Has anyone had a smear test whilst undergoing chemo. I had one in July. Started chemo in June. Asked registrar onc if it was okay she said yes. Now had letter saying borderline changes and need to go back in January.
Have since printed info off Breast cancer org site (American) which advises not having smear tests whilst on chemo as chemo can affect results of smear beacuse of lowered immunity. Not sure what to believe now. Naturally am very worried. As if taxotere was not bad enough.
Would be grateful if hear from others on this one.
I started chemo in March and had a smear test in May - I had to have investigation for a cyst that had shown up on my CT scan. Nobody said that I shouldn’t have a smear and, as it was the consultant gynae who actually did the test I can only take it for granted that he knew what he was doing.
Sorry if this hasn’t been of much help but I would be interested to see what anyone else has to say.
Hi Starfish, I am long overdue my smear as was first dx last March, finished treatment in Nov and through all that just wasn’t focussed on getting it done. So far this year have been getting on with stuff, had the letter arrive a little while ago but it went out of my mind again, as just been rediagnosed with local recurrance. Was wondering about having the smear done or not, will check with my onc team on Wed when I go for bloods and post what they tell me.
I did get a letter asking me to go for an appointment but that practice manager said wait until you have finished treatment you have enough on your plate. So thank you for the reminder. I guess I should go an get it done.
Thanks Pauline, me too!! Well done on getting finished, definately worth getting smear done I would say.
Sounds sensible to wait until treatment is done, but will just double check with my team. One thing I have noticed from this site is different answers seem to be given to the same questions asked from our care teams… not sure if that is a worry or not!