Cervical Cancer

The frequency of cervical smear tests, when to start these and when to discontinue in old age, varies from country to country. What is similar is the fact that low-risk women get over-screened while the service fails to reach those who need it. In the USA, all sexually active women are screened at three-yearly intervals from their late teens until the age of sixty.

In Britain, probably with an eye to its prohibitive costs, women are first screened when they attend clinics for advice on contraception, pregnancy or venereal disease at the age of 25 years. Other sexually active women usually do not start to have regular cervical smears until the age of 30. Three-yearly screening up to the age of 70 is recommended after this. If practised this could theoretically halve the deaths from cancer of the cervix.