If you’ve ever had a Pap smear, you know that the experience of lying on a cold examining bed half-naked can be very unpleasant.
With your genital area exposed, a doctor inserts an instrument called a speculum in your vagina and scrapes off some cells from the cervix. These cells are sent to the laboratory to screen for the earliest sign of cervical cancer, the third leading cause of death in women.
Introduced 60 years ago, the Pap smear remains the mainstay when it comes to the early diagnosis of the disease.
If a woman finds herself saying “yes” to at least one of the risk factors listed above, she would not have to undergo screening every year.
1. Three consecutive normal Pap smears
2. No history of abnormal smears in the past 10 years (i.e. Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia or CIN 2 and/or 3)
3. No HIV infection
4. Not on chemotherapy or other immunosuppressive treatment
5. No exposure to the hormone diethylstilbestrol
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