New Guidelines for Cervical Cancer Screening

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If this newer screening method and its longer window sound good to you and your doctor, know you’re well covered, says Anna Beavis, M.D., of the Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, Johns Hopkins Medicine. She notes that medical advisory groups like the Society of Gynecologic Oncology (SGO) and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) had already issued guidance that HPV screening by itself would be reasonable. Also, she says, the new recommendations are based on “randomized controlled trials showing that you pick up just as many cases [of cervical cancer] with HPV alone, and you avoid doing unnecessary procedures for false positives.”  

As for the advice to stop with any kind of screening at age 65? The guidelines mostly confirm that. However, says Beavis, “the recommendations state that there were no new screening studies in women over the age of 65, and that future research may be warranted to examine the potential harms versus benefit — basically a balance of the likelihood a woman will be diagnosed with cervix cancer compared to the harms associated with the follow-up testing of an abnormal Pap smear.” What’s more, if you’ve missed a Pap smear in the past few years, you're not off the hook. As Beavis explains, “The newest U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommendations do not recommend screening past age 65 for women who have been adequately screened in the 10 years prior to age 65.” They also don’t apply to women who’ve had things like high-risk cervical precancer diagnoses.

If you’re confused, know that doctors are less so: Now that the medical groups’ guidelines are all in agreement, there will be less confusion about what options are available for women, Beavis says. And whatever type of screening you get, staying on schedule with it will greatly reduce your chances of getting cervical cancer. Encouraging your daughter or granddaughter to get the HPV vaccine — which is given only up to age 26 — will reduce her chances of ever facing the disease.