The announcement last week that there may soon be an option of taking your own cervical screening sample at home will be welcome news to women who are reluctant to go for their smear test. But some doctors say that in the future, screening tests could be phased out. That’s because of the staggering success of the cervical cancer vaccine programme .
For now, the advice remains that all women from 25 to 64 should still attend their smear tests when invited. But some experts are already debating how screening frequencies could reduce in the next 30 years, perhaps to once a decade or just once in a lifetime. “Vaccination is a wonderful thing, and it has changed the the facts about screening,” said Professor Susan Bewley, of Health Sense UK, a charity that campaigns for evidence-based medicine.
The cervical screening test used to be known as a cervical smear because of the way that cells were smeared on a microscope slide. In fact, the system recently switched to using a different test for human papillomavirus (HPV), although it is still commonly referred to as a smear test. The well-organised NHS screening system is credited with saving about 5,000 lives a year from cervical cancer, although there has been a gradual fall in the number of people having the tests, with about 69 per cent of women currently up to date.
Some women may miss their screening appointment due to embarrassment or worries about being seen by a male doctor. HPV, which is commonly spread through sex, cau.