Perceptions of women concerning preventive examination of uterine cervical cancer

Abstract

Objective: To understand the perception of women that will undergo the preventive examination of uterine cervical cancer. Methods: It was an exploratory-descriptive study. The sample was comprised by 25 women in the age group from 18 to 59 years, users of the Mother-Child Health Center in Barbalha-CE-Brazil. Data collection happened between May and June 2009 using semi-structured interviews with the following guiding questions: What do you know about the purpose of the preventive examination of uterine cervical cancer? What made you seek the health unit to perform this examination? What do you feel when you undergo the examination? Data were analyzed based on the subjects’ speeches categorization, and later discussed according to the literature concerning the subject. Results: The investigation showed that the subjects understand the preventive examination with a healing perspective, since most seek the service facing some symptoms; shame and fear are the main expressed feelings concerning the examination. These factors can contribute to the non adherence to Pap test. Conclusion: The women interviewed showed to have superficial and often wrong knowledge on the examination of cervical cancer. This reveals the need for re-orientation of health services focusing on health promotion, providing the users knowledge and awareness to act as jointly responsible for their health, by adhering to the examination and probably reducing the number of cases of uterine cervical cancer.