Primary care & walk-in
Cervical screening
If you have a cervix, this applies to you. That is the entire eligibility rule, and the systems that generate reminders frequently get it wrong.
Who it is for
Anyone with a cervix. Not a gender, not a letter on a health card, not an assumption made at a front desk. If you have had a hysterectomy the answer may be different, and that is a conversation rather than a guess.
This matters practically rather than politically: recall letters are generated from the sex marker in a record, so people whose marker does not match their anatomy simply stop being invited. Years pass and nobody notices, because the system believes it has nothing to say to you.
Working out whether this applies to you is our job. You should not have to arrive having already researched it and be prepared to argue the point.
What can be arranged, if you ask
For a lot of people this is a difficult appointment, and the reasons vary enormously — dysphoria, a history of assault, pain, vaginismus, or simply hating it. All of those are ordinary and none of them needs to be explained in detail to be accommodated.
A smaller speculum
Sizes vary more than most people realise, and using the smallest workable one is a request nobody will find strange.
Inserting it yourself
Entirely possible, and for some people it is the difference between the appointment happening and not.
Someone with you
In the room, for the whole thing, if that is what makes it possible.
Language you choose
Tell us the words you use for your body, or ask that we use none at all and simply say what is happening next.
Stopping
At any point, for any reason, without having to justify it. Stopping is not failing and it does not mean you cannot come back.
A longer appointment
Booked as such from the start, so nothing is rushed. Say when you book that you would like the time.
Say it when you book
Not on the table. Anything arranged in advance is easy; the same request made when you are already undressed is much harder to make and much harder to accommodate.
What happens afterwards
A sample goes to a lab and a result comes back to the clinician who ordered it. Most results are normal. An abnormal result usually means a repeat test or a referral for a closer look, and it is not the same thing as a cancer diagnosis — that distinction is worth holding onto during the wait.
Whatever the result, you will be told it. Silence is not a system anybody should rely on, and it will not be used here as one.
Common questions
How often should I be screened?
It depends on your age, your history and the current Ontario program, which has been revised and will be again. No interval is published here because a stale number is worse than none — it is a two-minute answer in the room.
I have not been screened in years.
Extremely common and not a problem to be lectured about. Starting again is ordinary, and the gap itself is often the system’s fault rather than yours.
I have had the HPV vaccine. Do I still need this?
Yes. The vaccine and the screening cover overlapping but different ground. See immunizations.
Is it covered?
Screening within the program is insured. Where something falls outside it, you will be told the cost before rather than after.
Can a walk-in appointment do this?
Better booked, because the time matters. See walk-in if that is what is available to you and we will work it out.