This is where the great contradiction about the UK’s smear test system lies: While some women are daunted by screening, others proactively seek it but can’t get it. PHE has decided that, because womb changes produce false positives in up to one in three smear tests of women under 25, only women over 25 should be invited to attend a smear test once every three years. But just north of the border, Scottish rules differ, with all women over 20 invited to screening every three years."I was invited for screening aged 20 and it put my mind at rest," says Aimee, 24, from Edinburgh, who recently had a colposcopy after a smear came back showing abnormal cells. She now returns every six months for a colposcopy, but doesn’t understand why her friends can’t get a smear: "I feel bad for my friends in England who couldn’t just go and get a smear test even though there are cases of under 25s developing [cervical cancer]."The disparity of rules between the UK’s four countries can be a matter of life or death. In October 2014, 23-year-old Sorcha Glenn from Northern Ireland died of terminal cervical cancer. According to the Belfast Telegraph , a year before being diagnosed, she had been refused a smear test by her GP, even though both of her grandmothers had died of the disease.On the anniversary of her death, her MP Mark Durkan asked David Cameron in Parliament if smear tests could be made available to younger women on request, especially in cases of a family history of cervical cancer. But in a letter to Durkan seen by Refinery29, Cameron explains there will be no change to the system: "PHE does not confirm or even identify a clear link between cervical cancer and genetics… there is still no scientific evidence to support the re-introduction of screening for women under 25 years old.’Screening can also, in some cases, "do more harm than good", says gynaecologist and obstetrician Mr. Jullien Brady, explaining: "The treatment for abnormal cells is removal of a piece of the cervix, which can, in rare cases, have effects on future fertility."But for Becky*, 22, who suffered persistent UTIs and discomfort during sex, asking for a smear test was vital to her health. She wanted a smear test, but it took asking three doctors (on the advice of charity Marie Stopes UK) to get her smear test. After an administrative failure which meant she was erroneously informed of the need for a colposcopy and never informed of the appointment, she says she was "panicking as if something was wrong."Becky eventually learned the colposcopy was unnecessary, but doctors did discover she has other gynaecological problems which she has managed to keep under some control by switching contraceptive pills three times. She’s relieved for now, but does worry about how doctors interpret complaints in future: "I wish the doctors would take me a little more seriously, and I wish they’d never cocked up with that letter."