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 you are one of those women who have been putting off your doctor's visit because you dread the pap smear, the October 17, 2011 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that women younger than 20 and older than 65 do not need a Pap smear.
A review of multiple studies and trials showed that there is no improvement in detecting cervical cancer for the mentioned age groups. In addition, the incidence of cancer in women under 20 is rare.
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 you are one of those women who have been putting off your doctor's visit because you dread the pap smear, the October 17, 2011 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine suggests that women younger than 20 and older than 65 do not need a Pap smear.
A review of multiple studies and trials showed that there is no improvement in detecting cervical cancer for the mentioned age groups. In addition, the incidence of cancer in women under 20 is rare.
