How Often Do You Really Need a Pap Test?
It has been a long time since US Preventive Services Task Force guidelines required an annual Pap test, but I continue to hear from people whose gynecologists only recently told them they could miss a few years. Most of us need to get screened for cervical cancer every three to five years, and a Pap smear is no longer the only option.
How does cervical cancer screening work?
The whole point of that awkward moment in the gynecologist’s office, when your legs are lifted up with stirrups, is an examination for cervical cancer. Most cases of cervical cancer are the result of long-term infection with a virus known as HPV. Don’t panic – most people who are sexually active have contracted HPV at some point without even knowing it. Usually, your immune system heals the infection, but sometimes, if the virus persists for years, it can cause cells in the cervix (the place where the vagina meets the uterus) to become cancerous. There is no cure for HPV, but regular screening can detect most cancers before they become a problem.
When you receive a Pap smear, your gynecologist takes some cells from your cervix and sends them to a laboratory where the technician smears them (get?) On a glass slide and looks at them through a microscope for clues such as their shape, what they might become malignant. It is also known as cervical cytology (cytology is a study of cells) or Pap test .
But another, newer type of test, called HPV testing , involves testing a smear for the HPV virus itself. (The hrHPV test is specifically designed to detect high-risk versions of HPV. Some types of the virus are generally harmless.) This type of testing became an additional option for routine screening back in 2012, the same year that we learned that screening could be done every three to five years, not every year.
The most recent recommendations from the US Preventive Services Task Force are:
- Cervical cancer screening is not required for people under the age of 21 .
- Between the ages of 21 and 29 , you should have a “cervical cytology” test, more commonly known as a Pap smear. Your doctor removes some cells from your cervix and sends them to a laboratory where they will be examined to determine if they are cancerous or precancerous. They are payable every three years .
- Between the ages of 30 and 64 , you have the option of being screened every five years if your provider sends a cervical swab for HPV testing instead of or in addition to the traditional Pap smear test.
- If you are 65 or older and have never had cervical cancer or serious lesions, you are not in the know. No additional tests are required.
Are Pap smears out of date?
Some headlines claim that Pap smears are a thing of the past (if you’re over 30), but that doesn’t mean you think about it.
Whether you get a Pap smear or HPV test, or both, the experience in the exam room is the same: You spread your legs and your doctor will use a dilator to open your vagina and they will use a tampon. an instrument (often actually a brush or tiny plastic spatula) to take a sample from the cervix.
Previous recommendations from 2012 required testing to include cytology and HPV testing every five years. The change for 2018 is just a small amendment: Vendors can order the HPV test themselves. This does not mean that the Pap smear experience goes away – the only difference is what happens to the smear afterwards.