When Should Women Stop Getting Screening for Cervical Cancer?

Screening for cervical cancer through PAP smear testing is the best way to find this disease early before it spreads to other parts of the body. There's little doubt that PAP smears save lives, but it's not a perfect test. A PAP smear results can be a "false negative" where it fails to pick-up a malignancy or a "false positive" where the PAP reveals cancer, but there's actually no cancer present. Still, it's a test that no woman can afford to ignore.

Screening for Cervical Cancer with PAP Smears: When Is It Safe for a Woman to Stop?

The recommendations are that woman begin getting yearly PAP smears within three years after starting to have sex - or by age 21. But when should a woman stop getting PAP smears?

According to the most recent guidelines set by the American Cancer Society, a woman can safely stop getting PAP smears at age 70 if she has had 3 PAP smears in a row that were normal. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force states that a woman can safely stop at age 65 if there PAP smears were all completely normal.

These recommendations are based on the fact that older women are less likely to develop new pre-invasive cervical lesions, but they're just as likely to develop invasive cervical cancer as younger women are, which has made some experts question these recommendations and continue to encourage women to get PAP smears even into their seventies. On the other hand, many women in this age group have had some narrowing and shrinkage of their cervix, which makes it more difficult to get a good sample.

Screening for Cervical Cancer in Older Women: The Bottom Line?

The majority of women who have had 3 PAP smears that were normal over a ten year period and are over the age of 70 are probably safe not getting PAP smears - but women who have a new sexual partner or who didn't get regular screening prior to the age of 70 should continue to get them - to be safe.

References:

Diabetes Self-Management. November/December 2010. Pages 36-39.

Medscape.com. "New PAP Smear Guidelines From ACOG"