Vitals Spotlight - We Give the Doctor an Exam

Dr. Cheryl Iglesia

On the heels of Breast Cancer Screening guidelines changing back and forth, the Cervical Cancer screenings, Pap Smears, are also changing.

The new guidelines are now recommending women start screening after the age of 21 and less frequently thereafter. Previously, it was encouraged for girls to start screening three months after the first sexual encounter and have regular annual checkups.

Since the Obama Administration stabilized the uproar of breast cancer screening after the age of 50, the panel of obstetrician’s group that proposed the Pap smear guidelines, reassures that it is simply bad timing, and is not related to the Preventative Services Task Force that released the mammography guidelines just two days ago.

“Dr. Cheryl B. Iglesia, the chairwoman of a panel in the obstetricians’ group said the latest recommendations had been in the works for several years, “long before the Obama health plan came into existence.’”

Dr. Iglesia called the timing crazy, uncanny and “an unfortunate perfect storm,” adding, “There’s no political agenda with regard to these recommendations.”

cervical cancer screenings (cervical-cancer-law.com)

The obstetricians’ group feels strongly about the need to cut back on Pap screenings that are more harmful when done too frequently.  The cervix in young women often shows abnormalities that resolve themselves on their own with time.  However, additional procedures done in the cervix leads to new problems that arise during pregnancies.

Still, the new guidelines should be applied to each woman differently.  The fear is that taking emphasis off the importance of testing may backfire on younger girls who have sexual intercourse at the age of 12 or 13.

“I’m concerned that whenever you send a message out to the public to do less, the most vulnerable people at highest risk might take the message and not get screened at all,” said Dr. Carol Brown a gynecologic oncologist and surgeon at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

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Tags: breast cancer screening guidelines, Cervical Cancer screenings, Dr. Carol Brown, Dr. Cheryl Iglesia, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Obama administration, Obama health plan, Pap smear screenings, Pap Smears, Preventative Services Task Force

This entry was posted on Friday, November 20th, 2009 at 10:22 am and is filed under Epidemic, Front Page News, Medical Research, National Health Care, President Obama Administration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.