A MAN was surprised to receive an invitation to come to his doctor's surgery - for a test offered only to women.

Mark Garlinge, 33, of Faringdon, received the letter from the Fern Hill Practice at Faringdon Medical Centre asking him to come in for cervical screening - which detects abnormalities in a woman's cervix.

Mr Garlinge said: "To be honest I didn't know what cervical screening was so I just put the letter away.

"It wasn't until my partner, Kate McGivern, had a look at it and told me what it was that I realised."

He added: "I was a bit embarrassed and quite shocked. It was just ridiculous really."

Miss McGivern, who lives in Abingdon, said: "Most men probably don't know what cervical screening is because why would they?

"We just thought it was hilarious. I didn't know how to explain exactly what a smear test was. You have to wonder if any other men have got the same letter. Perhaps they thought he had gone in for a sex change or something."

As well as inviting Mr Garlinge to have the physically impossible test, the letter, signed by Dr FE Holdsworth, asked him to sign a disclaimer if he did not wish to be screened - which he said he intended to return to the practice, explaining he would not be coming in for screening as he did not have a cervix.

Mr Garlinge has lived in Faringdon since December 2005 and, as he has epilepsy, has been a regular patient at the practice, visiting more than a dozen times in the last two years.

He is not married and there are no women who live at the same address for whom the letter could have been intended.

Practice manager Paul Jeffries said: "I can't make a comment on that.

"It's not something that has happened before as far as I am aware. I will contact Mr Garlinge and speak to him directly about it."

He said he did not know how the letter came to be sent out without conducting an investigation and did not wish to comment further.

Cervical screening is a free and confidential service offered by the NHS to women aged 25 to 64 once every three years and can detect early signs of cervical cancer.

It is estimated that about 370,000 cases of cervical cancer are diagnosed in the world each year, with 2,740 cases in England in 1997 and 1,222 women dying of the disease.