Pap Smears Under Attack

Yes, every three years.  Plenty of time for cancer to begin AND kill you before your next pap.  My mother's pap showed cancer one year when all the others showed no sigh.  This when she was 38...  had she waited another 3 years, I'd not have had a mother. 

We need to see their "the task force's"  most recent "amendment" to see everything affected.

For what it's worth, there is actually a lot better data and rationale for the change in cervical cancer screening than there is for the change in mammo guidelines.  Believe it or not, it's about saving LIVES, not just money.  The deal with pap smears for young women is that there is a VERY high rate of false positives, due to the nature of young cervical tissue.  A false positive leads to a cone biopsy of the cervix.  A cone biopsy then leaves the cervix vulnerable to opening prematurely during pregnancy, resulting in premature birth and/or the loss of the baby.  Prior to age 30, there are way more cases of extreme prematurity caused by women having had a cone biopsy (that proved to be negative) than there are cases of cervical cancer, which is pretty uncommon in very young women, and virtually unheardof in teens.  After age 30, the new recommendation is for women who have never had any sort of "abnormal" pap to go to a less frequent pap schedule, assuming they have been receiving paps regularly up to that point.  It turns out that it almost never happens that a woman who has NEVER had any sort of abnormal pap result, screened regularly, suddenly has a full-on cancer result.  Any woman who has not been getting pap tests regularly, or who has ever had an abnormal pap result, or who continues to have multiple sexual partners, should be screened more often.  As the guidelines recommend.  They are trying to reduce the rate of prematurity caused by unnecessary procedures, not ignore women's health needs.

(In my work life, I have a lot of contact with people who have permanent major disabilities as a result of being born premature - I'm all for figuring out what is causing the rate of prematurity in the US to be so much higher than in other countries and solving that problem!)

Linda

Just wondering if does guidelines apply to someone who has had breast cancer, screening every three years, I would follow that as I always get infections and need antibiotics after each pap test, maybe I'm not in the right forum to post this question, sorry if I'm out of place,

Welga