Acceptability of providing self-taken vaginal samples and allowing access to NHS numbers and medical records: feasibility study in young female genitourinary medicine clinic attenders

Abstract

Sinka and colleagues found that using self-taken vaginal swabs for human papillomavirus (HPV) testing was acceptable to young women who had defaulted from their initial HPV screening appointment at age 21.1 However, the rate of return of postal samples was low (13%, 725/5500). In October 2011, we conducted a feasibility study to evaluate response rates of 16–24 years old female genitourinary medicine clinic attenders to providing two self-taken vaginal swabs for Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycoplasma genitalium testing and allowing access to National Health Service numbers and medical records for follow-up. Women sitting in the female-only waiting area in the Courtyard …