Younger women eschewing smear tests: NHS

Smugness and an escalating reluctance to undergo an unpleasant and invasive procedure, thousands of young women are failing to have cervical smear tests done, statistics for the NHS Cancer Screening Programme in England revealed.

As per the figures of the NHS Cancer Screening Programme, 68,000 fewer women aged between 25 and 29 are being tested for cervical cancer each year. In relative terms, the drop counts to 69 percent down from 79 percent recorded a decade ago.

An estimated 660,000 women aged 25-29 are invited for screening each year in England.

With younger women more vulnerable to abnormal findings in smear tests Alison Fiander, gynaecological oncologist at Wales College of Medicine, University of Cardiff, said: “It is worrying that the very women most at risk of precancerous cervical disease - younger women - are those who are choosing to stay away from screening in increasing numbers.”

The second most common cancer among women, cervical cancer is a malignancy of the cervix. Early signs of the cancer can be located in the Pap smear screening wherein, a sample of cells is taken from the cervix for a microscopic analysis.

Initiated in 1988 with the aim to reduce the number of women who develop cervical cancer and the number of women who die from it, the NHS Cervical Screening Programme invites all women between the ages of 25 and 64 to come for a free cervical screening test every three to five years.

Apart from discomfort and embarrassment related to the procedure, another key issue cited in the declining trend is the effectiveness of the screening programme.

As early detection and treatment can prevent 75 per cent of cancers from developing but like other screening tests, it is not perfect. It may not always detect early cell changes that could lead to cancer.

A falling trend was also recorded in women aged 30-34, whose attendance plunged by about 800 a week.

Also, the programme cited an overall attendance drop across women of all ages from a peak of 85.8 percent in 1992-93 to 75.4 percent in 2005-06.