New Guidelines Advises Less Frequent Pap Smears

New guidelines issued by the United States Preventive Services Task Force, advises women to undergo Pap smears every three years instead of every year.

The worry about frequent Pap smear screening is that tests can result in a large number of false positives that lead to sometime painful biopsies and put women at risk for pregnancy complications in the future.

Under the new recommendations, the task force says women should be screened with a Pap smear no more than every three years.  Women are now advised to begin screening at age 21, regardless of sexual history.

The task force also recommends against the screening of women over the age of 65, as long as they have had adequate prior screening and are not otherwise at high risk for cervical cancer.

You can read more about it here.