Topic: pap smears

Tell Your Cervix: You May Only Need A Pap Smear Every 3 Years

Tell Your Cervix: You May Only Need A Pap Smear Every 3 Years

I hate getting a Pap smear. It’s the worst thing ever. It is irrationally painful to me. I cry almost every time, because a.) I am a big weenie when it comes to discomfort, and b.) getting one’s cervix scraped with a glorified pipe cleaner is not exactly a walk in the park. Also, they are expensive. However, I also do not want cervical cancer. Which is why I’m excited that the United States Preventive Services Task Force have announced a new recommendation, which states that women may only need a pap every 3 years. Hooray! More »

Pap Happy: Study Says We Need Fewer Pap Smears and More HPV Tests For Sexual Health

Pap Happy: Study Says We Need Fewer Pap Smears and More HPV Tests For Sexual Health

No one likes getting a pap smear. But most of us have always been taught that it’s a yearly prerequisite to smart, preventative health. Lately, however, doctors have been questioning how much good the yearly pap really does.

But we’re not getting the message: Despite repeated media-trumpeting of new guidelines that women stop with so many mammograms and pap smears already, we want our yearly screenings.

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National Cervical Cancer Month: How Often You Really Need a Pap Smear

National Cervical Cancer Month: How Often You Really Need a Pap Smear

January is National Cervical Cancer Screening Month. That’s something to celebrate, right? I speculum (I mean, speculate) that some of you have been putting off that annual exam for a while. But before you head over to your gyno and put your feet up (in stirrups), here’s a little primer/reminder on how and why getting into that unflattering annual position is so important.

Much to the chagrin of most women, the speculum instrument is likely to be stuck in a gynecological time warp for some time. However, the good ol’ pap smear technique sure has come a long way.

The odd and slightly gross name for this standard test comes from both Georgios Nicholas Papanikolaou – the Greek doctor who invented it in the late 1920s – and the test procedure: Back then the doc would take a swab and literally smear it on a slide to be looked at under a microscope. (Hey, didn’t we do that in high school chem class?) More »