About a year ago, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advised some women to get Pap tests less frequently because they could do more harm than good.
Now, for Cervical Health Awareness Month, here's a look at the impact of ACOG's new guidelines - and doctors' advice on how often to have this life-saving test... Many women have long viewed annual Pap smears as the Holy Grail of preventive medicine – up there with breast exams and osteoporosis screening. The test, in which doctors scrape cells from the cervix and examine them under a microscope to look for abnormalities, is considered the best way to find changes that could lead to cervical cancer.
But in November 2009, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) published new guidelines for Pap tests http://www.lifescript.com/Health/Condition... , extending the interval between exams for many women. They now recommend that women ages 21-30 have the test every two years, and that women in their 30s wait three years between exams once they’ve had three consecutive clear tests.
The change was based on studies showing that more frequent Pap tests didn’t lower the risk of cervical cancer. The tests themselves are safe, but a woman’s future fertility might be harmed from the additional procedures required from positive Pap results, which are sometimes inaccurate. Researchers also discovered that cervical cancer is often caused by human papillomavirus (HPV), the s*xually transmitted virus responsible for genital warts. HPV-triggered cellular changes are so slow-growing that frequent testing isn’t necessary, they say.
“Most pre-cancerous lesions take 10 years to become cancer, so there’s breathing room,” says George Sawaya, M.D., professor in the UC-San Francisco Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences. “There are many opportunities to find and treat it before it becomes [dangerous].”
