I went back, had the third one done. Got another letter saying, ‘your smear test is abnormal, please have it checked again in six months.’
At first it really didn’t concern me because the letters weren’t concerning, you know they didn’t use concerning language. You know “abnormal” doesn’t really sound that threatening.
But I think once I went back after the third one to the place I’d originally gone, then the doctor’s language there and reaction was a lot more serious. And she did, you know, I quote she said, “There’s no time to waste.” So then it was kind of a complete change in tone from something being abnormal that, you know, I should go along in six months to check again to something somehow now, was, you know, there’s no time to waste, so….
Yeah that was a surprise. But the rest of it, I wasn’t particularly concerned and, as I say, I wasn’t even sure I should be calling back to check on it. It was just a kind of niggling feeling that I had, maybe I was just, I just thought, “Oh I’ll just give them a call just to see if they think that’s about right, six months.”
Lauren was given a number to ring if she had any problems. She had a lot of vaginal discharge but...
Lauren was given a number to ring if she had any problems. She had a lot of vaginal discharge but...
It really wasn’t as bad as I expected. They built it up as if I might have very heavy bleeding, and I had these emergency numbers to call if, in the next couple of days, it was unbearable. But I had quite minimal bleeding really. Quite a heavy discharge I have to say. Quite a lot of that but I didn’t find that too concerning. I didn’t really feel tired, slightly sore but nothing you know, nothing sort of debilitating really. I had the rest of the day off work where I just came home and watched TV, but…
And back to work the next day?
I didn’t actually, only because my job’s very flexible and that, I can work from home. So I worked from, I had it done on a Wednesday and I worked from home on the Thursday and Friday.
Yeah, and were you more or less back to normal next, the following week? Or did it take a week or so to…?
I think it took about a week before the discharge had stopped. I was still noticing a lot of that, and quite a different discharge to what I’d ever had before.
After the treatment and you went back to work, did you just get back to life as normal, carried on as normal and….?
Yeah, pretty much yep, yeah and I think, I don’t really think about it now. I don’t, I mean up until I had the results I guess I thought about it every week or something. You know, I wonder if it’s, if I’m going to need to have it done again. But the actual procedure itself was I thought pretty simple and not really that bad at all. So I wasn’t, even if I had to go back and have it done again, I wasn’t really that worried about it.
Because the procedure was so simple and painless?
Yeah, fairly painless I would say. You felt it, obviously it wasn’t comfortable, but I wouldn’t really say it’s painful. Just yeah, I thought it was okay. I thought the staff were really helpful. Didn’t really take that long to do. I didn’t really have that many symptoms after it that were brought on by the treatment. So, I guess I wasn’t really concerned. And then once I got the letter saying there was no evidence of cancer, then I was pretty pleased and I haven’t really thought about it since.