Many women feel "degraded and embarrassed" by cervical smear testing, researchers warned today.
Public campaigns in the UK have encouraged women to undergo testing – especially after the death of TV celebrity Jade Goody.
But researchers from Leicester University, UK, say general public support does not take away the risk women will be repelled by the nature of the examination.
Reporting in the journal Family Practice, researcher Dr Natalie Armstrong says: "Women can feel passive, helpless and vulnerable in the face of a situation where they risk pain and discomfort, shame and humiliation, and violation and invasion of privacy."
Dr Armstrong interviewed 34 women in detail for the UK Medical Research Council.
She said women felt they were not always treated with "kindness and sensitivity".
She suggests that those performing tests encourage women to talk about their worries and concerns.
She said: "Ignoring women’s fears, anxieties and concerns can appear to deny the reality, or at least the validity, of women’s emotional responses."
The role of primary care professionals in women’s experiences of cervical cancer screening: a qualitative study. Armstrong N, James V, Dixon-Woods M. Family Practice November 17 2011 doi: 10.1093/fampra/CMR105
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