Fitness Quotes

Scan and smear tips?

The follow paragraph is quote from Martin Amis "Time's Arrow". "It is significant, I am assuming, that nearly all our love affairs come to an end in the consulting rooms of Associated Medical Services. A professional formality prevails as we stand there with one or other of our girlfriends, against a backdrop of height and weight graphs, nutrition rosters, scan and smear tips, and signs saying things like Do You Have Endometriosis?......" Maybe this is a very easy question, but I really can't catch the meaning of "scan and smear tips". Please answer me.

Public Comments

1. Well, the reference sounds like a gynecologist's office. So I would assume "scan and smear tips" would refer to gynecological procedures such as a mammogram and a pap smear. What tips, I don't know; I know when you get a mammogram, they tell you to shower and not wear deodorant or lotion; I wouldn't necessarily consider that a "tip," but who knows? Or "tips" might be referring to the canisters of actual swabs (like Q-tips) used for such procedures. I have never read the literature you're referencing. It strikes me as a weird quote. Anyway, that's all I can make of it.