PAP Smear and Cervical Screening news

Cervical Screening is advised every three years for women aged 25 to 49, and then every five years until the age of 65.  This is usually provided at your GP’s surgery and is commonly known as a smear test, but if you are worried and want faster results, private providers like Better2Know can get you your results in just five days from when the sample is received in the laboratory.

The test looks for cervical intraepithelial neoplasia or CIN (pre-cancerous lesions on the surface of the cervix), which can develop into cervical cancer if left untreated. If these lesions are found in your cervix, they can be treated, but you are recommended to have a smear test every year for the next ten years if it was a high risk lesion, and at 6, 12 and 24 months for a low risk lesion (your doctor will tell you your risk type – it is a medical term linked to which HPV virus type you have).

Medical Xpress says” Studies are inconsistent about whether or not HPV testing as ‘test of cure’ is more effective or cost-effective than cytology testing alone. So far, only two published studies have been identified, one concluding that it was potentially a cost-effective strategy and the other that it increased costs and added little or no improvement to life expectancy. Authors from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and Cancer Council, NSW in Australia therefore carried out a study to assess the cost-effectiveness of HPV testing after treatment for CIN. They took data from six sites across England that returned women to routine screening after a single negative HPV test result at six months. Almost two-thirds (63%) of women were aged 35 or younger and one in 10 had been treated for CIN stage 1. The rest were treated for CIN stages 2 or 3. Cytology only follow-up after treatment for CIN resulted in 29 reoccurring cases of CIN stage 3 per 1000 women over 10 years. The HPV ‘test for cure’ averted around eight additional cases over this time. The cytology only follow-up estimated cost is £358,222 per 1,000 women with HPV ‘test of cure’ costing £348,834, saving approximately £9,388 per 1000 women treated.”

Better2Know can provide PAP Smears and HPV testing at many of its nationwide private STD Testing clinics.