Women in their 50s prefer new painless smear test: Study

Research shows a brand new type of painless smear test has doubled the attendance of older women at appointments. Cervical cancer kills around 850 women a year, half of whom are among those aged 65 and over. Women are known to avoid smear tests due to pain, embarrassment, and lack of time. However, the tests play an important role in preventing pain.
The study looked specifically at women who had previously not responded to invitations to go for screening and offered them two choices: They could test themselves at home, or have a doctor take a swab for them in a clinic if they feared doing the test wrongly. Given both choices, 31 per cent out of 393 women attended a cervical screening in the following year. This was more than double the uptake of 14 per cent among 391 older women in the normal screening programme.
Dr Anita Wey Lim, who led the study from King’s College London, said, “In cervical screening, the speculum can be a real source of fear and embarrassment for women. This is a real concern because under-screened women are at the highest risk of getting cervical cancer.
“Self-sampling has been hailed as a game-changer for cervical screening, but the solution isn’t just about screening at home – having a doctor or nurse take a sample without a speculum gives women even more choice to feel comfortable about getting checked.” Around 25 per cent of UK women aged 50 to 64 are believed to ignore invitations to smear tests. That is despite around 600 cases of cervical cancer a year in women aged 65 and over. Cervical screening using a speculum becomes more painful as women get older, and particularly after menopause.
The study, published in the British Journal of General Practice, found almost two-thirds of those who tested themselves at home said they were not confident in the accuracy of their result, although studies show the method is accurate.