Table 4.

Attitudes towards cervical screening and contributing factors

Attitude	Contributing Factors	Quotes from Participants
Shame	The invasion of privacy	“Black fellas are scared of the privacy issue first…I'd look at the curtains
		and say ‘I can see a gap there; I know people can see me through that’”
		– Lapsed screener, regional
	Embarrassment and low body	“I feel uncomfortable taking my clothes off and opening my legs for the
	confidence	white doctors, including the women. I feel like we are different down
		there and they're judging me” – Lapsed screener, metropolitan
	Dealing with trauma	“If they've been a victim of sexual assault they're not going to go in - they
		feel violated. We do have a lot of PTSD and transference of trauma”
		-Lapsed screener, metropolitan
	Feeling defiled	“We were always told not to show our private parts…close your legs, sit
		properly…then you go to the doctor and they say ‘alright, open your legs’”
		-Lapsed screener, metropolitan
	The suggestion of promiscuity /	“Some women think they get cancer from having sex, so they get
	sexual deviance	embarrassed and don't get it treated right away” – Regularly screened,
		regional
Fear	Death or incapacitation	“I'm too terrified, I don't want to try anymore…I'm terrified of what the
		outcomes are going to be” – Lapsed screener, metropolitan
	Pain	“The doctors at [the clinic] are rough and painful, they're not experienced”
		-Lapsed screener, metropolitan
	The unknown / not knowing	“All these contraptions you hear about…I'll just die instead” - never
	how the test is conducted	screened, remote