You may want to skip that annual Pap test.
Likely, your gynecologist has you down for one. It’s not clear why she’s unaware of (or is she perhaps ignoring?) the fact that guidelines from 2003 recommend cervical cancer screening every THREE years if it’s done in conjunction with an HPV co-test.
The combination Pap and HPV test is approved for women 30 years and up, so it’s not meant to completely replace the Pap test. But the HPV component adds additional reassurance so screening can be delayed to every three years, according to Katherine Roland of the CDC, author of a recent study on uptake of the guidelines.
Roland said it’s still perfectly normal for a woman over 30 to be screened with a Pap only. But if the results are normal, the guidelines say the interval can be extended to two or three years — not just one — if you’ve had a previous history of normal Paps.
“However, you could give that same woman an HPV co-test, and if both of those test results were normal, you could extend her screening interval to three years, without considering her previous history,” Roland said.
Bottom line — if you’re over 30, there’s no need for an annual cervical cancer screen.
Tags: cancer screen, cervical cancer screening, HPV, Pap, Pap smear
