(WXYZ) - Just days after a task force called for women to have fewer mammograms, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist is recommending women have fewer Pap tests to screen for cervical cancer. But these revised guidelines are likely to be a lot less controversial.
Hope Nawrocki works in a gynecologist’s office. So she knows the importance of cervical cancer screenings. “I’ve always done mine yearly as I went through my 30’s probably every other year, as long as they were normal.”
But that may change. The new recommendations are for women to have their first Pap at age 21. The previous recommendation was 3 years after first intercourse if that was earlier than age 21.
Women between 21 and 30 are now recommended to have the test every other year instead of every year.
And women over 30 can wait 3 years between tests once three consecutive Paps have been clear.
St. John Obstetrician and Gynecologist, Dr. Nathan Wagstaff says these new guidelines make sense because cervical cancer is very slow growing.
It takes several years from infection with the HPV virus to the development of a dysplasia.
Dr. Wagstaff told us, “It’s estimated it takes 7 to 8 years for a dysplasia to progress into a cancer. A dysplasia is a premalignant lesion.”
So even if one test misses an early lesion there’s still time to catch it.
According to Dr. Wagstaff, “You can have a normal pap even if there’s dysplasia there, but with the newer Paps that’s a little bit less likely and the fact that it takes 7 to 8 years for it to turn into a cancer and in that period you will have several Paps, its unlikely that they will all be falsely negative.”
There are women who are not covered under the new guidelines, and they should continue annual screenings.
They are: women with HIV…or other immune compromising conditions and patients with previous cervical abnormalities.
Dr. Wagstaff would add a couple more groups, “The guidelines for extending intervals do not extend to people who have new partners or multiple partners or other risk factors.”
Hope says she’ll take her cue from her own doctor. “I’ve been with my doctor for a while. They know me we’ve been working together as a team, so I’d go by what my doctor said.”
One more thing Dr. Wagstaff wants to make clear – even though women don’t need to have a Pap every year, they do still need to see their doctor for a yearly exam.
