World Awareness Day – Cervical Cancer

World Awareness Day – Cervical Cancer

This month is World awareness month for Cervical screening.  Cervical screening is very important because it can stop cervical cancer from developing in the first place. This is one of the few cancers that is preventable because abnormal cell changes can be picked up before they have a chance to develop into a cancer. Cancer Research UK offers the following information.

The screening test involves a nurse or doctor taking a small sample of cells from the surface of the cervix. They do this by putting an instrument called a speculum inside the vagina and then scraping the cervix with a small soft brush. The doctor or nurse either rinses the brush in a pot of liquid, or removes the head of the brush and leaves it in the liquid. They then send the sample to the laboratory. This is called liquid based cytology. In the lab, a pathologist puts the sample under a microscope. They examine the cells and report any abnormal ones. In the past, cells used to be collected from the cervix using a wooden spatula and the cells were spread onto a glass slide. This was called a cervical smear or PAP smear. The cells are preserved better with liquid based cytology, so the results are more reliable.

Women between the ages of 25 and 60 are offered NHS cervical screening and the programme will contact women between these ages every 3 to 5 years and ask them to go for a cervical screening test. Currently, the exact age groups for screening vary slightly between the different countries of the United Kingdom. In England and Northern Ireland, women between the ages of 25 and 64 are screened. Between the ages of 25 and 49 you have screening every 3 years. Between 50 and 64 years you have screening every 5 years. In Scotland, women between 20 and 60 years are invited for screening every 3 years while in Wales, women between 20 and 64 are screened every 3 years. 

Research has shown that cervical cancer is very rare before the age of 25. But changes in the cervix are quite common in younger women. So screening younger women can lead to unnecessary treatment and worry. Following recommendations from the UK National Screening Committee in 2012, Wales and Scotland now plan to raise the screening age from 20 to 25. Scotland will also extend screening for women up to the age of 64.

Make sure that you begin having regular cervical screening as soon as you are 25 if you are sexually active. If you are under 25 and are at all concerned about screening or have any unusual symptoms talk to your GP or go to a well woman clinic.  If you are 65 or over and have never had a cervical screening test you can ask to have one.

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Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio