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- Chloe’s experience highlights the importance of HPV vaccine, regular smears
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Screening Matters
The National Screening Unit newsletter
In this issue:
- Rome hearing well, couldn’t wait to start school
- Chloe’s experience highlights the importance of HPV vaccine, regular smears
- Position statement recommends women participate in BreastScreen Aotearoa
- Communicating abnormal cervical smear results
- Disclosing NCSP participant information
- The importance of quality ethnicity data
- Feedback sought on Cervical Screening Awareness Month
Chloe’s experience highlights the importance of HPV vaccine, regular smears
‘I really had no idea what CIN3 meant and was terrified. I’m young and healthy and had it in my head that cervical cancer doesn’t affect women my age. It was such a shock.’
Chloe lives in Gore and was referred to a specialist at Southland Hospital in Invercargill who performed a colposcopy (an examination of the cervix, using a microscope so that any abnormal cells can be seen) and took cell samples for biopsy.
She says the specialist made her feel very comfortable and she had great support from her fiancé and her employer. But it was an agonising wait over the Christmas period for the results.
‘The specialist phoned me and explained the results of the biopsies and the treatment I would need. At the time it was absolutely terrifying and I was worried it would affect my ability to have children.’
Chloe’s specialist used the LLETZ treatment, which uses an electrical wire loop to remove abnormal cervical cells under local anaesthetic in the cervix.
‘I felt a lot better once I had my treatment, but I recently had to have another colposcopy to check that everything was fine, so that was another scary time.’ Fortunately, Chloe was given the all clear.
She says her diagnosis and need for treatment came as a shock to her friends.
‘A lot of my friends just won’t go for a smear. They say they’re uncomfortable. I tell them it will get a lot more uncomfortable if something’s wrong.’
Chloe says she regrets not having the free human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine when she was at high school. Immunisation helps protect against the two common types of high-risk HPV that cause up to 70 percent of cervical cancers.
‘My parents left the decision up to me and I chose not to have it. Now I urge girls to have it and tell them how things can change in such a short time.’
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