In the past few days, recent recommendations have filtered down from American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists or ACOG, that state “women younger than 30 should undergo cervical cancer screening once every two years instead of an annual exam. And those 30 and older can be screened once every three years.” The hope is to lessen overtreatment for abnormal pap results, which ACOG says leads to an unnecessary waste of resources and can potentially promote premature births for 1 in 18 women who undergo treatment. While the argument to change the guidelines may stem from a concern about women and health care, I do not believe this is the best way to improve the process of getting a pap. I feel that the real issue with pap smears is the fact that they are too uncomfortable and the explanation on why they are important for women is often not clear, and receiving the results can inspire fear and confusion rather than trust in the system of medicine. We get pap smears to check for abnormalities, to see if there are any potential infections that can lead to cervical cancer. The procedure includes the use of a speculum, which is a duck billed tool to open and spread the labia and vagina for a clear view of the cervix. Then a q-tip type collector goes past the outer and inner lips of the labia, beyond the vagina, in order to graze the cervix. If you are unclear about all those parts, please reference this image . The smear is a quick swish around cervix with a q-tip like device, and then they take the cells collected and analyze them under a microscope to check for abnormalities. It’s not a fun procedure and everyone has a story to demonstrate how much they dislike it, but all in all it’s less than 2 minutes to save your life from a potential cancer. For me the idea that screenings will be less often is odd, since it’s already so difficult to get women to have their first and second paps, and they so profoundly impact the likelihood catching abnormalities before a woman develops cervical cancer. I had a friend whose abnormality evolved rapidly, and if it weren’t for her annual pap, she would have suffered through a lot more treatment and potentially removal of parts of her cervix. Yikes! The fact is, once an abnormality is discovered, women have follow up appointments to see what exactly the abnormality is- cervical cancer, precancerous cells, it can even diagnose a yeast infection. From there women can go on to appropriate treatment, whether it is a biopsy (taking a sample of tissue to check for cancer) or deciding to wait a few months to let the infection clear, which it often does. There are enough barriers to ensure that overtreatment shouldn’t occur, so frankly I feel that making new guidelines suggesting that women should have fewer paps, and greater time in between paps, without much regard to her risk from what I have read. I think the new guidelines are potentially dangerous for women, especially sexually active women who cannot determine if they have hpv by the standard std screenings. It seems like this new medical guideline is more about limiting care rather than looking out for women. My hope is that women will be able to speak to their care provider’s and do what is best for their bodies, no matter what the new guidelines say.