The 'lived experience' of women with a cervical screening detected abnormality: A phenomenological study

Gadamer (1975a). Four major thematic interpretations emerged from the transcript analysis and form the basis of the interpretive chapters. The first represents how the participants defined themselves according to life stressors. These stressors were of a devastating nature related to physical violence, sexual trauma and/or profound grief and loss, mostly experienced in their intimate and family relationships. This is the first study to explore how women define themselves within the parameters of violence and how a woman's previously traumatised self can be further threatened by the experience of having an abnormal Pap test result. This sense of being threatened is referred to as 'abjection' and forms the second theme. Feelings of abjection were accentuated by the disservice, harm and injury the participants experienced within the health system and were identified as the 'Nocebo Effect' in the third theme. The fourth and final interpretive chapter explores how women, having felt threatened on multiple occasions, were able to transform and redefine themselves as strong, assertive women, no longer the victims of their circumstances. The final chapter cautions against generalisations and concludes with a discussion of potential further research avenues.