Starting at 30, women can collect their own vaginal samples for HPV testing at a doctor’s office.
Doctors routinely advise that women undergoing screening for cervical cancer receive Pap smears every three years beginning at age 21. Now, beginning at 30, women have a new option.
Instead of undergoing a pelvic exam, these patients may go to a doctor’s office and collect their own vaginal sample to be tested for human papillomavirus, the infection that causes most cases of cervical cancer, according to new guidelines issued on Tuesday by a national health services panel.
Self-collection of the sample was approved in May by the Food and Drug Administration. The HPV test should be repeated every five years from age 30 until 65, when most women can stop screening, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force said.
Other screening options for those 30 and older include continuing with Pap tests every three years, or a combined Pap smear and HPV test every five years, the task force said. But an HPV test every five years is the ideal screening method, providing the best balance of risks to benefits.
The new recommendations apply to women and anyone who was assigned female at birth and still has a cervix, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated against HPV.
The advice was issued amid growing concern about a falloff in cancer screenings, and confusion resulting from changes over time in screening regimens and tests used for early detection and prevention of cervical cancer.