Women defining themselves: shared stories of private hell

In this phenomenological study women who had experienced an abnormal Pap result in the past were asked to share something about themselves as women, prior to describing their experience of having an abnormal Pap result. From their responses, we hear stories of how their sense of self was intricately entwined with their experiences of physical, emotional or sexual violence and/or a profound sense of grief and loss. The stories of violence, trauma and loss alert the nurse and midwife to the possibility that giving a woman information, for example that her Pap test result is abnormal, may compound existing feelings of fear and create a new threat to the woman's sense of 'self'.