Women and Pap Smears
Should a woman have a pap smear?
Pap smears are used mostly to detect cancer of the uterine cervix or precancerous conditions - abnormalities of the cervix that may lead to cancer. Since its introduction in the early 1940's, the Pap smear is credited with saving tens of thousands of women's lives and decreasing deaths from cervical cancer by more than 70%.
The key is early detection made possible by microscopic examination of a specially treated sample of cervical cells. A health care provider removes the cells by brushing or scraping the cervix during a pelvic examination. The removed cells are evenly spread on one or more glass slides. Each slide typically contains hundreds of thousand of cells. The Pap test can tell if you have an infection, abnormal (unhealthy) cells, or cancer.
What do abnormal pap test results mean?
A health care provider may tell you that your Pap test result was "abnormal." Cells from the cervix can sometimes look abnormal but this does not mean you have cancer. Remember, abnormal conditions do not always turn into cancer. And, some conditions are more likely than are others to turn into cancer. If you have abnormal results, be sure to talk with your health care provider to find out what they mean and what you need to do (if anything) about it.
January is a National Cervical Health Awareness Month. The Avera Spencer Family Care encourages all women to have an annual Pap smear as part of a complete pelvic examination beginning when she becomes sexually active or reaches 18 years of age and continuing for the rest of her life.
What increases a woman's risk for cancer of the cervix?
Any woman can get cancer of the cervix. But, the chances of getting cancer of the cervix increase when a woman:
- Starts having sex before age 18
- Has many sexual partners
- Has sexual partners who have other sexual partners
- Has or has had human papilloma virus (HPV) or genital warts
- Has or has had a sexually transmitted disease (STD)
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Is over the age of 60
- Smokes cigarettes or cigars
