New guidelines for pap smears

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - It's just a coincidence according to the group recommending that women now need fewer pap smears. Their new guidelines come the same week another panel recommends fewer mammograms for women.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) now says women should wait until age 21 to have their first pap smear instead of three years after becoming sexually active.

Most women younger than 30 should undergo cervical cancer screenings once every two years rather than annually and those 30 and older once every three years once they've had three consecutive clear tests.

The recommendations come right after controversial new government guidelines about mammograms released earlier this week, but ACOG says their group began reviewing pap smear recommendations in 2007.

Dr. Alan Waxman of the ACOG committe on practice said, "Prior to the 1980s, there wasn't good science to dictate how often women should get pap tests. Since then, we know more about the disease."

"For years, I and other doctors have been preaching get a pap smear every year. Now we're going to be saying, 'well, we don't need to do it every year' and it's gonna cause a lot of confusion," said Jacques Moritz, director of gynecology at St. Lukes Roosevelt Medical Center.

It's a lot to process for women, who up until now have been urged to get early annual mammograms and pap smears. The American Cancer Society estimates half of the women diagnosed with cervical cancer have never had a pap smear and another ten percent hadn't had one in five years.