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Why cervical screening is important. Cervical screening is one of the best ways to protect yourself from cervical cancer. How cervical screening helps prevent cancer. Cervical screening checks the health of your cervix and helps find any abnormal changes before they can turn into cancer.
- Your Results
Important Having a positive HPV result does not mean your...
- How to Book
Important: If you missed an appointment If you were invited...
- Further Help and Support
Getting support with cervical screening. You may need more...
- When You'll Be Invited
When you'll be invited for cervical screening; Age When...
- What Happens at Your Appointment
Important You're in control of the cervical screening test...
- HPV
Important You do not have to have sexual contact with a lot...
- Your Results
Background information. Benefits and harms of cervical screening. Cervical screening: What are the benefits and harms of cervical screening? Last revised in September 2022. Benefits of cervical screening include: Early detection of cervical cancer — regular cervical screening can prevent around 70% of cervical cancers developing.
Cervical screening, which used to be called smear test, is a test to check the health of the cervix and help prevent cervical cancer. It's offered to women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 64. What is cervical screening? Why it's important. When you'll be invited. How to book. What happens at your appointment. Your results.
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- Overview
- Why It's Done
- Risks
- How You Prepare
- What You Can Expect
- Results
A Pap smear is a procedure that involves collecting cells from the cervix for testing. It also is called a Pap test. Healthcare professionals sometimes call it cervical cytology. A Pap test is often used to look for cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is cancer that starts as a growth of cells in the cervix. The cervix is the lower, narrow end of the ...
A Pap smear looks for cervical cancer. It's one option for cervical cancer screening in anyone who has a cervix. A Pap smear also is called a Pap test. The Pap test usually is done at the same time as a pelvic exam. During a pelvic exam, a healthcare professional checks the reproductive organs. Sometimes the Pap test may be combined with a test for...
A Pap smear is a safe way to screen for cervical cancer. Still, a Pap smear, also called a Pap test, isn't always accurate. It's possible to receive a false-negative result. This means that cancer cells or other concerning cells are present, but the test doesn't find them. A false-negative result doesn't mean that a mistake was made. A false-negati...
To ensure that your Pap smear is most effective, follow your healthcare professional's instructions about how to prepare. Before a Pap smear, also called a Pap test, you may be asked to: 1. Avoid intercourse, douching, or using any vaginal medicines or spermicidal foams, creams or jellies for two days before having a Pap test. These may wash away o...
During the test
A Pap smear is performed in a healthcare professional's office. A Pap smear, also called a Pap test, typically takes only a few minutes. You may be asked to undress completely or only from the waist down. You'll lie down on your back on an exam table with your knees bent. Your heels rest in footrests called stirrups. Your healthcare professional will gently put an instrument called a speculum into your vagina. The speculum holds the walls of your vagina apart so that your cervix is easily see...
After the test
After your Pap test, you can go about your day as usual. Ask your healthcare professional when you can expect the results of your test.
Pap smear results may be ready in 1 to 3 weeks. Ask your healthcare professional when you can expect the results of your Pap smear, which is also called a Pap test.
Cervical screening used to be called a smear test. Everyone with a cervix should go for cervical screening. The cervix is the opening to your womb from your vagina. It's not a test for cancer, it's a test to help prevent cancer.
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Sep 30, 2024 · Updated 30 September 2024. Applies to England. It is your choice whether to have a cervical screening test or not. This guidance aims to help you decide. Cervical screening used to be called a...
Oct 11, 2023 · A Pap smear looks for abnormal cells in the cervix. It’s named after physician George Papanicolaou, an immigrant from Greece who discovered it in 1928, but wasn’t published until 1943. Once one of the most common causes of cancer death among American women, the death rate from cervical cancer dropped significantly with the increased use of ...
