Preventing Sexual Abuse: PAP Tests Saving Lives
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This article is from the Health Articles series.
Preventing Sexual Abuse: PAP Tests Saving Lives
One of the most important life-saving screening tests a woman can have is an annual Pap test.
The Pap test, which is done as part of a routine pelvic examination, is the single most effective cancer-screening test in medical history. Since the test was introduced after World War II, cervical cancer death rates have decreased 70 percent in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).
Nevertheless, the NCI estimates that thousands of women still fail to have annual Pap examinations. They may think they're finished having children and don't need them. They may think they're "too old" to have one. Unfortunately, of those women who die of cervical cancer, 80 percent have not had a Pap examination in five years or more.
Women who are or have been sexually active or who have reached age 18 should have a Pap test annually, unless your doctor suggests more frequent screening. Older women should continue to have pelvic exams and Pap tests, too. The test is simple, quick and painless.
The test involves gathering a sampling of cells from the cervix, and then examining them for abnormalities. During a pelvic exam, a speculum is inserted into the vagina to open it. The doctor then uses a swab to take cells from the cervix. In a conventional Pap smear, the cells are then spread onto a glass slide and sent to a laboratory for examination by a specially trained medical technologist, called a cytotechnologist.
More Sensitive PAP Testing
Newer Pap test techniques have become available since Dr. George Papanicolaou developed the Pap test, named for him, in the 1930s. While no test is 100 percent accurate, the newer Pap technologies appear to be more sensitive for detecting abnormalities in cervical samples, according to Diane Solomon, MD, a principal investigator at the NCI in Bethesda, Md. However, it is unclear whether the tests are primarily picking up more low-grade abnormalities, which may not be a cause for alarm, or more serious ones, she says.
"These tests are very promising, but they have not replaced the conventional Pap," Solomon says. "The new technology offers a range of screening options. Some provide greater sensitivity for detection of disease, but often at an increased cost."
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