Cervical screening is a method of preventing cancer by detecting and treating abnormalities that could lead to cancer in a woman's cervix (the neck of the womb). The NHS Cervical Screening Programme aims to reduce the number of women who develop cervical cancer and the number of women who die from it. It does this by regularly screening all women between the ages of 25 and 64 every three to five years, so conditions that might otherwise develop into cancer can be identified and treated.
If you are under 25 years of age, there is usually no need to have a cervical screening test. This is because it is very rare for women under this age to develop cancer of the cervix. As young womens bodies, particularly those aged under 20, are still developing, and changes in the cervix are common, a cervical screeing test may give an abnormal result when, in fact, nothing is wrong. Therefore, clinical evidence suggests that cervical screening should start when a woman reaches 25 years of age.
If you are a woman who has never been sexually active, the risk of developing cervical cancer is very low. You may therefore decide not to have a cervical screening test. However, if you are not currently sexually active but have been in the past, you should continue to have cervical screening tests. If you have had your womb and cervix surgically removed (a total hysterectomy), you do not need to have a cervical screening test.
Answered by
ayisha
at
8:02 AM on February 15, 2008
