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OBGYN's urging young patients to wait for cancer screening

By Nicole DiDonato - bio | email
Posted by Noah Stubbs - email

EVANSVILLE, IN (WFIE) - First it was breast cancer screening and mammograms, now a challenge to when women should get a pap smear.

The nation's leading OBGYN's are now saying fewer screenings for cervical cancer would be fine.

The OBGYN's group is the American College of OBGYN's.

Here's are their guidelines:

• Women under 21 do not need pap smears
• Women in their 20's should get one every other year
• Women over 30 with a history of normal pap smears should get one every three years

But this change has some women concerned.

Mindy miller has two daughters in their 20's.

"For me it would be an issue for them," Miller said "For me, I would like to see doctors continue to do it annually."

Lindsay Keller works in the health care industry.

She feels staying on top of yearly exams could prevent other diseases.

"Every other year might be too long," Keller said. "But if there's studies showing it might be ok every other year, that might be something people can look into."

Doctor Bill Gentry says cervical cancers are actually slow to develop, therefore, a pap smear once every other year is okay.

"Invasive cervical cancer is very rare in a young patient," Gentry said. "Commonly, these viruses are irradicated by the patients own defense system."

In fact, Gentry says the younger a patient undergoes procedures for these viruses, the more likely she can harm her chances at becoming pregnant later on.

"I think the big push by acog is to prevent unnecessary procedures on young women that may affect their future fertility," Gentry said.

Gentry believes the HPV vaccine for teenaged girls is more than enough to protect them against cervical cancer, until they reach 21 and begin getting pap smears.

Doctors say these are just guidelines, not rules.

They say getting an cervical exam is ultimately a decision made between the patient and doctor.

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