Effects of speculum lubrication on cervical smears for cervical cancer screening: A double blind randomized clinical trial.

Background: Speculum lubrication may help to reduce the pain experienced during Pap-smear collection and hence increase uptake of cervical cancer screening and repeat testing, but there are fears of its interference with cytological results.

Aim: To determine and compare the adequacy of cervical cytology smears and the mean pain scores of women undergoing cervical cancer screening with or without speculum lubrication.

Methods: This was a randomised controlled study of 132 women having cervical cancer screening at a tertiary hospital in Nigeria.